“Corporate Magic” does not simply refer to magic performed at corporate events. It is a specific genre of magic that incorporates a client’s business message or highlights a brand, product, identity or individual in the magic presentation or effect.
It is a balance of creativity, magical thinking and corporate presenting. You need to learn how to distill the essence of the corporate message and find how a particular illusion can communicate or highlight the message.
Marketing has a long association with arts and entertainment. From celebrity ambassadors to the use of music videos and entertaining commercials, brands have incorporated entertainment with their products to captivate consumer’s attention, deliver branding messages and create an identity.
The use of magic in a corporate event is an extension of entertainment in marketing. While some conservative companies may not see how a magician can add value to their event, most companies will be at least open to explore the idea. Companies are always looking for new ideas to engage their audiences at events. Many of their customers, partners or invited media attend countless events each year, so they are always exploring ways to stand out from their competitors and their own past events.
Before I focused solely on my current illusion career, there were seven years in my career where I billed myself as a “Corporate Magician” as 100% of my work was for corporate & special events.
From 1998 – 2004, I primarily worked tradeshows, conferences, launches and dinner events throughout Asia as well as in France. Besides customized close up magic and stage presentations that I performed mainly at corporate cocktails, media events and tradeshows, I was also designing illusions for corporate launches, conferences and awards events.
I still work corporate & special events as a headline entertainer performing customized shows or as an illusion designer designing custom illusions for launches or branding events.
THE ROLE OF THE CORPORATE MAGICIAN/ ILLUSIONIST
The role of a Corporate Magician or Illusionist is to entertain and highlight a client’s brand, product or individuals. Depending on the nature of the event, the emphasis may be more on the entertainment and less on the communicating of messages. Other times, it may the other way around.
Your job is to work with the client to understand what their objectives are. Some have clear objectives which are good but as with all things in life, balance is the key to a good corporate magic show. Too much messaging and branding will make the show sound like a commercial or any typical corporate presentation. Too little messaging and the client may feel that your show is not customized or effective enough.
When creating magic with a product or person, the focus is not on you but on how good the illusion effect showcases the product or person. Of course, you are important as the presenter or facilitator to create the illusion on stage but the audience is not at the event to watch a magic show. The client hired you to introduce or present their product or executive in a novel way, in order to make the event memorable for their guests.
As long as you can accept this fundamental expectation on you and can tailor your presentation to showcase a client’s brand, product or executive, you can succeed in the field of corporate magic. If you are uncomfortable with your magic not being the focus or you feel that your artistic expression and creativity are being oppressed by the need of showcasing a client’s brand message, product or executive, then Corporate Magic may not be for you.
Having said the above, the quality of the magic should not be sacrificed just for the messaging or product. The most successful Corporate Magicians have the ability to strike a good balance between the corporate messaging and magic.
One tool you need to have to be a successful Corporate Magician or Illusionist is to have a wide technical knowledge across all magic genres. The wider your knowledge of technical sleights, mentalism techniques, and different types of stage props & gimmicks, the more flexible you will be in creating a custom effect for a client. You will also be able to tailor effects that most effectively communicate a client’s brand message.
Watch my webinar on “How to Customize Magic for Corporate Events” HERE.
CORPORATE ILLUSIONS MADE EASY
For specific corporate magic effects and large-scale illusions that are customized for corporate events in terms of effects and script, check out my book “Corporate Illusions Made Easy”.
All illusions are professional level effects and take into account realistic budgets, size, logistics, venue and staging constraints typical of corporate events. Best of all, no prior illusion knowledge is necessary to understand, build and execute the illusions.
For more info, click HERE.
