dgmagic - UK magic blog by magician Dan Gifford

The UK Entertainer Directory is a new site I have set up (with some technical help!) for entertainers and performers to advertise their services. There is a big demand for entertainment at weddings, parties and corporate events, and these days many people go direct to the performer via a website rather than through agents.

Being a magician, I use sites like this to advertise myself but I often find they are complicated, won’t let you link to your website or are too expensive and require subscriptions. Other, more general web directories often don’t have relevant categories or they also list low quality sites that you don’t want to be associated with.

So I thought I’d create my own web directory which only has categories relevant to entertainment, is simple to use and cheap. Best of all, I have control over the sites that are admitted, so I can make sure they are good quality sites.

Entertainers and performers provide a link to their site, a short description of the entertainment service they offer and optional contact information. They can choose to place their listing in a variety of categories, including one for magicians (with sub categories for close-up, cabaret and stage magicians, and illusionists), a massive one for musicians (big because of the number of different styles of music and bands), and ones for more unusual entertainers like drag acts, after dinner speakers and living statues.

From the point of view of people looking to book an entertainer, the site is pretty easy to use. All the categories are listed on the front page, so users can click on them to browse whatever type of performer they are after. There is also a search function for finding specific listings and an option to find entertainers in a particular region.

The site is gradually filling up with listings and gradually getting more and more visitors. I’m hoping it will prove to be a useful resource for entertainers and bookers alike.

I’ve finally got around to posting a couple more pictures on Flickr.

They are from a gig I did a couple of weeks ago for Leonard Simmonds Associates in Worcester. It was their company Birthday party and I performed close-up magic and my stand-up magic act at the end of the night.

A magical night was had by all!

A big thank you to all the members at Coventry Magic Circle who gave me a really warm welcome last night. Performing to magicians can be difficult because they generally don’t react like ‘normal’ people - but the guys at Coventry responded and reacted in all the right places.

It’s also nerve wracking explaining your ideas and pet magic tricks to other magicians, what if they think your stuff is rubbish!? Thankfully, I think everyone took away some new idea or technique last night.

I am hoping to present my lecture ‘High Impact Magic’ at a few other magic clubs and societies over the next year. The lecture is a mixture of close-up magic, stand-up magic and mentalism effects with an emphasis on strong, direct magical effects. When I have confirmed a few more dates I’ll post some information up here.

If anyone is interested, drop me an email: dan@planetstrange.co.uk

I had a bit of a nightmare last night.

I was booked to perform an hour of close-up magic followed by my stand-up magic act at a large family party. It had all sounded OK over the phone, the venue had a stage, there was a PA I could use, start times all set, children would be entertained separately by another entertainer etc.

The problem is, most things sound OK over the phone, especially when the booker hadn’t even seen the venue (I didn’t find that out until later!)

The venue had a large dance floor in the middle with a stage at one end. The DJ had set up on the stage, completely filling it. The tables and chairs were arranged all around the dance floor and couldn’t be moved in case they damaged the floor.

The children’s entertainer was performing in the same room and left just before I was due to start my stand-up act, leaving the kids sliding up and down the dance floor.

The close-up magic was fine, in fact it went really well. I suggested I should carry on with it rather than attempting my stand-up act but the booker said no, and the customer is always right.

So there I was, stood in the middle of the dance floor with the distant audience surrounding me and restless children unable to resist the shiny dance floor.

I quickly changed my act to try to make it play to people who couldn’t see directly, adding a couple of less visual magic tricks, but it was very difficult to get any kind of rapport with an audience so far away and spread out.

You live and learn.