Wedding Wednesday
Want your wedding to be magic? Hire a magician.
Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 17, 2010 at 07:30AM
It’s probably best if no one gets sawed in half, but couldn’t a card trick or three put a little charge into your cocktail hour?
At the core of every wedding is a party; a bunch of people in full-bore celebration mode in close proximity to food, wine, and music. But because stuff sometimes happens — rain clouds create pause, salmon takes longer than expected to bake, someone doesn’t quite make it to the altar on time — it’s nice to think about creating excitement, interest, and little pockets of action throughout the event. It’s hard to imagine the gall of a guest who might dare to feel bored at a party like yours, yes, but why not guard against downtime in general with some unexpected magic.
Yes, magic.
I have a friend who always hires a fellow named Alakasam to come to her dinner parties and birthday fetes (and if that sounds anything other than perfectly random, I’m here to tell you it isn’t), and moms and dads access kid-friendly lists of performers for kids turning two or three or eight all the time. But magic, at weddings? You don’t see it all that often—which is why it’s really fun to consider it for yours.
Today we turn to Nash Fung, a master of slights-of-hand, disappearing acts, mind reading, card tricks, and all-around alchemy. Familiar to many who work in the wedding biz, Fung makes a name for himself by showing up at industry events and baffling, impressing, and entertaining his colleagues.
Here, he answers a few questions about his chosen art form, and how it works at events like yours.
Caught in the act: Nash Fung at work
Wear What When: We don’t see a lot of magic acts at weddings around here, but you’ve said other countries are into the hocus-pocus thing.
Nash Fung: Most magicians, like myself, focus on corporate events and dabble in the wedding market. There are a lot of UK professionals who bill themselves strictly as wedding magicians, and their weddings are a lot like ours. I have colleagues in Hong Kong that perform magic at weddings, too. Now, they operate differently.
Chinese weddings receptions are usually sit-down dinners with eight or nine dishes served throughout the evening. Because of that, the magician’s performances take place in-between courses. They have maybe 5-10 minutes maximum each time they perform on stage. I had the pleasure to perform for my friend’s wedding in Hong Kong three years ago. It was not easy and I do not envy my colleagues overseas.
Wear What When: Where and how does your act typically go down? How do you corral the energy and yet let the party continue to unfold organically at the same time? Is any wedding too big or too small for magic?
Fung: Typically I start during the cocktail hour, where I mingle among the guests and perform what I call interactive magic. This is great because there will be people who don’t know each other, and my interactive magic helps break the ice and brings people together.
And then I’ll do something that is different from what most other wedding magicians do. Usually the most boring part of a buffet reception is the waiting. I developed this concept with Adam Tiegs (owner of Adam’s DJ Service): I will perform one short trick (30 seconds to 3 minutes MAX) for each table, and the end of my trick signifies that the table can go get their food! So it creates a buzz among tables keeps people entertained while they’re waiting for dinner.
I’ll usually stop during dinner, but I can resume when its time to take pictures with the newly weds, or if and when people don’t want to dance.
And if they want me to do a trick on stage, I have a few quick tricks that will get everyone involved and hyped up for the reception. I choose material that is short because the real stars are the bride and groom, not me. But sometimes, they just want me to entertain their guests and turn the spot-light off of them for a minute. In fact, I met with a bride recently that specifically told me not to put them in the spot light.
Because the way I perform is by interacting and mingling from group to group, my performance is completely flexible to the time-line or the size of the party. If there are more people, it simply means that I have to be there longer to make sure I get everyone. The flexibility and unique quality of the experience makes magic a perfect entertainment solution for weddings.
Wear What When: What kinds of tricks are we talking about here? Grooms sawed in half? Guessing whether Granny pulled the Queen of Hearts from the deck? Bunnies pulled from hats?
Fung: If I have to use one word to describe my magic, I must say it is modern. My show involves magic that is visually stunning and psychologically driven. The magic is done in an intimate setting for groups of 5-10 people. You will see magic done with everyday objects, such as playing cards transforming when they are underneath your hands, coins visually disappearing, one-dollar bills turn into a-hundred dollar bills. My personal favorite is to make guests driver licenses appear in my wallet.
You can check out some of my performance videos here.
I also do pseudo mind-reading, where I combine magic and psychology. You will see me read the guests minds, influence their thoughts, as well as make them the mind-reader. One example is to have someone make a drawing, and then I read his/her mind and duplicate the drawing.
Wear What When: What is the crazy, best, or most magical thing you’ve ever seen at someone’s wedding?
Fung: A Halloween wedding I performed for last year in Issaquah was a surprise wedding. Everyone thought they were going to a Halloween party, no one knew, not even the best man or bridesmaid. They had a costume contest, and for the last award, the bride and groom came on stage and announced they are getting married. Initially, I didn’t know how it was going to work out, but everybody stood up and cheered when they heard the news. It was the highlight of my year.
*******************************************************************************************
For more offbeat ideas, see our Resource Guide
Add a Comment »
Tags:
Weddings,
Receptions,
Party Favors,
details,
entertainment
1 Comments
