In this blog article, Cardiff magician James Hawker explains the pitfalls of hiring SOME magicians and gives you a few practical tips to ensure you get the best possible wedding entertainment.
If you have been looking for wedding entertainment, you are almost certain to have been subjected to the numerous claims of 'AWARD WINNING' or seemingly plausible recommendations by the 'EXPRESS' newspaper. These claims can be deliberately misleading, designed to secure bookings (your hard earned money) by establishing your trust in a service you have no previous experience of using.
These claims can also, unfortunately and sadly, be the result of confirmation bias. This is particularly prevalent in the magic community. You can read a great article on confirmation bias here . The article is by a BAFTA winning magician who also, in the interest of transparency, happens to be my business partner.
My motivation for this blog post comes from recently seeing numerous adverts on Facebook pages, google and other mediums where magicians are making big claims, claims that will absolutely not withstand any kind of scrutiny. This is not something that only magicians do, many other wedding entertainment services also use similar marketing strategies, but its magicians that I will focus upon.
I spoke briefly above about 'AWARD WINNING ' claims and apparent recommendations from big newspapers. Unfortunately, these are claims I, like you, have been subjected to recently, particularly in Cardiff, Swansea areas and South Wales as a whole. The 'AWARD WINNING' magician is an absolute classic marketing strategy!! I have seen these claims made by magicians in Wales but the 'AWARD WINNING' sometimes turns out to be a third placed finish in a local magic competition with friends & friends of friends (apologies for the overuse of the word 'friends). If you are hiring a magician in these circumstances, then surely you would want the magician that finished first or even at a push second? Some magicians even have the audacity to claim this when they have an award that is not even in the field of magic..... but because they have an award and they are a magician, it makes them an 'AWARD WINNING MAGICIAN'?! I suppose these claims can technically be true but they are very misleading. Also be aware of recommendations by apparently national newspapers, the 'EXPRESS' may give you the impression of one of our countries largest newspapers, the advert I seen turns out to be the 'Merthyr Express'!
( Check me out here performing at a wedding at the Vale Resort in June 2016)
Now I must state that not all magicians are the same, some have very genuine and impressive AWARDS that do withstand scrutiny, you cannot argue with a BAFTA for example.... check out James Went here. Some awards should give you piece of mind when booking any type of wedding entertainment or party entertainment.
In a previous blog post (http://www.jameshawkermagic.co.uk/single-post/2016/03/30/Are-all-magicians-the-same-Cardiff-magician-James-Hawker-explains-) I talk about the types of magic and magicians and make some recommendations.
Now for the three tricks I promised you!
1) Always challenge 'AWARD WINNING' claims!
Ask them what the award was for and try to get independent confirmation of this.... if its a magician, contact me and I will give you an honest answer.
2) Website, custom email and social media
Check to see if the magician has all of the above and that they are updated on a regular basis. Any professional magician will have invested both time and money in these and it should be clar to see. Some people make claims to be performing for years, you can check out how old their domain name is here, its free!
http://smallseotools.com/domain-age-checker/
3) Price
If the price seems toooo good to be true; it probably is. Yes, you can get amazingly low priced magicians at certain times, but high-quality suppliers charge more, simply because they are both better and worth it!. There is a reason a Mercedes costs more than a Suzuki you know…
I guess, like all of the above, this is your call. If you have put so much time, effort and money into planning a wedding or party then do not do yourselves or your guests a disservice with the entertainment, after all, the enjoyment of your guests is fundamental to your event being the one they talk about and remember.
If you would like to get a free no obligation quote for wedding entertainment , please get in touch with me. For a quick quote click here