What to Expect When You Hire a Magician for Your Corporate Christmas Party
So you’ve decided to do something different at the company Christmas party this year. Good call.
A magic show can be the highlight of the entire evening. People will talk about it at the office for weeks. But like anything worth doing, it works best when you set it up right. Here is what you need to know before you book.
The Show Needs to Be the Focus
This is the most important thing on this list and the one most planners don’t think about until it’s too late.
A magic show is not background entertainment. It is not something that happens while people are doing other things. It needs to be the thing everyone is focused on at the same time, together, in the same room.
That means no dance floor between the audience and the performer. No bar service running during the show. No side conversations competing with what’s happening on stage. When the show is set up right, the whole room locks in and something genuinely memorable happens. When it isn’t, the magic is fighting for attention it should already have.
The good news is this is easy to get right with a little planning. Think of the show the same way you would think of a keynote speaker or a special presentation. Give it its own moment and it will deliver.
Timing Matters More Than You Think
Here’s a question worth asking before you finalize your event timeline: when does the show actually happen?
The two spots that work best are before dinner or after dinner. That’s it.
Before dinner works well because your guests are fresh, the energy is high, and nobody has a plate of food in front of them competing for their attention. It sets a great tone for the rest of the evening and gets everyone loosened up before they sit down together.
After dinner works well because everyone is relaxed, the formalities are done, and a great show sends people home on a high note. They walk out talking about what they just saw instead of quietly slipping away after the dessert course.
During dinner is the one timing that doesn’t work. Nobody wants to be called up to help with a trick when they have a steak in front of them. And no performer wants to compete with the sound of silverware. Save the show for before or after and everyone wins.
Is It Family Friendly?
Yes, absolutely.
This comes up at almost every corporate Christmas party inquiry and the answer is always the same. The show is clean, interactive, and works for every age in the room. If you’ve got executives sitting next to their spouses, new hires who just started last month, and a few kids who got dragged along because the babysitter cancelled, the show works for all of them.
Clean comedy, visual magic, and audience participation that feels fun rather than embarrassing. Nobody gets put on the spot in a way that makes them uncomfortable. That’s the goal every time.
Can It Work for a Mixed Age Group?
Absolutely. In fact, mixed crowds are some of the most fun to perform for.
When a room has a wide range of ages and backgrounds, the shared experience of watching something genuinely surprising happen right in front of them brings everyone together in a way that very few things can. The CEO and the intern are both leaning forward at the same moment. That’s a rare thing at a company Christmas party and it’s worth a lot.
Can You Do a Show Just to Fill Time?
Here’s the honest answer: yes, but that’s not how you get the best result.
A magic show can absolutely fill a gap in your event timeline. But the shows that people remember for years are the ones where the planner treated the entertainment like the centerpiece of the evening rather than a gap filler. When you give the show the right setup, the right timing, and the right space to breathe, it becomes something your team genuinely talks about.
That’s the difference between a show people sit through and a show people can’t stop talking about on Monday morning.
What to Have Ready When You Reach Out
When you’re ready to talk about your corporate Christmas party, here’s what helps to have in mind:
Your event date, your venue, your expected guest count, whether it’s a seated dinner or a cocktail style event, and roughly how long you’re thinking for the entertainment portion. The more details you bring to that first conversation, the easier it is to figure out what kind of show fits your evening perfectly.
Ready to Make This the Best Company Christmas Party Yet?
Bentley Burns is a Penn & Teller: Fool Us alum performing corporate magic shows across Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. If you want a show your team is still talking about in January, let’s talk about your event.
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