Corporate magician · Mentalist · AI keynote speaker
A corporate magician and mentalist for receptions, gala dinners, awards nights, conferences and client events: close-up magic among the guests, a mentalism show on stage, or a keynote with a working artificial intelligence. In English and French, across France, Switzerland and worldwide.
In one paragraph
Corporate event entertainment has one job: to make the evening the thing people remember about the company. A DJ fills the room; a magician and mentalist fills the conversation. Hugo Marceau has been doing that for companies, agencies and luxury brands since 2010: magic performed in the guests' own hands at a reception, thoughts read across a gala dinner, a keynote in which an artificial intelligence takes the stage. Based in Lyon, France, performing in English and French, at home in Geneva and on the French Riviera, and worldwide on request. Fees on request.
Why it works
Most entertainment at a corporate event is watched. A band, a comedian, a photo booth: guests look at it, then turn back to their drinks and their phones. Magic and mentalism are the opposite. They happen in the guest's hand, with the guest's card, the guest's thought, the name of the guest's first boss. For a few minutes the deputy finance director and the new graduate are on the same side of a mystery, and the table talks. That is why event planners book a magician for the moment when a room of strangers needs to become a room of colleagues: the first hour of a reception, the gap between courses, the dinner at the end of a conference day.
The second reason is that a mentalist can carry the company's message without turning into a sales pitch. A prediction sealed before the dinner that matches the figures announced in the speech; a product that appears where nothing could have been; a thought read from the CEO that turns out to be the theme of the year. Guests remember the trick, and the message rides with it. The AI keynote takes this furthest: for a conference audience, an artificial intelligence that reads the room is the talking point of the whole programme.
The third is practical. Close-up needs no stage, no sound and no set-up, so it fits any venue from a boardroom to a yacht. The stage show needs a microphone and a few square metres. One performer, one rider, one invoice, and someone who has done this two hundred times a year, rather than a production to manage.
What to book, and when in the evening
Group to group at a cocktail reception, table to table between courses. Cards, borrowed objects, thoughts read and predictions that come true in the guest's own hand. The format that breaks the ice at a networking event and covers the gaps in service at a dinner. One magician for up to 250 guests; colleagues brought in for larger rooms.
Close-up and iPad magicThirty to forty-five minutes for a gala dinner, an awards night or a company celebration: sealed predictions, thoughts read across the room, your executives and your clients as the protagonists, a levitation when the venue allows it. Placed before the speeches or as the closing act.
The mentalism showForty-five to sixty minutes for a conference, a convention plenary or a leadership meeting: a mentalist and a working artificial intelligence on stage together, reading the audience and explaining what AI can and cannot do today. Often booked with close-up at the dinner the same evening.
The AI keynoteAn iPad magic act that stops visitors at a stand and puts the product inside the illusion; a launch moment in which the new model appears in a client's hands. Built for exhibition halls and showrooms, half or full days; for tech audiences, see the tech magician page.
Trade show magicianThe events this is booked for
Close-up at the reception, the stage show between the main course and the awards. The one evening of the year when the company entertains everyone at once, and the one where the entertainment is judged hardest. See gala dinner entertainment.
The keynote in the programme, the mentalist at the dinner. A single performer who gives the whole day a thread, from the plenary to the last glass. See also the seminar host format.
Boutique evenings, private views, dinners for the top fifty clients. Discretion, elegance, and magic that fits the brand rather than competing with it. Most of these evenings stay off the website; references are shared during the enquiry when the client allows it.
Groups flown in for three days, sales teams celebrating a year, the corporate Christmas party. Entertainment that includes everyone, in a room where six languages may be spoken.
Proof
Luxury maison · boutique evening, Geneva
A watch and writing-instrument maison wanted intimacy for its best clients: close-up among the guests inside the boutique, then one finale, a partner levitated in the middle of the circle in full light. The photograph did the rounds for days.
Five-star hotel · Montreux
Much of the audience had flown in from India. The evening ran between the lake-facing terrace and the ballroom of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, entirely in English; the moment the room still talks about is a borrowed ring that rose from the table and floated before returning to its owner. See the Switzerland page.
Clients across sectors
Galas, seminars, product evenings and private performances in France and Switzerland, in French and English. Further references are shared during the enquiry when the client allows it, and 178 Google reviews can be read without asking.
Tailor-made for your event
Fees on request. Every engagement is tailored to the format, the audience, the venue and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome. Agencies: see the page for event planners.
Before you enquire
Fees are quoted on request. A proposal depends on the format (close-up, stage show, keynote or a combination), the running time, the number of guests, the venue and the travel involved. You receive one all-inclusive figure within one business day, travel included. There is no price list on this site because no two corporate events are the same engagement.
In close-up, one performer covers around 250 guests at a standing reception over two hours, or about 120 seated guests between courses. Above that, Hugo brings fellow professional magicians so that every table or group is reached. The stage show and the keynote have no upper limit: a plenary of several hundred follows the act on screen as well as the front row.
It was built for one. Hugo performs in English and French, separately or in the same room, and mentalism works on thoughts rather than wordplay, so guests who think in German, Italian, Arabic or Mandarin follow it as well as everyone else. Corporate rooms in Geneva and on the Riviera are usually mixed.
Yes, and for a corporate event it should be. The product being launched, the figures of the year, the names in the room, the theme of the conference: effects are written around them, agreed in advance and rehearsed. Confidential material is handled under NDA.
For close-up, nothing: no stage, no sound, no power. For the stage show, a sound system with a headset microphone and a playing area of about three metres by two. For the AI keynote, a screen or projector with HDMI and a stable internet connection. A one-page rider comes with the proposal.
Every week across France and Switzerland: Lyon, Paris, Geneva, Lausanne, the French Riviera and the Alpine resorts. Elsewhere in Europe and worldwide on request, with travel organised by Hugo's team and included in the proposal.
Hugo Marceau, mentalist and AI magician · Gala dinners · Conferences · Event host · Christmas parties · Entertainment ideas ranked · Mentalism show · AI keynote · Trade shows · Christmas party · Event marketing · For event planners · Tech magician · Hire an international mentalist · What is mentalism
