Gala dinners · Awards nights · Black-tie evenings
A mentalist and magician for the hardest evening in corporate entertainment: round tables, a kitchen on its own clock, speeches that cannot move. Close-up between courses, a stage show written for seated rooms, a sealed prediction for the awards. In English and French.
Why galas are hard
A gala dinner is the format where most entertainment fails, and the reasons are structural, which is why most lists of gala entertainment ideas miss the point. Guests are seated at round tables, half of them with their backs to the stage. Service runs to the kitchen's schedule, not yours. There are speeches and awards that cannot be moved, and three or four hours during which the energy of the room has to be held without anyone feeling managed. A band plays to the backs of heads; a comedian loses the far tables; a video is watched by nobody. Magic and mentalism were made for exactly this room.
A running order that holds
Arrival · drinks reception
The only part of a gala when guests are standing and mobile. Hugo works group to group: a borrowed ring, a thought read from a stranger, a prediction that was in the guest's own pocket. By the time dinner is called, every table already has something to talk about.
Between starter and main
The gap after the starter is cleared is where energy leaks out of a seated room. Two or three minutes at each table, built with the maître d' around service, hold it far more reliably than one long set later. Nothing interrupts the food.
After the main, before the speeches
Thirty to forty-five minutes when the room is settled, fed and not yet tired. Guests come up from the floor, thoughts are read across the ballroom, a prediction sealed weeks earlier is opened by your chairman. A levitation when the venue allows it. Then the speeches, to a room that is listening.
The awards, or the close
For an awards night, the gaps between categories are covered with short, repeatable interventions rather than set pieces. For a dinner without awards, a single closing effect marks the turn from dinner into party, and gives the photographer the picture of the evening.
The stage show, seen from table 32
Most stage acts assume a theatre: everyone facing forward, a sightline to every gesture. A gala ballroom offers none of that, so this show is built the other way round. The effects happen with guests who come up from the tables, which means every table has a stake in what is going on. The reveals are large and binary, a name, a number, an object that should not be where it is, so that they land from the back of the room as well as the front. For rooms above two hundred, the venue's screens relay the close-ups, and the act is designed to be watched on them.
Mentalism has one more advantage that no visual act has at a dinner. The moment a stranger's private thought is read out loud, the room turns round. It does not need to be seen; it needs to be heard. That is why a mentalist holds a gala where a juggler, however good, plays to half of it.
And the evening carries your message without a pitch. A prediction sealed before the dinner that matches the figures in the speech; the name of the main award winner, written weeks ago, opened by the CEO on stage; the destination of next year's incentive appearing in a guest's hands. Guests remember the trick; the message rides with it. For a conference gala, the same performer can give the AI keynote in the afternoon, so the whole day has one thread.
Where the galas are
Who books it
Tailor-made for your gala
Fees on request. Every gala is tailored to the combination booked, the number of guests, the venue and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French.
Before you enquire
Close-up from the first drink and between the starter and the main course, when energy leaks out of a seated room; the stage show after the main course and before the speeches or the awards, when guests are settled, fed and not yet tired. Placing the show after the awards is the most common mistake: by then half the room is standing by the bar.
This show was built for round tables. The effects happen with guests who come up from the floor, the big reveals are visible from every angle, and for rooms above two hundred the venue's screens relay the close-ups. Mentalism also has an advantage no visual act has: the moment a stranger's thought is read out loud, everyone turns round.
Thirty minutes is the right length for most gala dinners; forty-five for an evening without awards. Longer than that competes with the kitchen and the speeches. Short and dense beats long and occasional.
Yes. In close-up, one magician covers about 120 seated guests between courses, so Hugo brings fellow professionals for a large gala and every table is visited. The stage show has no upper limit: a ballroom of five hundred or a thousand follows it on screen as well as the front tables.
That is usually the point. A prediction sealed weeks before the dinner and opened by the CEO on stage can contain the winner of the main award, the figure announced in the speech or the name of next year's destination. Content is agreed in advance with the organiser and kept confidential until the moment.
Fees are quoted on request and depend on the combination booked (close-up, stage show or both), the number of guests, the venue and the travel involved. One all-inclusive figure, travel included, within one business day. No price list, because a dinner for eighty in Geneva and an awards night for six hundred in Monaco are not the same evening.
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