Monaco · Monte-Carlo · Port Hercule · Cap-Martin
Close-up magic, a mentalism show and an AI act for the galas, villa dinners and nights on board that fill the Principality's calendar. Performed in English, built for a table where five languages are spoken.
In one paragraph
Monaco is the smallest territory on this site and the one with the highest expectations per square metre. Hugo Marceau, French magician and mentalist, works the whole French Riviera and comes to the Principality for three kinds of evening: a gala in a ballroom, a dinner in a villa on the hill, a night on board at Port Hercule. He performs in English, with French when the host prefers it, and lands at Nice airport from Lyon in an hour. Fees on request; nothing about the evening is published afterwards.
The Monaco room
The first thing is languages. A dinner in Monte-Carlo is rarely held in one of them: the host speaks French, the guests of honour English, a cousin Italian, a partner Russian, and the children of all of them switch between three. Anything built on a joke dies at the second table. Mentalism is the opposite case. A guest thinks of a word, keeps it to himself, and the moment that word turns up written on a card that has been face down since the starter, the whole table has understood it in the same second, each in their own language.
The second is proximity. The Principality entertains in small rooms: a saloon with twelve people, a terrace with thirty, a private dining room above the harbour. Guests here have seen the big productions elsewhere. What they have not often seen is something impossible happening in their own hand, at a distance of thirty centimetres, with nothing between them and the performer. That is where the close-up work lives, and it is the reason the act travels with no stage, no sound system and no crew.
The third is discretion, which in Monaco is not a courtesy but a condition. Who was in the room, what was celebrated, where it took place: none of it appears on this site, in a social post or in a conversation with the next client. References exist and are shared during the enquiry when a host allows it. Otherwise the evening stays in the room.
When the Principality entertains
Late May
Brands, sponsors and their guests fill the terraces and the yachts moored along the circuit for four days. The evenings are short on time and long on expectation: a performer who can reach a crowded aft deck in twenty minutes, in two languages, with nothing to set up, is the one these hosts come back to.
Late September
Charter companies, brokers and shipyards host clients on board and in the hotels around Port Hercule. Close-up in the saloon between the tour of the boat and dinner is the natural slot; a mentalism piece built around the host's own figures is the moment the guests mention on the tender back.
April, and the year round
The Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters brings its own fortnight of hospitality in April. The rest of the year belongs to charity galas, company dinners for the firms registered in the Principality, and birthdays celebrated in the villas of Cap-Martin and Beaulieu. These are the evenings where a short-notice date is most likely to be possible.
The dates above are the calendar of the Principality, offered as a planning aid.
What you can book in Monaco
Magic and mentalism performed in the guests' own hands, moving from group to group during drinks or between courses. The iPad close-up version puts the host's brand or the guest of honour's name inside the effect. On a yacht, it is the only format that works at sea without a single thing bolted down.
iPad close-up magicTwenty to forty-five minutes with the whole room facing one person: predictions sealed before the first guest arrived, thoughts read across the table, and a finale sized to the space. In a ballroom it is a gala dinner piece; on a terrace it becomes a conversation with twenty people that happens to be impossible.
The mentalism showAn artificial intelligence Hugo built himself takes part in the mentalism, on a screen the guests can see, and reasons about the room in real time. For the sponsor dinners of the Grand Prix and the Yacht Show, where the host wants the evening to say something about innovation without a single slide.
The AI magician actGetting there, and getting it right
Lyon to Nice is an hour in the air with several flights a day, then thirty minutes by road to the Principality, or seven by helicopter when the host arranges it. Hugo arrives early enough to see the room in daylight, meet the event team or the crew, and adjust the running order to the layout.
Close-up is performed standing or seated, in the saloon, on the sun deck or at the dining table, with the boat moving or not. The short show needs one spot where everyone can see a single person; the captain's briefing on where that is tends to be right. Nothing is attached to the boat and nothing is left behind.
A terrace, a garden or a private dining room needs no preparation. A ballroom gets a one-page technical rider sent to the venue in advance: a headset microphone, a screen if the AI act is booked, a few square metres of floor. The venue's own team handles it in minutes.
Most Monaco evenings arrive through an agency, a concierge, a charter company or a personal assistant. They get one contact, a proposal with travel included, and an answer to every question within one business day. The page for event planners has the rider, formats and timings in one place.
Beaulieu, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Menton are covered on the same trip. For Cannes, Nice and Saint-Tropez, see the French Riviera page; for events further afield, hire an international mentalist who travels wherever the invitation goes.
Who books a mentalist in Monaco
Tailor-made for your Monaco evening
Fees on request. Every engagement is tailored to the format, the audience, the setting and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French. More about Hugo on the about page.
Before you enquire
Yes. Every format is performed in English or in French, and a table that mixes the two, with Italian or Russian spoken at the far end, is the normal Monaco room. Mentalism needs no punchline in one language: a thought read in silence is understood by the whole table at once.
Yes, and most Monaco bookings are exactly that. Close-up needs a table and attention, nothing else; the short show needs a space where everyone can see one person, which a saloon, an aft deck or a terrace provides. Hugo arrives with everything in cabin luggage, walks the space with the crew or the house staff, and fits the act to the layout rather than the other way round.
Four to eight weeks for a fully tailored act. The Grand Prix week in late May and the Yacht Show week in late September are booked months ahead by the brands and agencies that entertain around them; if your evening falls in one of those weeks, ask as soon as the date is known. A short-notice date outside those weeks is always worth asking about.
Around 120 guests at a seated dinner and around 250 at a standing reception for close-up. On a yacht or at a villa dinner the group is usually far smaller, which is where the work is at its best. For a large gala, fellow performers can join so that no table is missed, and the stage show covers the whole room at once.
Send the date or period, the kind of event, the number of guests and, if known, the venue: a hotel, a villa, a yacht at Port Hercule. You will hear back within one business day, in English or French, with a short call to understand the evening and then a tailored proposal with travel from Lyon included. Fees on request.
Hugo Marceau, mentalist and AI magician · Magician on the French Riviera · Gala dinner entertainment · AI magician · Mentalism show · iPad close-up magic · Wedding magician · Birthday party magician · Hire an international mentalist · About Hugo Marceau · For event planners
