Tech magician · Technology magic · AI on stage
Your guests' own phones and an iPad at the reception. A working AI, coded by Hugo Marceau, as his partner on stage. A sixty-minute AI keynote for conventions. Technology magic by a mentalist, for product launches, tech companies and conferences, in English and French, worldwide.
What a tech magician is
A tech magician performs with the technology the audience already carries and trusts: phones, tablets, screens, and now AI. The magic is the same impossibility a magician has always sold, but it happens inside a device the guest knows is not supposed to lie, which is why it lands harder on an adult, professional room than a deck of cards does. Hugo Marceau's technology magic goes one step further than most. He does not only perform with devices; he builds the software behind them. The AI that joins him on stage is his own, it listens to the room and reasons live, and the keynote that grew out of it is now the format technology companies book most, because they want to see AI do something rather than hear about it.
Three layers of technology magic
01 · Close-up · phones and iPad
A photo a guest has just taken with their own phone changes while they hold it. A card they merely thought of appears inside the iPad and slides out into their fingers. Your product leaves the screen at your own launch. Group to group during a reception or table to table at dinner, with nothing to install. The detail is on the iPad close-up page.
02 · Stage · the AI show
Thirty to sixty minutes in which the AI Hugo built takes part in the show: it questions the audience, reasons out loud on the screen, reads the room in its turn and makes predictions that were not written in advance. Mind reading by a human, then by a machine, then by both at once: stage magic with no box to hide in. See the AI magician show.
03 · Keynote · 45 to 60 minutes
For leadership days, conventions and digital transformation events: what AI does to attention, decision and trust, demonstrated live on the audience rather than explained on slides. The AI keynote is the format tech companies book most, and the magic inside it is what they remember.
Why this technology magician
Most technology magic is bought: an app, a video effect, a trick with a licence. It is good, and it is the same trick the company at the next stand has booked. Hugo's AI is his own work, built with the same models and tools his audience uses at the office, and it changes from one event to the next because he keeps developing it. When a chief technology officer asks what it runs on, he gets an answer. When a founder tries to break it from the floor, that becomes part of the show.
The second difference is that Hugo is a mentalist. The device is never the point; the guest's thought is. A phone that changes is a visual effect; a phone that changes to match a word the guest has not yet said is a memory. That is the layer the audience cannot explain, and the one the photographs of the magic do not capture.
Who books a tech magician
Where
Hugo is based in Lyon, France, and spends most of his year between Paris, Geneva and Switzerland and the French Riviera, where the technology, finance and luxury industries hold their events. The AI, the iPad and the rider travel with him as hand luggage, which is why the magic goes anywhere in Europe or beyond without a crew. Agencies will find formats, technical needs and logistics on the page for event planners.
Tailor-made for your event
Fees on request. Every proposal is tailored to the format, the duration, the audience, the customisation and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French.
Before you enquire
A tech magician, also called a technology magician or digital magician, performs magic with the technology the audience uses every day rather than with cards and silks: mobile phones, tablets, screens and, in Hugo Marceau's case, an AI he built himself. The magic is visual and interactive, and it can carry a brand or a product, and they suit audiences who have seen a great deal of conventional magic.
Real. Hugo codes the AI that does magic with him; on stage it listens to the room, reasons out loud and makes predictions that are not scripted in advance. That is what sets this technology magic apart from acts that play a video on a screen, and it is why engineers and founders are the audience that enjoys it most.
Product launches, where the new product appears out of a screen; conferences and conventions on digital transformation or AI, where the AI show or the keynote fits the theme; trade show stands that need footfall; and client evenings for technology, finance and industrial companies that want entertainment in step with their business.
No. The close-up version needs nothing from the venue: the guests' phones and an iPad. The stage show needs a sound system, a headset microphone, a screen or projector with HDMI and a stable internet connection. Everything Hugo brings fits in cabin luggage, which is how the magic travels across Europe and beyond.
Yes, and that is usually the point. The visuals, the object that leaves the screen, the questions the AI asks the room and the final prediction can be written around your product, your figures or your tagline. Confidential launches are prepared under NDA. One rule: the magic never shows a feature the product does not have.
Fees are quoted on request and depend on the format (close-up magic, stage show or keynote), the duration, the audience, the customisation and the travel involved. One all-inclusive proposal, travel included, within one business day.
Hugo Marceau, mentalist and AI magician · AI magician · AI keynote speaker · iPad close-up · Mentalism show · Corporate event entertainment · For event planners · Trade show magician · Experiential marketing examples