Wedding magician · France and Switzerland · Destination weddings
A wedding brings together people who have never met. Hugo Marceau, magician and mentalist based in Lyon, moves from group to group while the drinks are served, from table to table during the wedding breakfast, and gives the whole room one impossibility after dinner. In English and French, at châteaux, domaines and villas across France and French-speaking Switzerland.
In one paragraph
A wedding gathers two families, two sets of friends, a few colleagues and, often, two languages, and asks them to enjoy a long day together in the name of two people they love. The music fills the room; it does not introduce people to each other. A wedding magician does. Strolling close-up at the drinks reception breaks the ice between a bride's cousins and a groom's university friends in the time it takes to read a thought. Table magic turns the waits between courses into the part of the meal people talk about. And a short mentalism show after dinner gives everyone, from the grandparents to the most sceptical guest, one moment they will describe the same way for years.
Three moments in the day
01 · Drinks reception
Guests are standing, glass in hand, meeting people they do not know. Hugo moves from one circle to the next with cards, borrowed rings and thoughts read a few centimetres from their hands. Ninety minutes to two hours reach every guest without a platform, a microphone or a pause in the photographs. The circles mix on their own.
02 · Wedding breakfast
A wedding meal lasts three to four hours and the waits between courses are where the energy drops. Hugo arrives at a table, gives it three to five minutes of magic and mentalism built for seated guests, a personalised prediction, an object that travels, and moves to the next. Every table gets its own few minutes; the room never has to stop. The detail is on the wedding reception entertainment page.
03 · After dinner
Twenty to thirty minutes in which the entire wedding lives the same impossibility at the same time, with a finale that tips the room into the evening party. It is the piece guests retell six months later. For the full-length version, see the mentalism show.
Why mentalism rather than tricks
Classic magic works on the eye. Mentalism works on the mind: a word thought of and found, a prediction written before the toast and opened after it, a coincidence between the bride's grandmother and the groom's best man that neither can explain. The guest takes part in the effect rather than watching it, and that is what they retell.
It also solves the problem every wedding has. The two sides of the room arrive as strangers. A shared impossibility, witnessed together at a table or in a courtyard, gives two families something in common before the speeches begin.
What couples and planners notice
Destination weddings
Villas above the sea, bastides among the olive trees, domaines in the lavender. Weddings where the guest list spans three countries and the drinks reception runs into a long southern evening. See the French Riviera page for the places couples love and the way Hugo works there.
Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux and the vineyards of Lavaux, within easy reach of Hugo's base in Lyon. Swiss and international couples, hotels on the lake, and a performer used to rooms where English, French and German sit at the same table. More on the Switzerland page.
Châteaux in the Beaujolais, domaines in the Dombes, the courtyards of old Lyon. Hugo's home ground, where most of his Lyon weddings and private celebrations take place, with no travel to add.
Two hours by train. Hôtels particuliers, châteaux outside the city, the riverside venues couples from abroad choose. See the Paris page. Elsewhere in Europe on request: everything travels as hand luggage.
Hugo is based in Lyon, France. Travel is included in every proposal. For a wedding outside France and Switzerland, send the place and the date: the answer comes within one business day.
Three ways to book
Ninety minutes to two hours of strolling close-up and mentalism while the photographs are taken and the two families meet. The format most couples start with, and the one in which the magician reaches every guest.
The drinks, then table magic between the courses of the meal. The waits disappear, each table gets its own few minutes, and the energy is intact when the speeches and the first dance arrive.
Drinks, table magic, then a twenty to thirty minute mentalism show after dinner with a finale written around the couple. For large weddings and for couples who want the entire room, from the ceremony to the last dance, to share one impossible thing.
Tailor-made for your wedding
Fees on request. Every proposal is tailored to the format, the number of guests and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French. Wedding planners: see the page for event planners.
Before you enquire
The drinks reception is the natural moment: guests are standing, glass in hand, meeting people they do not know, and ninety minutes to two hours of strolling close-up reaches every group without breaking the flow. Table magic during the wedding breakfast fills the waits between courses, and a short mentalism show of twenty to thirty minutes after dinner gives the whole room one shared moment before the evening party.
Yes, and that is the point of mentalism at a wedding. It engages the mind as much as the eye, so it holds a grandparent, a teenager and the most sceptical colleague at the same table. Nobody is embarrassed, nobody is singled out, and the two families end up with something in common to talk about.
Yes. Hugo performs in English and French and switches between the two from group to group, which suits weddings where one family has flown in from the UK, the United States or elsewhere and the other is French or Swiss. Mentalism itself needs very little language: a thought read in the courtyard is understood by everyone around it.
Hugo is based in Lyon and performs at weddings across France and French-speaking Switzerland: the French Riviera, Provence, Lake Geneva, Lyon and Paris above all, and the châteaux, domaines and villas chosen for destination weddings. Elsewhere in Europe on request. Travel is included in the proposal.
For close-up and table magic, nothing: no stage, no sound, no set-up, no interruption to the caterer or the photographer. For the short mentalism show after dinner, a space the guests can see and a microphone if the room is large. Hugo liaises directly with your wedding planner or the venue so that nothing is on your mind that day.
Summer Saturdays go first, often a year ahead for the Riviera and Lake Geneva. Send the date, the venue and the rough number of guests and you will have an answer on availability within one business day.
Fees are quoted on request and depend on the format (drinks reception alone, reception and wedding breakfast, or the full day with the mentalism show), the number of guests and the travel involved. One tailored proposal, travel included, within one business day.
Hugo Marceau, mentalist and AI magician · Wedding reception entertainment · Mentalism show · Birthday party magician · French Riviera · Switzerland · About Hugo · Hire an international mentalist