August is a particularly busy month for weddings as it is the summer holidays and many couples plan weddings so all family member including the children can attend.

Cripps Barn

This month I have worked in some amazing wedding venues including :

Old Down Manor
Hatherley Manor
Cripps Barn
Curradine Barns

Old Down Manor

I am proud to be on the recommened suppliers list for these venues and would highly recommend all of them to any potential bride and groom.

Curradine Barns

The Barn at Berkeley

At Old Down Manor with Emma and Jake

I also recieved some great feedback this month from Mark and Lucy who got married at Hatherley Manor.

You were a huge reason why our wedding was so amazing and a massive success"

 Darren just wanted to say firstly thank you for performing at our wedding it really made it complete, everyone has said how amazing you were and how much they enjoyed you, they are still trying to work out how their bank cards appeared in your wallet. you were brilliant!!!

We will recommend you to everyone you really are a pleasure to have met and we couldn't thank you enough

So once again "thank you"

Lucy and Mark Brito

25th of August 2012 

Venues that make you go wow.

Gloucester Cathedral

 Todays blog is a collection of photos taken from my humble I Phone
I always try to capture a photo or two before I start performing at a venue.  Over the past month I have visited some truly stunning venues and here are a handful of them.

Ellenborough Park

Ellenborough Park

Blenhiem Palace

Blenhiem Palace

Belhiem Palace

Three weddings and a Cabaret.

Well last weekend I found myself heading all over the south west to perform at a number of weddings and as mentioned one Cabaret.  The first wedding was in a venue that I was told was hard to find......and they right.  The Larmer Tree Gardens are found near Salisbury and are just stunning.  The main Garden space has a number of small buildings and a very unique open style stage where bands / music can play.  The gardens are patrolled by a gang of peacocks and as I found out they are not found of card tricks.....


I was booked to perform during the drinks reception whilst the formal photo's were being taken.  Alongside my entertainment there was a fantastic skiffle band and plenty of tea and cakes being served. Now a little rain was unavoidable so we all sheltered under the marquee/small buildings but the party went out and the mood was not dampened.  I even saw the Groom and best man playing badminton on the lawn during a light shower.

I had met Albert and Joan at a wedding in Bristol and Albert had booked me as a surprise for Joan which was lovely and Joans reaction was indeed one of surprise when I arrived
Its worth mentioning that Albert is a photographer and he really has some stunning work so please check out http://albertpalmerphotography.com/ for more details of his work.


The majority of my work is close up magic but I had the pleasure of presented my cabaret act at a new evening held at The Lansdown in Cheltenham.  The format of the evening was simple 3 main acts doing around 30 minutes each with a comedian compere introducing and performing between the acts.  I love working on stage because as a performer you get to prepare and work on different style effects to your usual repertoire.


I tend to do a little more mind reading when I am performing in this situation because it plays well to a larger audeince.  I managed to take a couple of photo's during the show one of which is on the right here.  My act went down really well and the other acts were fantastic in fact here are some links.....

http://www.kieranpowell.co.uk/

http://www.jttevents.co.uk/

So if you live in Cheltenham I believe this is going to be a regular night and it is definitely worth checking out.

I grew up in Cheltenham and in all that time I never visited Gloucester Cathedral and that all changed on Saturday when I had the chance to perform at a wedding there.  It is breath taking being inside such a wonderful building.  I managed to take a couple of photos before I started.

One in the sunshine one in the cloud but both showing the beauty of this building.  Another interesting point about this wedding recption was that I had never met the Bride and Groom. I had been booked by the father of the bride as a surprise for the guests and the happy couple.  It was a lovely wedding and I entertained in the courtyard beofre they went in for their wedding breakfast.


Now on Sunday I performed at Ellenborough Park in Cheltenham for the first time and it is an incredible venue.  So well deisgned and beautiful both inside and out here are a couple of photo's.

I was booked by a fantastic wedding planner called Jane and her website can be found here http://www.plannedforperfection.co.uk/

At this wedding I was booked during the drinks reception and then to perform between the courses of the meal up to the main course.

The weather made a turn around and we even got sunshine whilst I was performing outside for the drinks reception.  The crowd were very receptive and I throughly enjoyed entertaining them all.

The day was overseen by Howard Jones who is a toastmaster of the highest calibre http://www.british-toastmaster.co.uk/

I managed to get a photo of the cake which I'm sure you'll agree looks delicious and sophisticated.

I enjoyed working alongside Jez Dickson who was the photographer at the wedding and I have a feeling he caught the essence of what I do when I was performing for Cissy and Mike so i look forward to seeing those photos.

http://www.jezdicksonphotography.co.uk/

Jubilee and June weddings.

Last weekend was without doubt one of the busiest weekends of my life.  June is a busy month for weddings and in the first few days I found myself in Bristol, Tetbury, Worcestershire, Westbury on Trym and Cirencester.  One of the wedding had the most fantastic Teepee tents set up on some of the families land and I think you'll agree they looked great.

Every wedding is unique and having had the opportunity to perform at so many this year I am still amazed at how different and special they all are.  

As well as wedding I found myself in London twice once last Thursday for a lovely evening entertaining at the Cannon Bridge Roof Gardens which was just a delightful space that I had no idea existed.

The event was themed as an Alice in Wonderland garden party, so having a close up magician tied in very well with the theme.

Sunday I was lucky enough to be hired to entertain on one of the boats on the Thames as part of the Diamond Jubilee Pageant.  It was quite an experience and I was very proud to be pat of such a prestigious event.  I was also very glad that our boat had a roof and heating.  I managed to capture a few photos over the course of the day.

My next post will include details of a small filming project that I took part in on Tuesday.

Wedding fayres, Dale Campbell and playing cards.

 So thought I would post a couple of shots from a recent wedding fayre in Cheltenham at The Queens Hotel.

Its always a great fayre and last week I had my brother exhibiting beside me.  He is a great videographer and shot and edited all my promo's that feature on my website.

He was recently started making wedding films and examples of his work can be found on his website;

http://www.dalecampbellfilms.com/

Here is a recent purchase 180 decks of playing cards which should keep me going for a long while.  I use one deck of cards at most gigs sometimes two if it is a large event.

So I buy them in bulk which makes sense.

A few shots form a recent wedding in Clevedon Bristol.

I was recently lucky enough to have a photographer friend come along to a wedding booking with me and take a few shots.  The wedding was at The Walton Park Hotel in Clevedon and I was booked to perform during the drinks reception whilst the photographs were being taken.

Jason did a great job at capturing the guests reactions to my magic please take a look at his website for your photography needs http://soundawake.500px.com/#/0

Brighton.

Just got back from a great gig in Brighton last night and was lucky enough to have 'Anderson entertainments' take a few snap shots of me at work. The event was for Care UK and was held at The Brighton Hilton which is right along the seafront in Brighton. I entertained guests during the pre dinner drinks and then at the tables up until the main course. So here are a few snaps form the event.

Anyway enjoy the photos and check out www.andersonentertaiment.co.uk for more information on the photographer and DJ services.