As I write this I am currently en route back home after my third corporate Christmas excursion on the wonderful Orient Express!

Today was from Nottingham where I entertained delegates in two carriages managing to fit in some fine dining in between for myself . The other 2 were out of Birmingham and London over the past week!

These types of events are always a delight to do with the guests being a joy to entertain really getting into the whole experience.

My 3 excursions consisted of entertaining in between courses as the train moved along it’s intended journey trying to keep out of the way of the banqueting staff as they served the fine food and drink and doing a grand job! Performing a blend of close up magic and mind games (where on many occasion I was asked whether I really can read minds) the delegates shrieked in delight as to what they were seeing to the point where I couldn’t get away from one group who repeatedly wanted me to “do it again!”. To which I did and did and did again

On the Birmingham trip I had the pleasure of entreating Big Ron Atkinson who just kept saying “how the hell do you do it? I have no idea how you can do what you just did!”

I was lucky enough to have been asked to entertain on behalf of the client this year following a hugely successful 3 trips back in 2008, so it’s always great when I get asked to do these sort of engagements again based on my previous performance.

All the feedback has been incredible and as I walked though the carriage at the end of the day to depart, the carriage erupted into rapturous applause which was wonderful.

So here’s another great performance under my belt and almost home after another long day. Perhaps I’ll get to do it all over again next year!

Well I did it!  Sunday 10th October I managed to run the 10k in aid of Cancer Research.

I and my wife Vanessa, together with my brother Craig and his friend Andre and Vanessa’s 2 sisters; Emily and Elisha, all completed the 10k course at the Norfolk Showground in Norwich.

The day was absolutely beautiful with not a cloud in the sky to be seen.  (Actually I caught the sun a bit on my way round the course!)

We all met at 10 am (well Elisha was a little bit late and started to warm up a tad.  Lots of people were already there and the compere was doing his best to get the crowd going, although I think everyone was still asleep!

Radio Norwich were there supporting the event and around 10.30, the breakfast show presenter; Steve Bradley made his introductions and began to get the crowd going, introducing the event organiser; Gemma Turpin who had clearly put a lot of hard work and effort into organising the event.

After a few bits of information and cautions regarding the course it was onto our official warm up taking us through our paces which was a workout in itself!  Very good though and certainly got everyone prepared for the run ahead!

So it was round to the starters line for the elite runners, then the runners, the joggers and finally the walkers.  I went up with my brother and Andre as a runner (gulp) baring in mind both Craig and Andre had been training for several weeks and I had been out only once in the same time!  So off we went and I have to say I did pretty well and managed to keep up with them for the first 1k until they decided to pick the pace up a little more.  This was my cue to keep at my own pace for the remaining 9k!

The course was a combination of path and grass with some parts a little soft and muddy.  After 3k I started to feel it a bit and just kept focused looking for the halfway mark!  5k came and went and I was hoping that the course was continuous and didn’t repeat after the 5k, which to my relief was indeed the case!  Silly perhaps, but I knew how long the first 5k was and didn’t fancy going round the same section again – all psychological I know!

Every 1k there was a marker to say how many km had passed except for a couple!  I think this was deliberate to help psychologically, as I=when I passed 6k i thought “OK next one is 7  and then there’s only 3 more to go”!  The 7th km seemed an age to come along and I thought “wow this seems to be taking a lot longer” and all of a sudden to my delight, I had passed the 8km mark – only 2 to go!

I have to say that as I approached crowds of people around the course it was a real boost as they clapped and cheered.

So with only 1k to go I was nearly there and I was doing well with my time.  If I could get in within the hour I would be really chuffed.

The final bend approached and I could see the finishing line, so from somewhere I found one last blast of energy and sprinted the final run to the cheering crowd finishing in a respectable 54:55!

What an amazing feeling.  I managed to control all the negative feelings and thoughts along the way and keep going, finishing well under what I wanted.

Of course my brother and Andre were already resting and to my surprise I wasn’t all that far behind!  They came in at around 45:30 with the winner coming in at around 42:00, they were in the top 50 out of 1500 odd runners!

Vanessa did really well and came in at 1 hr 14 which was under the 1 hr 20 she wanted to achieve!  Well done Ness!  Emily and Elisha came in just short of 1 hr 30 – we wondered if they had a sneaky cigarette along the way which they admitted to being tempted by!!

The positions were as follows:

Craig
Andre
Me
Vanessa
Emily
Elisha

All in all it was a great morning and we were all really proud of ourselves for doing it.  After we had a well deserved Sunday roast with a pint of beer ;-D

On Saturday night, I had the pleasure of being invited to entertain the members and their wives at East Anglia’s largest golf club; Eaton Golf Club, for their 100 year celebration.  It was a lovely evening and aside to performing, I and my wife Vanessa were invited to dine also.

The venue for the celebration was at my home football club – Norwich City FC , which has fantastic banqueting and conference facilities.  The suite was The Top of the Terrace, which had a wonderful view over the pitch and into the stadium; of course the food was delightful and provided by none other than Delia Smith’s banqueting team!

The evening began with some mix and mingle entertainment for the members on arrival, a blend of my sleight of hand (close up magic) and sleight of mind (psychological games); of which was very well received, leaving guests smiling and scratching their heads.  After around 40 minutes or so the guests were asked to take their seats in readiness for the wonderful meal which was to be served by Delia’s team.

Once the everyone was seated, it was my job to start entertaining the guests at their tables and create a bit of wonder and amusement along the way.  So having being seated myself, which table better to begin with – our table, which of course included the event organiser , Peter Johns and guests.

As I guessed this was the perfect starting point and got everyone in the mood, clapping and cheering, inevitably creating a bit of intrigue amongst the other tables, which is exactly what I wanted.

So having performed at the first table leaving them all to interrogate my wife Vanessa as to how it was all possible I was off to the Captains table which included the VIP speaker for the evening; the wonderful and very funny Geoff Miller, the current England cricket team selector.  Here I received I wonderful response by all.  Geoff participated in a routine where he signed a card which got lost and reappeared all over the place, eventually ending up in my shoe!  This of course left everyone totally bemused and scratching their heads and for some reason Geoff didn’t fancy keeping the card that had just reappeared in my shoe so let me keep it instead;-)

The starters then arrived and so back to my table to gulp down my delightful pate (trying to find the correct symbols for pate as I write) whilst the wonderful comments and praise were being given by all.

So off I darted again to try and get round as many tables as possible in the short break between the starters and main course.  There were some wonderful reactions with plenty of cheers and laughter at all of the tables I managed to get to and as the reactions rolled, I suddenly found myself in demand from other tables that were eager to witness the magic (this generally happens and has a snowball effect

With the mains coming out it was time to dart back to my table to enjoy duck with a lovely rich and fruity sauce, before heading off one last time to try and squeeze a few more tables in before deserts and the speeches.

As I was finishing off one table I had another to get to just as I was being called over by another and another…. It’s great to be in demand!  So I managed to get one more table in before the deserts had arrived and had to head back to eat my pair, covered in a rich chocolate sauce, served with a dash of ice cream…yum!

A 10 minute call was given before the speeches and entertainment started, so this was my cue to get ready to entertain all 200.  So I got my mic on, prepared my few props and before I knew it I was announced and it was show-time!

I was invited to warm everyone up before the main attraction so performed part of my stand up mind show and began with a game of chance, betting £20 on being able to tell which hand the spectator had the note in 4 times in a row.  Using body language and suggestion I hit it on the nose 3 times but got it wrong on the 4th (which occasionally happens) to the delight of the spectator!  Be under no illusion the fact that I got 3 out of 4 was very impressive and was well received!

Onto doing a little thought reading which included telling a spectator the word that she had just randomly chosen from a book, telling another guy the last 4 digits of his mobile phone number and the name of a lady’s best friend which got a wonderful reception!

Then it was time to show what a mathematical genius I am  Geoff Miller assisted by thinking of a random number to which I attempted to predict by placing various numbers into a grid but unfortunately to no prevail?!?  That was until we added the first horizontal line up which totaled to Geoff’s chosen number – 62!  Then the second line, third and forth – all equating to 62.  This of course went down very well!  But then I took it a little further…

The vertical lines totaled to 62, the diagonal lines totaled to 62, in fact pretty much any direction totaled to 62 which prompted a few members to stand in delight, clapping and cheering!

So  with that I finished off with inviting the current president up; Morris, and played a game of Russian Roulette with a 6 inch metal spike to the delight of the other members.  Of course Morris totally fine and managed to evade having his hand impaled on the spike!

With a wonderful applause it was then onto the captain for his Centenary speech and then to Geoff Miller for his very entertaining and funny after dinner talk (of whom I would highly recommend as a guest speaker and can be found at Prime Speakers)

All in all the evening was a wonderful success for Eaton Golf Club with lots of positive feedback from all.  It was a pleasure to entertain the members and their guests and they were all very hospitable.  I do look forward to entertaining Eaton Golf Club again in the near future.

I woke this morning to find that the sun was shining with only a little cloud. So I rang in to Stapleford Flying Club in Essex to check that the weather conditions were good for my flight! Yep all good! Great, so finished up on some enquiries in the office before leaving at 10.30 to head down to the airfield! Drove with Vanessa my wife all excited! Arrived around 12.45 and made myself known, filled in some insurance papers, given a buzzer and directed to the clubhouse where we had to wait until called.

So we grabbed a drink and headed out onto the terrace to be called! Really excited by this point!

Watched as another chap taxied back in smiling from ear to ear and then my buzzer went off! OK here we go, my turn! So we headed back to reception to be greeted by my pilot “Alex”! Nice chap and quite young. He went through some basics and asked that if I felt Ill at any point to please let him know, it wouldn’t be nice for either of us if I threw up in mid air while hanging upside down

So over to the plane we went and Vanessa was left in a prime spot for photo opportunities! I asked Alex how long he had been doing this to which he responded “about a week!” Lol

So we buckled up and went through the controls and what was going to happen. We fired the engine up and taxied past Vanessa for our photo opportunity. We had to wait a short while to get the engine temperature up and then it was time to take off!

Alex explained that he would take off and keep low to the ground before pulling the stock back sharply. So we’re in the air, not too far off the ground and then all of a sudden the G’s hit as we went vertically upwards – WOW!

OK now I know what to expect. Alex explained I would be feeling lots of negative and positive G-Forces depending on which manoeuvre we did!

So first up was a vertical ascend into a left roll into descent! OMG, incredible! And this was just for starters! We did full barrel rolls, complete loop the loop, a 4 point roll, which is where you do the roll in 4 stages – side, upside down, side and then back to normal! Then one of Alex’s favourites which was ascend vertically, dive (where he shuts throttle right down) and pulls out upside down and then rolls back out the right way! Absolutely amazing!!

Then it was my turn! Although I didn’t perform any rolls or anything it was great to take the controls for a few moments and move up, down, left and right!

Well it was time to head back to the airfield where we did a sequence of loops, rolls and dives which was awesome, before heading in to land.

After my legs were a tad jelly but it was an exhilarating experience and one I would highly recommend to any white knuckle enthusiast!

Vanessa managed to take a few pics and record some video on my iPhone, which I will post here later.

A great day and one I will definitely do again! It was a gift at Christmas from Vanessa and although it’s taken me some 8 months to get booked it was a great present, so thank you Ness!

**The video was shot and edited on my iPhone so the plane is far away bit you can still see what’s happening!**

Well it is now mid September and the christmas enquiries are coming in thick and fast.  Everyone is back from their summer holidays and are now beginning to organise their staff / office christmas party.  I have had several enquiries to hire me as a christmas party magician or as some put it, close up magician / table magician, along with a couple of clients who really want to push the boat out with my grand illusion show!  Very exciting  Some of the dates were taken back in May which is great and recently I have been asked by one of my corporate clients to entertain their delegates once again on 3 Orient Express trips.  I did this 2 years ago and it worked so well they’ve asked me to do it again which is really nice.

So if you have come across this blog and are in the process of organising your office party, don’t leave it till the last minute only to be disappointed.  Any good professional magician or illusionist will be taking bookings early on so act now and ensure you have an amazing and magical christmas party that will be remembered!