Working Magic

Late last year, wedding photographer James Cannon interviewed me as part of his Wedding Guest Blog Interviews.

http://www.yourweddingguestblog.co.uk/2009/12/12/magician-matt-duggan/

Every so often, James interviews a wedding supplier to get their perspective on weddings and how to make them as magical as possible. So it stands to reason that speaking of magic, James chats to a magician. You’ll never guess who he chose…

James and I chat about my background in magic and the entertainment I provide for weddings across the country. We also touch on The Magic Circle and the way I helpthe bride and groom to see how magic can help make their day that bit more special.

You can find the full interview on James’ excellent blog at:

http://www.yourweddingguestblog.co.uk/2009/12/12/magician-matt-duggan/

You can also find out more about his excellent photography services (the photos are some of the best I’ve seen and I’ve seen lots of photographers!) at:

http://www.cannonphotography.co.uk/

I got a rather interesting enquiry today from a researcher who’d seen my details on a wedding supplier’s website. She told me that Living TV are looking for brides-to-be for their new reality show ‘Four Weddings’ and did I know anyone who’d be interested?

So I’m asking, are any of you beautiful brides-to-be interested in winning a luxury honeymoon and appearing on Living TV in ‘Four Weddings’? Check out the flyer by clicking here.

Here’s what Meg, the researcher at ITV (who are producing the show) sent me about it:

We are casting for a second series of the hit TV show for LIVING, called “Four Weddings”. We are looking for more brides-to-be to attend and score each others big days, scoring the venue, the dress, the food and the overall presentation. The scores are not disclosed amongst the other brides until after all the weddings when it will be revealed whose wedding has been judged the best! The winning bride will win a LUXURY Honeymoon!

This is a fun and entertaining show for both the bride and the viewer. We are looking for all sorts of weddings and themes ranging from small civil ceremonies, to fairytale, traditional English to Greek/Jewish to mention just a few between now and March 2010.

I have attached a flyer for the show, and I would really appreciate it if you could forward this onto any brides who are getting married. We are particularly looking at the mo for brides getting married in October, so if anyone springs to mind, I would be most grateful if you could pass on my contact details. We are of course also still interested in anyone getting married between end of September and March 2010.

Let me know if you go for it.

1230 is the leading, independent networking organisation supporting business women. Known as The Womens’ Company and run by Penny Denby and Jackie Groundsell, I’ve had the pleasure of being a guest at some of their excellent events and thoroughly enjoyed them.

They’re holding a great event at One Canada Square with some wonderful speakers and some beautiful fashion. On top of that, I’ll be performing some of my close-up magic to entertain the guests.

Jenny Agutter (star of film, stage, radio and TV) is the guest speaker and she is also Patron of 1230’s charity, Ovacome. Ovacome supports those affected by ovarian cancer and in previous years they’ve held this event in The Savoy and The Gherkin.

You can find out all the details of the event and how to get tickets by clicking here.

Now of course, magic should be surprising. If it wasn’t it would be science. But last night, a client of mine and I used magic to even more surprising effect.

I was booked to perform in Southall, west London for the surprise birthday party for Kewal (pronounced Kay-warl) who had recently reached the big 5-0, by which I mean his fiftieth birthday, not some senior rank within the police force.

Kewal and indeed most of his family orginally hail from India and having performed at previous events for them, I know how epic their parties can be. In that vein, James – my client – booked me to entertain the guests before the big surprise. We then further surprised Kewal with a cabaret slot from yours truly where I performed some psychological effects and a few bits of magic, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. Photos and video to come so watch this space…

Many thanks to James Masih, the whole Masih and Atwal clans and all the guests at Milan Palace, Southall last night.

I’ve just launched a website especially for my potential wedding clients at ProfessionalWeddingMagician.co.uk.

The site – which I designed with the help of the folks at ProSmartDesign – shows how I provide top class magical entertainment for weddings across the country. It includes photos, testimonials and even information and recommendations for brides-to-be on creating their special day.

Check out the site and let me know what you think of it.

Many thanks to Gerard, George and Chrissy from the Business Referral Exchange (BRX) for inviting me to perform at their business networking event last night.

It took place at the lovely One Alfred Place in the Bloomsbury area of London and was very well attended. I was fortunate to meet a host of business people from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom enjoyed the magic I performed (judging from the e-mails I received this morning!).

BRX is a long-standing networking organisation for small to medium size business owners, providing a forum for them to work together and share their experiences and expertise. I’ve attended a couple of their breakfast meetings and have been very impressed by the way in which the members network for each other in order to bring more business to the group. For more information, check out http://www.brxnet.co.uk/.

They also host special evenings where they invite guest speakers. Last night, it was the turn of internet and social media guru, Ian McKendrick. He spoke for about an hour on social media and by the end, everyone in the room had at least one piece of information to gain more connections and possible business from the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

Speaking of Twitter, you can follow Ian at http://twitter.com/ianmckendrick and me at http://twitter.com/MagicMattDuggan.