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Fantastic idea! I wanna play!!

I wouldn't have thought that £100 would be too much to ask for. I can spend that on a Saturday night out in town with out too much trouble.

A nice meal and an evenings entertainment, I'd happily pay that.

I was thinking though that perhaps you could get a decent band in to finish the night off nicely with a little bit of music.

Sounds like a great idea, £100 for one evening as a student is a heck of a lot though. But you wouldn't want none of us East Landannn lads would ya?

I'd go with the prices for food but not £30 for a bottle of wine !

oh you old skin flint, Mandrake. I've spent more than that on a bottle of wine before now (well actually I didn't spend it, Dave did. But it was my birthday).

themagicwand wrote:Act wise I'm thinking of the evening starting with a "real" magician - coins, cards, sponges etc. Then moving on to a more mind-reader style act, and finishing with a more bizarre-esque act. So a real mix of all the disciplines. Any thoughts?

Contact Juggling?

Lady of Mystery wrote:oh you old skin flint, Mandrake. I've spent more than that on a bottle of wine before now (well actually I didn't spend it, Dave did. But it was my birthday).

It would have to be very good stuff before I parted with that many readies for one bottle ! A mate of mine used to run a restaurant and he confessed that the mark-up on wine was close on robbery with violence. If the buyer knows his stuff and the right wine merchants, that £30 bottle may only have cost him a tenth of that figure. Even with the cost of corkage, providing, washing and replacing smashed glasses etc, it should cost more than about £12- £15 on the table. If you're into the vintage stuff then perhaps £30 is peanuts but I'm nowhere near that league - plonk is fine by me !

Magic Chris wrote:May I suggest any of these, very nice have worked at them before..and contiinue to do so...lovley surrounding etc

http://www.whittleburyhall.co.uk/

http://www.fawsleyhall.com/

http://www.woburn-hospitality.co.uk/

http://www.stowe.co.uk/Stowe-House.aspx

http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-6627-me ... ndex.shtml

All of which you cud charge an arm and n a leg for...lol

well, the sculpture gallery at woburn, is somehwre iv'e worked corporate functions a number of times.Its a grand venue.Their xmas menu's only 55 quid . Im assuming wine is on top of that.

at christmas and halloween, the entrance through the courtyard is very atmospheric.

Ask the venue in mind if they have a suitable kitchen,dinning room tables,crockery,glassware etc Ask about what stippulations they have on using the kitchen/their staff or the option that they will allow you to bring in external hospitality - all these matters will affect cost and profit and more importantly control over your own event to variable degrees.

Details on matters like how far away is the kitchen to the dinning room ,service staff ratio to customer and service style like A la carte,table d'hôte or silver service all matter to the non magic aesthetic side of the evening and either make or break a good evening regardless of the excellent entertainment

Do they have a bar area or will you have to provide your own bar ? If the latter it may be a small blessing as you can make a good return running the drinks...nearly as much profit as the food but again it has its own downsides.

From the kitchen / service staff aspect it may be best to have your 1st act pre Hors D’ Oeuvres , 2nd after the main course and the 3rd act after Coffee and drink refills.

Agreed Mandrake

Don't mind spending money on wine but if I do, I want it to be because it's damn, damn good wine. I'm not paying silly money just so the restaurant can pocket the mark-up!

When I wrote those prices, it was because I thought others might not be so "prudent" - I personally would rather have a coffee and an extra pre-dinner drink (or even an extra bottle of wine!) than a wine "from the bottom of the list".

I'd definately be up for this. I suppose in the current finiancial climate you'd be hard pushed to find everyday guests who'd pay more than £100. I reckon a high profile company would pay for 36 of it's clients or staff to attend. I know of a few companies who fly staff to europe once a year for a party so a 3 course meal would be easy. The difficulty lies in marketing.

If you had flyers made maybe the regular performers amongst us could hand some out at corporate events etc. This might target a specific audience, one with a bit of cash behind them.

sound great,I would probably pay £30 including meals. Pity I don't live up there.

£100 sounds fair but Im afraid somebody like me wouldnt have that kind of cash (about £65 is what I can afford). I never go out drinking so I dont know what the prices are like for wine ect.

I'd love to be involved in this though, even if they pay isnt much. I do have a suit and victorian waistcoat, so attire isnt a problem.

I think that this is a great idea and I think that you would be surprised how many people would pay £100 a head, even in today's climate.

However,

I just attended a great evening in a very decent Midlands Hotel at the Leamington & Warwick Magic Societies Xmas party last Friday night. The three course meal was very good indeed and came with two bottles of wine per table of eight.

The cost was £35 per head and was great value and it turns a profit, maybe not a great one but a profit none the less. The three magical acts were paid as well so I think that this could work.

Most venues these days will aim to make their mark-up at the bar, not necesarily on the food and will be very interested in anything that can bring them a regular earner.

There's a great restaurant in Leamington that have one sitting only at around £30 per head for a six course meal, and there's plenty of it and it's top notch food as well. They're always fully booked weeks in advance so there is definately a market for fine dining and it can be done at a reasonable price.

I'd certainly be interested in performing at such an event.

Let me know if you need some help.

It sounds good to me. Whether or not I could go would depend upon exactly where the venue was, but I think it's a nice idea and has definite possibilities with the 'high end dining/red letter day' crowd, as well as perhaps posh corporate entertaining.