Performing at the Four Seasons Ten Trinity Square, London

London always feels slightly different in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The city becomes busier, brighter and somehow even more cinematic than usual. Office buildings begin glowing against the dark winter evenings, decorations appear across the streets and luxury hotels transform themselves into these warm islands of gold light amongst the cold London air outside.

In November 2023, I travelled down to London to perform as a corporate mentalist in London at a Risk Summit hosted by Marsh UK Construction Practice at the Four Seasons Hotel at Ten Trinity Square.

The event brought together senior figures from the construction, infrastructure and real estate sectors to discuss industry challenges, future forecasting and risk management. More than one hundred guests had been invited, with QBE sponsoring the evening drinks reception where I would spend the night performing close-up mind reading and psychological entertainment amongst the guests.

By this point in my career, these sorts of corporate bookings had become relatively normal for me, which is still occasionally strange to think about considering most of my early work years earlier had involved local weddings and private events much closer to home in Nottinghamshire.

Even now, though, arriving in London for an event always creates a strange mix of excitement and low-level nerves.

I’m a countryside person at heart.
London has energy.
But it also has edge.

Arriving at Ten Trinity Square

The journey itself was familiar enough.

An LNER train from Newark down to King’s Cross followed by the Underground across London towards Tower Hill station. By the time I emerged from the tube station darkness had already settled across the city and Christmas lights were beginning to illuminate the surrounding streets.

The area around Tower Hill always feels slightly intense to me. There’s a constant movement of people, traffic and noise that keeps you subtly alert the entire time.

Then suddenly the Four Seasons appears.

The contrast is remarkable.

The hotel stood illuminated against the evening sky while giant Christmas decorations framed the entrance outside. As I approached the building I was greeted by red carpets, bell staff and two enormous nutcracker statues standing guard either side of the entrance.

Inside, the atmosphere was stunning.

Towering Christmas trees filled the foyer while warm golden lighting reflected across polished marble and dark wood interiors. Everything about the environment felt elegant, expensive and carefully considered.

It immediately became obvious this was not going to be a typical corporate function room booking.

Performing Inside a Piece of History

As I made my way upstairs towards the reception area, I realised the event itself was taking place inside the UN Ballroom.

That genuinely stopped me for a moment.

The ballroom had hosted the inaugural reception for the United Nations General Assembly back in 1946. Suddenly the evening gained an entirely different sense of atmosphere knowing the history attached to the room itself.

The setting felt grand without feeling intimidating.

Beautiful lighting.
High ceilings.
Historic architecture.
Quiet conversations beginning to build around the room while guests arrived from across the industry.

I remember noticing one of the event banners nearby which read:
“Construction, Infrastructure and Surety Practice.”

That small detail stuck with me because it perfectly captured the type of audience attending the summit. These were not the people physically building on-site projects day to day. These were the senior leadership teams, consultants and decision-makers responsible for overseeing major developments, risk forecasting and large-scale infrastructure planning.

Analytical people.
Measured people.
Professionally cautious people.

Those audiences are always interesting to perform for because they tend to observe carefully before fully engaging.

Reading the Room

The drinks reception began smoothly.

As with many corporate networking events, there was an initial period where people remained fairly reserved. Conversations stayed professional, posture remained formal and everyone was still operating in “business mode.”

That tends to shift naturally once performances begin spreading around a room.

One of the fascinating things about close-up mentalism within corporate environments is how quickly curiosity travels socially. You begin performing for one small group and suddenly people nearby start becoming aware that something unusual is happening just outside their peripheral vision.

Heads turn.
Conversations pause.
Guests subtly reposition themselves closer.

And gradually the atmosphere softens.

By the middle of the evening the reactions throughout the ballroom were excellent. Not loud theatrical chaos, but the kind of thoughtful astonishment that works perfectly inside high-end corporate environments.

People leaned in.
Questioned possibilities.
Pulled colleagues across the room.
Started introducing me to other groups.

Those sorts of reactions are often stronger in executive environments because the audience genuinely wants to understand what they are experiencing.

The Strange Normality of Prestigious Events

One thing I found myself reflecting on during the evening was how normal these events had quietly become.

That sounds strange to say out loud.

Years earlier, the idea of performing inside a historic London ballroom for senior industry leaders at a luxury international hotel would have felt almost surreal to me.

Yet here I was simply doing what had gradually become my professional routine.

That feeling stayed with me later in the evening after the reception had ended and I slipped away into one of the hotel’s impossibly luxurious bathroom areas to change before heading home.

I remember standing in front of the mirror afterwards noticing how red my eyes looked from the long day and dry London air. I made a mental note to buy eye drops before heading back north later that evening.

Oddly enough, those small human moments are often what stay with me most after events.

Not necessarily the applause or reactions.
Just those brief quiet pauses afterwards where you suddenly reflect on how far life has unexpectedly taken you.

Heading Back Into the London Night

Once changed, I stepped back outside into the cold evening air and made my way back towards the Underground station.

The city was still alive around me.

Traffic moved endlessly through the streets while Christmas lights reflected across wet pavements and office windows glowed against the dark skyline beyond Tower Hill.

The contrast between the calm luxury of the ballroom upstairs and the intensity of London outside felt strangely fitting somehow.

The following morning I received a lovely email from the client explaining that the feedback from attendees had been fantastic and that my details had been shared with guests afterwards due to the positive response throughout the evening.

That sort of feedback always means a great deal because ultimately corporate events are rarely just about performance alone.

They are about atmosphere.
Energy.
Conversation.
Memory.

And on evenings like that, when everything aligns properly, London remains one of the most exciting places in the world to perform.