Performing at La Manga: My First International Corporate Event
There are certain moments in your career that quietly change the way you see everything.
For me, one of those moments happened in 2013 when I was invited to perform at a corporate event in Spain for Intrinsic Financial Planning at the renowned La Manga Club resort Up until that point, I had travelled overseas to lecture and perform within the mentalism world, but this was different.
This was my first international corporate booking.
Performing at Gary Cahill’s Wedding Reception
Over the years, I’ve learned that high-profile private events are often far quieter and more personal than people imagine.
From the outside, there’s an assumption that celebrity weddings must feel extravagant, chaotic or wildly over-the-top. In reality, many are simply carefully protected private occasions where the couple want their friends and family to relax, enjoy themselves and temporarily forget about the outside world.
After Dinner Entertainment at Oakley Hall Hotel
One of the most rewarding aspects of working as a professional mentalist is discovering where the next booking might come from.
In many cases, the strongest form of marketing isn’t advertising at all - it’s a live audience experiencing a performance first-hand and later deciding they want that same experience for their own event.
That was exactly how this particular booking came about.
What Is a Mentalist?
Most people have heard the term ‘mentalist’ before.
Often through television shows, live theatre productions or performers such as Derren Brown.
But despite mentalism becoming increasingly popular over the last two decades, many people still aren’t entirely sure what a mentalist actually does.
Is it magic?
Psychology?
Mind reading?
The Award That Quietly Changed My Confidence
The Wedding Industry Awards, often shortened to TWIA, was one of the UK wedding industry’s most respected award organisations at the time.
What made the awards particularly meaningful was the judging process itself.
Suppliers were not simply judged by panels or industry insiders.
The votes and feedback came directly from couples who had actually booked you for one of the most important days of their lives.
That mattered to me enormously.
The Prediction: When I Took on a Police-Secured Publicity Challenge
Long before viral marketing campaigns and social media stunts became commonplace, publicity relied on a far simpler idea:
Create something people genuinely wanted to talk about.
In 2011, I accepted one of the strangest challenges of my career when the Newark Advertiser and Nottinghamshire Police invited me to predict the exact outcome of a live rugby match under strict supervision.
At the time, it felt less like a performance and more like stepping into a psychological experiment.
Performing at the NEC Birmingham
There are certain moments in your career where you suddenly realise you’ve stepped into a completely different world.
For me, one of those moments happened the first time I performed at the NEC in Birmingham.
Up until that point, most of my work had revolved around weddings, private functions and corporate hospitality events. I was comfortable mingling with guests, creating moments of astonishment and naturally moving between groups during relaxed social environments.
Trade shows, however, turned out to be an entirely different beast.