Online Magician: How to Vet One Before You Book
Online Magician: How to Vet One Before You Book
Hiring for an online event is not the same as hiring for a room, and the usual checks miss the things that actually go wrong. A performer can be genuinely excellent in person and still deliver a flat hour on a video call, because the skills only partly overlap.
That's worth knowing before you commit a company wide session to somebody. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to set out what to check when you're booking an online magician, and which questions separate the people who do this properly from the people who moved online and hoped.
Ask for Footage of an Actual Online Show
Start with the single most useful request. Plenty of performers advertise virtual work using footage of live stage performances, which tells you nothing about how they are on camera.
Ask for a recording of a real online session with a real audience, not a promotional edit and not a showreel. If somebody can only offer stage footage, they may still be excellent and you're taking a risk you don't need to take. Anybody who does this regularly has recordings, because clients ask for them.
Look at Their Setup, Not Just Their Act
Practically important and easy to assess from footage. Check the lighting on their face, whether the camera is at eye level, the audio quality, and whether the background is considered rather than accidental.
None of that is vanity. A dark, badly framed window with echoing audio is tiring to watch for an hour, and your audience will disengage from it regardless of how good the material is. Somebody who has invested in a proper setup has taken the format seriously, and that tells you something about the rest of it.
Ask How They Handle a Room With Cameras Off
The question that reveals the most. A performer used to a visible gallery will struggle badly when four hundred people join with cameras off, which is what happens at most large corporate sessions.
A good answer describes building around chat, simultaneous actions everybody can do at home, polls, and a small number of prepared volunteers. A vague answer, or an insistence that everybody must have cameras on, tells you they're expecting a room they won't get. Ask before you book rather than discovering it on the day.
Check They've Worked at Your Scale
Worth confirming, since thirty and three hundred are different jobs. A session that works beautifully for a team of twenty five relies on naming individuals and responding to people, and none of that is available at scale.
Ask directly how many they've performed for online and how the approach changes. Somebody who has done both will explain the difference without prompting. Somebody who treats them as the same booking has probably only done the small version.
Ask About Your Platform Specifically
Practically relevant and frequently skipped. Meeting format and webinar format behave differently, and some organizations use platforms other than the obvious ones, with their own restrictions on chat, reactions, and participant visibility.
Say which platform and which format you'll be using and ask whether they've worked in it. A performer who knows your setup can design the interaction around what it actually permits, and one who doesn't may have built an hour around features your IT team has disabled.
Find Out What Your Attendees Have to Do
Worth establishing precisely. Anything requiring guests to install an app, create an account, open a second window, or type into a form will lose a portion of your audience, and the proportion is larger than people expect.
The best answer is that attendees need nothing beyond joining the call. If props or materials are involved, ask what they are, whether everyday household items work, and what happens for the people who don't have them. A session that only works for the prepared half of your audience is worse than one that works for everybody.
Ask What Happens If Their Connection Drops
The contingency question most people never ask. Internet fails occasionally, and the difference between a professional and an amateur is whether there's a plan.
A good answer involves a backup connection, a phone hotspot, and a clear arrangement about what your host should do in the meantime. No answer at all means you're the contingency plan. It takes one question and it's the single most likely technical failure of the day.
Run the Same Checks You'd Run Anyway
Worth remembering, since online bookings can feel more casual. Confirmation of insurance, terms in writing including cancellation on both sides, and a clear written quote with everything included still apply.
The fact that nobody is entering your building doesn't change the commercial basics, and a performer who treats an online booking as too informal for paperwork will likely treat other things casually too.
Why Book Magical Katrina
If you're assessing people for an online event, here's my case. I'm a member of the Magic Circle in London and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, I've earned multiple magic awards, and I've performed for clients including Formula 1, the Olympics, Porsche, Prada, Zapier, and the Ritz Carlton, with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Masters of Illusion. I can send footage of real online sessions, I work in meeting or webinar format and build around cameras off, your attendees need nothing beyond joining the call, I run a backup connection, and I provide insurance and written terms the day you ask.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most useful thing to ask for?
Footage of a real online session with a real audience rather than stage footage or a promotional edit, since plenty of performers advertise virtual work using live recordings that tell you nothing about how they are on camera. Anybody who does this regularly has recordings.
Does their setup really matter?
Yes, since a dark, badly framed window with echoing audio is tiring to watch for an hour and your audience disengages regardless of the material. Check lighting, camera height, audio, and background, since somebody who invested in those took the format seriously.
What single question reveals the most?
How they handle a room with cameras off, since that's what happens at most large corporate sessions. A good answer describes chat, simultaneous actions, polls, and prepared volunteers, while insisting everybody must have cameras on means they're expecting a room they won't get.
Does audience size matter when choosing?
Considerably, since thirty and three hundred are different jobs and a session built on naming individuals doesn't scale. Ask how many they've performed for online and how the approach changes, since somebody who has done both explains the difference without prompting.
Should I mention our platform?
Always, including whether it's meeting or webinar format, since they behave differently and some organizations restrict chat, reactions, or participant visibility. A performer who knows your setup designs around what it permits rather than around disabled features.
What should our attendees have to do?
Nothing beyond joining. Anything requiring an app, an account, a second window, or typing loses a portion of your audience, and if props are involved ask whether everyday items work and what happens for people who don't have them.
What if their internet fails?
Ask, because it's the most likely technical failure of the day. A good answer involves a backup connection, a hotspot, and a clear plan for what your host does meanwhile, while no answer means you're the contingency.
Do the usual checks still apply?
Yes. Insurance, written terms including cancellation both ways, and an inclusive written quote all still matter, and a performer treating an online booking as too informal for paperwork will likely be casual about other things too.
Check the Format, Not Just the Performer
The mistake in hiring an online magician is assuming that somebody good in a room will be good on a call. Those are related skills and not the same one, and the gap shows up in exactly the places you can check in advance.
Ask for footage of real online work, look at their lighting and audio, ask how they handle a silent gallery, confirm they've worked at your scale and in your platform, establish that your attendees need nothing, and find out what happens if their connection drops. Six questions, one afternoon, and almost everything that goes wrong is covered.
Reach out and I'll send you footage, written terms, and honest answers to all six.