After Prom · Late night
That is the hour your after prom has to survive, and it is the hour close-up magic is best at. Nothing to sit through, nothing to announce, nothing for your volunteers to set up. I work the room while the games and the food and the prize drawings carry on around me.
Why this fits an after prom
An after prom is a long night by design, and the hard part is not the beginning. It is the stretch in the middle where the food has been eaten, the first round of games is done, and there is still a long way to go before the last prize is drawn.
A stage act is the wrong tool for that hour. It means stopping everything, gathering teenagers who are tired and comfortable, and asking them to sit and face one direction. Close-up magic asks for none of it. Small groups, a few feet away, while your night carries on.
It also needs no slot in your schedule. You do not have to move anything to make room for me, which matters when your run of show has been planned around a venue booking and a bus.
What an after prom booking is
Late night, when the energy dips
The honest answer
It is the same magic and the same performer. What is different is the hour. An after prom runs through the middle of the night, and pricing it as though it were an evening booking would not be truthful about what is being asked.
I would rather tell you that plainly than bury it. If your committee is weighing the two numbers side by side, that is the whole of the difference.
Columbus and all over Ohio. Travel is built in within about fifty miles of Columbus. Further out, tell me where you are and I will give you one number with everything in it.
In their words
“This is the 2nd time in 5 months that I’ve hired Carroll Baker to do WALK AROUND magic! He performed at my company Christmas party, and just this past weekend for a graduating class of high school seniors. He can mesmerize anyone of ANY age!”
Candida P. Booked him for a graduating class
“He kept even our most challenging guests engaged! Children, teens, and adults all loved him. I received many compliments on how fun and different it was to have him at the party.”
Hope B. Roving magic at a large event
“He entertained for my son’s graduation party by going table to table as people were socializing and performed simple card and coin tricks which literally blew their minds. Everyone of our guests that saw him raved and asked, ‘Where did you find him?’”
Lilli S. Graduation party
“Carroll was AMAZING with our students at Prom. He went table to table with his tricks, which were incredible! We were all wowed by his abilities.”
Abby P. Booked him for her school’s prom
Who you are booking
I have been a full-time professional magician since 1991 and I have performed more than ten thousand shows. For close to thirty of those years I worked restaurants in Columbus, most weeks seven nights a week, going table to table to people who were mid-meal and mid-conversation and had not asked for a magician.
Late rooms are not new ground for me either. A restaurant on a Saturday night is people who are tired, comfortable and talking to each other, which is the same problem an after prom hands you at one in the morning.
The part that should matter to a committee
Every booking carries the same promise, and it is not a gimmick. Somebody on your committee has to stand up afterward and own the choice of entertainment. That risk should be mine, not theirs. In thirty-five years nobody has ever claimed it.
What after prom committees ask me
As late as your event needs. After prom is the middle of the night by design and I price it for that rather than pretending it is the same as an evening booking. Tell me your hours and we will pick the block where it will do the most good, which is usually the stretch where the energy starts to dip.
Tell me your run of show and I will tell you honestly. It is rarely the first hour, when everybody has just arrived and the food and the first games are still new. It is usually the middle, once the novelty has worn off and there is still a long way to go.
No. Nothing at all. I am completely self-contained, I bring everything I use, and I work standing among your students. There is no soundcheck, no lighting request and no setup time to build into your schedule. I arrive about twenty minutes before I start and I am packed up in about ten.
Not at all, and that is the point. I do not need a slot in your schedule and nothing has to stop for me. I work the room around whatever else is happening, so your committee does not have to move a single thing to make room for it.
That is the right question to ask. Teenagers are the hardest audience there is, because looking entertained can cost them something in front of their friends, and being tired makes that worse rather than better. Working small groups a few feet away solves it: nobody is performing for the whole room, so nobody has to defend themselves. What usually happens is that they start bringing their friends over.
Yes, and you do not have to take my word for it. I teach after-school magic classes in Ohio elementary schools and perform school assemblies, so school-appropriate is simply how I work. Nothing in an after prom set would give a principal or a parent a moment of worry.
All over Ohio. Travel is built into the price within about fifty miles of Columbus. Beyond that, tell me where you are and I will quote you one number with everything included, so there is nothing to add on later.
Get in touch as early as you can, because prom season is concentrated into a few weekends in the spring and those dates go first. Once you are ready, a signed agreement holds it. If your school works through a purchase order, that is no problem at all.
Often, yes, and it is worth asking early. Say so on the form below or when you call, and I will quote the two together rather than as separate bookings.
Check your date
Send me your date, your school, your hours and roughly how many students you expect, and I will come straight back to you with availability and a number.
Would you rather just talk it through? Call or text 614-800-8909.
Planning the prom itself instead?
It is a different night and a different price, so it has its own page.