So you have spent hundreds, maybe thousands on finding the ideal venue for your evening event. You have decided on the menu for the dinner, worked out who is sitting where and sent out the invitations. You want to make your party stand out from the rest so, apart from a raffle and getting the local covers band in, what can you do in terms of entertainment to make things go swimmingly?
I don’t want to advise on musical entertainment as your choice in music is almost certainly completely different to mine! This article will concentrate on things you probably haven’t considered. Many event planners are fans of interactive entertainment that takes place during the meal itself.
A close up or table magician can mix with your guests, wowing them with incredible sleight of hand tricks. Tables laugh and clap as they find that someone’s watch has disappeared from their wrist only to reappear on the arm of the magician! In the era of David Blaine and Derren Brown magic is a popular and contemporary form of entertainment that works perfectly in this environment.
How about a caricaturist? They will go round and take about five minutes to knock up black and white sketches of willing diners. Caricature artists are generally highly skilled and their pictures are of the highest quality. You can sometimes have the caricatures drawn on paper branded with your logo so your guests will remember the event long after it’s over. For something a little different from a digital caricaturist you could get a silhouette artist – they cut perfect likenesses of their subjects from black card. A classy alternative!
If you like the idea of seeing people’s reactions when they think you have invited Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie or Madonna to your party then you could consider hiring one or more lookalikes. The quality of lookalikes you can get vary massively from terrible to people who look more like the celebrity in question than they do. Make sure you get to see good quality pictures of the lookalike to decide and speak to the agency to make sure you can get someone that is also able to interact with people in character. No good if your Paris Hilton speaks in a broad Scottish accent.
If you have the budget and the right kind of crowd you could splash out on an after-dinner speaker. Depending on what you can afford you will find that speaker bureaus and entertainment agencies have masses of choices. From TV celebrities to lesser known but still fantastic comedians. A speaker is a good choice if you think your crowd will sit and listen for twenty minutes. If they will be drinking all night then perhaps just settle on a disco for the after dinner entertainment.
If you are organising a big event and are planning on having different types of entertainment then you could go through an entertainment agency. But, if you fancy saving money then speak to your friends, surf the web and source the entertainers yourself. You will find a huge choice out there.