Carroll Baker & Co

Most couples spend months on the ceremony and the reception, and almost no time on the hour in between.

That hour is when you are off having photographs taken and your guests are standing in a room holding a drink, half of them meeting the other side of the family for the first time. Nobody plans it. It is the one part of the day that just happens to you.

That hour is what I do.

I am Carroll Baker, a comedy magician and mentalist in Columbus. I work table to table and group to group, close up, with cards and coins and whatever is lying on the table, right under people's noses. No stage, no sound system, nothing for you to set up or think about. I just start.

Here is a bride describing it better than I could:

"He mingled with our guests during our cocktail hour while we finished up photos. We still can't figure out how he did his final trick! He was prompt, entertaining, and we heard nothing but great things from our guests about his performance. Big hit with the adults and the children." - Kaydee W.

Another couple said it in nine words: "He was awesome at our cocktail hour. Heard nothing but great things after our wedding." - Mickey R.

I have done this full time since 1991, which is well past ten thousand shows. Very little of that has been on a stage. It has been standing in rooms full of people who did not know a magician was coming, which is exactly what your cocktail hour is.

At the Magic Castle in Hollywood I performed a private show for the actor Matthew Gray Gubler and his friends. Afterward he said: "A modern day Merlin, only better, because there is no chance of getting eaten by a dragon."

WHAT IT COSTS

(Local Prices, Travel Extra for Out of Town)

The Cocktail Hour, $475. Up to an hour of strolling close-up magic, for weddings of around a hundred guests or fewer.

The Full Reception, $700. Up to two hours, one flat fee. Most couples choose this one, because the gap between photographs and dinner always runs longer than anyone plans for.

The Whole Night, $1,250. Cocktail hour and reception strolling, plus a twenty minute show for the whole room.

MY GUARANTEE

You are hiring somebody you have never seen work. So if your guests do not enjoy the show, you pay nothing. I have never once been asked to honor it.

A FEW THINGS COUPLES ASK

I arrive early. I bring everything. I need no stage, no microphone and no space set aside. I work around your photographer rather than across them. And I will ask you for a few names that matter to you, because something built around your grandmother is worth more than any trick I own.

Tell me your date and I will tell you the same day whether I am free.