Close-up magic is performed at conversational distance — in the guest's hands, on their table, with no stage between them and the performance. In Orlando it is the format that works in hotel function space where the AV schedule is already full.
Orlando's event infrastructure is built for scale: large ballrooms, fast room turns, tight AV schedules and a production team already at capacity. Anything that requires a stage build, a soundcheck or a changeover is competing for the scarcest resource in the building.
Close-up magic requires none of them. Ordinary room lighting, no power, no sound, nothing to load in and nothing to take out. It can be added to a programme after the AV schedule is locked, which in this city is a genuine operational advantage rather than a selling point.
It also does something a stage act cannot in a large room: it reaches a portion of the audience at very high intensity rather than the whole audience at low intensity. In a ballroom of four hundred, ninety guests will have had something happen in their own hands, and they describe it to the rest.
The distinction from a booked set matters here more than elsewhere, because Orlando delegates have seen a great many booked sets.
Matteo moves through the room during drinks or dinner and performs for small groups at a time. No stage, no microphone, no soundcheck — the whole show happens at arm's length. Typically booked from 30 minutes to two hours, sized to the cocktail hour or the dinner it covers.
From $2,500
A seated, focused piece for the full room, built around thought, choice and influence rather than props. Runs 20 to 30 minutes and works as the pivot between dinner and the rest of the evening.
From $3,000
A full theatrical set for a seated audience, with close-up work projected live to screen where the room is large enough to need it.
On request
Conference welcome receptions, where delegates arrive across a two-hour window and no scheduled act can reach them all.
Session breaks, where fifteen minutes of something genuinely surprising does more for the afternoon attention curve than another coffee.
Gala dinners, performed table to table between courses so the programme is untouched.
Matteo Cammisa is a member of The Magic Circle in London, of FISM — the international federation of magic societies — and of the Society of American Magicians. Twenty years of performing, more than 500 events, over 30 countries.
Watch — Matteo Cammisa X Million — live at a private celebrity event
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Magic performed for small groups at conversational distance rather than from a stage — in the guest's hands, on the table in front of them, often with their own borrowed objects. Because it needs no stage, sound or lighting, it fits into the parts of an event that are otherwise dead time.
Roughly 60 to 100 in an hour, depending on whether guests are seated or standing. Seated dinners are more efficient because the groups are fixed. For a ballroom substantially larger than that, the usual answer is a stage piece for the whole room combined with close-up before or after it.
No. No stage, no microphone, no lighting change, no power, no dressing room, no changeover. That absence is the reason the format can be added to an Orlando programme after the AV schedule is locked.
Bookings start from $2,500. The figure moves with the format, the length of the evening, the number of guests and where in the world the event is. Fees are quoted per event rather than per hour, because what you are booking is presence across a window of the evening, not a block of stage time. Tell Matteo the date, the city and roughly how many guests, and you will have a firm figure within 24 hours.
Yes — Matteo Cammisa performs worldwide, year-round, and has done so at more than 500 events across over 30 countries. Wherever the event is, send the date, the city and roughly how many guests, and you will have availability and a firm figure within 24 hours. Where travel applies, it is quoted separately and transparently.
Send the date, the city and roughly how many guests. You will have availability and a firm figure within 24 hours.
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