How we chose
We started from the magicians Google Maps shows across Telford. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and anything it must hold by law is in place — for magicians there is no mandatory registration, so that check passes with nothing to enforce. Three firms met all three requirements. We looked first at what customers say; qualifications count next, then trading history and stated cover, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Match the act to the event first. A wedding wants close-up magic that roams between tables during the drinks reception and the breakfast, sometimes with hosting duties across the day; a children's party wants a hosted show with games, music and an energy the room's ages can follow. Telford venues range from hotel function rooms to village halls and your own living room, and each sets different limits on noise, space and electrics, so name your venue, your timings and your guest numbers up front. Give the ages if children are coming: a show built for five-year-olds is not the show for twelve-year-olds.
Telford adds its own wrinkles. Parish and community halls across the borough host weddings and children's parties most weekends: Dawley Town Hall, for one, puts weddings, christenings and children's parties on its weekend bill, with a main hall for up to a hundred guests and a built-in PA and lighting rig [9]. If yours is a wedding reception in a community hall with drink or late music, the organiser serves a Temporary Event Notice to the council at least ten clear working days before the event [8]. Measure the room at home too. A terrace living room in Wellington or Dawley leaves little floor space for a disco setup, and an Ironbridge cottage can mean steps and tight parking, so send the act photos, the parking position and the unloading route with your first message.
There is no mandatory registration for magicians, so there is no licence number to demand the way you would ask a gas engineer for a Gas Safe card. The voluntary badge that matters is the Magic Circle, the magic society founded in 1905 whose members pass an examination to join [1]. Where membership is stated on the business's own site it is shown as stated, and where nothing is found the table reads that it cannot be sourced. Ask which memberships the act holds and where you can see them.
For a children's party, ask about background checks. A self-employed entertainer cannot have a check requested for them by a parent; they request their own Disclosure and Barring Service check and show you the certificate, and you can confirm it is current through the update service [3]. A certificate carries no expiry date on paper, so look at when it was issued and decide whether it is fresh enough for you. An act that answers this plainly gives you more to go on than one that waves the question away.
Ask for the public liability insurance document, especially where children are involved or the venue requires one — many venues will not let an act in without seeing cover first. Equity, the performers' union, arranges public liability cover for its members while other acts buy standalone policies; either way, what matters is a current document in the act's own name [2]. If the booking includes a disco, ask about the electrical gear too: the law requires it to be maintained in a safe condition, though it sets no annual test duty, so a venue asking for a check record is within its rights [7]. Confirm all of this before you pay a deposit.
A typical booking runs like this. Send your date, venue, timings, guest numbers and ages to two acts, and weigh their replies on availability and the shape of show they propose for your room. Compare their written quotes on the same scope, pay a deposit against a written confirmation, and recheck arrival and setup times in the week before. Keep every receipt until after the event, and raise anything missing while there is still time to fix it.
Get two or three written quotes on the same scope so you compare like with like. Each quote should show the date, the venue, start and finish times, exactly what is included — close-up sets, stage show, disco, puppets, hosting — plus the fee, the deposit and when the balance falls due, travel, and what happens if either side cancels. None of the three ranked firms publishes prices, so your quotes do all the talking. Treat an outlier far above or below the rest as a question rather than a bargain, and ask what is included or left out [4].
Close the booking with paperwork, not promises. Hold a written confirmation or contract naming the act, the date, the times, the venue and the agreed fee, plus a receipt for every payment you make. Send the insurance document to your venue contact in good time if they asked for one, and agree arrival and setup times so the magic starts when the room is ready. If anything goes wrong with payment or the service, Citizens Advice sets out your options as a consumer [4]. File everything together until after the event.
Pricing
As of summer 2026, a wedding magician for a two to three hour booking typically costs £400–£900, with experience, date and travel moving the quote within that span [5]. Children's parties run lower: a one-hour magic show typically falls between £130 and £250, while a two-hour hosted party with games and disco sits between £230 and £350, based on a 2025 survey of entertainers [6]. None of the three ranked Telford firms publishes prices, so treat these bands as a starting point and get your fee in writing.
For weddings, the shape of the day sets the fee. A drinks-reception set is the smallest wedding booking; tableside magic through the breakfast and an evening set each add time and money, and a full day with hosting is quoted for the day rather than the hour [10]. A 2026 guide puts professional wedding magic at roughly five hundred to nine hundred pounds for most bookings, with two performers the suggested shape for very large or multi-room guest lists [10].
For children's parties, the choice is a short magic show or a hosted party, and the extras set the fee. A disco, puppets, balloon modelling or face painting each add to the bill, as does travel beyond the act's home ground and a peak-season Saturday [6]. Large headcounts across two rooms can need a second entertainer, so give ages, numbers and the venue before anyone names a figure.
Duration moves the price first: a drinks-reception set costs less than a magician who stays from reception through evening, and a short children's show costs less than a full hosted party. Summer Saturdays and the December party season book out first and carry a premium, while midweek and winter dates can come in lower [5]. Travel beyond the act's home ground, large guest counts needing a second performer, and extras such as a disco, puppets or hosting all add to the bill. Say your date, venue and numbers up front so the quote reflects the real job.
Ask whether the fee includes VAT, since published guides generally exclude it and none of the ranked firms states a VAT position. Then get the scope in writing before you pay anything: the date, start and finish times, exactly what the act will perform, the total fee, the deposit and balance dates, travel, and the cancellation terms for both sides. A written confirmation protects a booking made months ahead, which most wedding bookings are.
Red flags
Quotes your wedding date without asking for the venue, the timings or the guest numbers.
Claims a society membership but cannot say where it is recorded when asked.
Has no reviews on any platform you can open, yet asks a top-end fee with no past-client evidence.
Cannot produce a public liability insurance document for a children's party or a venue that requires one.
Brings disco or amplified gear but has nothing to show when your venue asks for an equipment safety record [7].
Asks for full payment in cash before the date, with no written confirmation or receipt.
Will not put the date, start time, fee and cancellation terms in writing before you pay a deposit.
Brushes off questions about ages, group size or background checks for a children's party.
Adds travel or equipment charges on top of a fee you had agreed as the total.
Cannot say what the package includes when asked what the fee covers.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.