Hello,
As the weather in London finally cools down, I’ve been thinking ahead to autumn and winter… as much as I am sad to see summer go! There is a finding in psychology that anyone planning a party this autumn ought to know about.
When people look back on an experience, they don’t average it out. They generally remember two things: the most intense moment, and how it ended. Everything else, including how long it lasted, more or less evaporates. Psychologists call it the peak-end rule.
This means that an extra hour of venue hire, another tray of canapés, or a longer bar tab raises the average of the evening but buys almost nothing in memory. The thing people remember is the ‘peak’ of the event.
There’s a second problem anyone who has hosted knows without psychological research! For the first forty minutes, guests stand with the people they arrived with, the room doesn’t warm up, and the conversation stays polite. The host spends the whole time worrying about it and trying to connect groups of people together.
Close-up magic solves both at once. Moving between those clusters gives people something to react to together, and a shared moment of wonder is the quickest way to get strangers talking. By the time the food arrives, the room has changed. And the thing your guests describe to someone else the following week is almost always the moment something impossible happened six inches away from their very eyes. This is the ‘peak’ moment – and everyone remembers it.
I’m taking bookings now for Halloween, Christmas parties, milestone birthdays and corporate evenings through to the New Year (and beyond if you’re super organised!) If you have a date in mind, drop me an email on enquiries@forzonimagic.com, and I’ll tell you straight away whether I’m available.
December Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays do go fast, so if that’s your month, it’s worth mentioning now.
Warm regards,
Roberto