The Best Platform to Host a Virtual Magic Show?

This week, I’m performing for Google employees, and I’ll be hosting the virtual magic show using Google Meet. When I performed for Cisco, we used WebEx. So many virtual platforms! Which one is best for you?

It all depends if your purpose is to teach, connect, or entertain. As a virtual magician, audience interaction and engagement is fundamental to the feeling I want to create. I love Zoom because of Gallery View, multiple pins and spotlights, and the customizable keyboard shortcuts—which all enable me as a Zoom magician to instantly switch cameras, move through windows of participants and mute/unmute all.

For my first few months of shows, I used Zoom without any additional software or hardware, and it was perfect for creating the experience I wanted my audience to have. Now, as more new platforms are popping up, I’m excited to see how technology will alter the interactive experience.

In the meantime, Zoom is the most adaptable platform. So, especially, if you’re holding an event not just for your internal team, but also external customers, it’s the virtual solution I recommend.

Video Transcript

(00:00):

So, what is the best platform to use to host your virtual meeting and a virtual magic show? Well, there are two main ways we can go to do this.

Number one, is we can work with you, and we can produce the event for you. Or number two, we can work with a third-party production house. So if you're having a big conference with multiple speakers, you're probably going to have a production studio, and we can work with them directly. We can do a tech check-in. So you have nothing to worry about. We've done this many times and we make everything work, no matter what platform they are using.

Now back to option number one, and this is what we've done the most: we've become event producers. We are creating these events, we're scheduling them, we're hosting them, and we're doing everything from beginning to end. All you have to do is sit back, relax, just invite your people.

(00:41):

Now with that option. My first choice is to use Zoom because Zoom has a lot of natural parts to the software that allows me to maximize the human interaction. Things like showing everyone the gallery view, the ability to unmute everyone, so I can hear the thunderous applause at the end of a magic trick.

I also use special software that allows me to highlight audience members so that they're up on the screen at the same time as my hands are up on the screen, and you can see everything together.

So my number one choice is Zoom, but we can use anything. We can use Google Teams—we can use Microsoft Teams Google Meet, WebEx. And I'm sure there's lots of new software being created. So yes, no matter what software you're using, we can do it.

However, if you'd like to have the maximum human interaction and engagement, what we've used the most is Zoom. So allowing us to host this standalone event is usually the most efficient and effective way of doing it. But don't hesitate.

If you want to ask us a question about your platform, just let us know what it is, and we'll tell you how we work on it. And we can schedule a tech check-in with you and your team. That way you can feel confident and secure that everything is going to go smoothly when it's time for showtime.