Don’t hire the same old stuff

Posted on by

We at Red Masque have the best unique artists to hire out for your special event; we have below suggested some great things to consider. Gone are the days when when entertainment used to be a singer, magician or a bad comedian. There is alot of exciting and different entertainment available now which is unique and very clever. Here is just the tip of the iceberg for a suggestions. If you look on Red Masque Directory you will find a vast array of great entertainment for hire which will suit any event.

If you do decide for your private party that you are going to travel into town and visit some extravagant wine bars, why not hire a limo and be treated like a star all night too! You could include some true star quality and hire your own Paparazzi photographers to follow you wherever you go – you’ll be guaranteed to attract plenty of attention and have some fabulous shots of your night to treasure forever!

If you think that your party group are the outdoors type, then have you considered organise some giant games to play outside. Another great idea is circus training! Your party can learn a range of amazing circus tricks taught by professionals and come away from the party with a skill to enjoy and show-off for life. These artists are so much fun and guaranteed to thrill all your guests.
How about a Murder Mystery Night? Mingle your guests with brilliant characters and watch a murder unfold before your eyes leaving the guests as detectives trying to found out “who dunnit”! It’s a superbly thrilling evening where you learn who to trust and who not to trust while you work out who committed the terrible crime but beware of twists in the tale….!

Alternatively, you could hire some themed dance acts to really get all your guests in the spirit at they dance the night away in their themed dress. Don’t forget to include some suitable dance entertainment such as some Burlesque dancers which will be very entertaining for both sexes. There are a whole host of entertainment to book, just glance through all of our entertainment for hire to give you some more ideas.

Make it different and your guests will be amazed!

Hire some excitement

Posted on by

Do you love to see acts that keep you at the edge of your seat or are toe curling? Do you in need of a bit of excitement? Why not hire a few acts that will do just that.

Be more creative and hire some party entertainers which would be a bit extraordinary and a crowd drawing experience. Dare to be different and make it a night to remember where your guests will be talking about your party for months to come.

Fire acts are very entertaining where the act or acts jump through fire hoops or indeed set alight!! Knife throwers are also nail biting, dare your audience to participate while this professional act throws knives at him or her.

A sword swallower is another act which is very intriguing to watch albeit between your fingers!! We’ve all seen the Britain’s got Talent sword swallower, that got everybody talking!!
Maybe you want to be ahead of the rest and want to hire some tightrope walkers or stilt walkers to draw in the crowds to direct them to your special event. Maybe you could be launching a new product where people will be curious as to what was going on.

You would have to agree a stilt walker handing out flyers would be a bit more unusual than your average Joe handing out leaflets.

If you need some inspiration think about Covent Garden in London. We think it’s not just about the shops or the great restaurants but the ambiance of the street entertainers. If you have ever been to Covent Garden, you will see there are always small crowds wrapped around a Mime artist or indeed Living statues intently watching their every move or lack of movement if they are a statue!!!

Enjoy your party without having to host

Posted on by

Organising a party can be stressful enough, then if you have to play host, you don’t really get to enjoy it.

There are a whole host of staff that you could hire for your event from Red Masque Directory that will make any event you had in mind run smoothly and add a bit of class, to really make you relax and enjoy the event that you have organised.

Good caterers make it look easy whilst all your guests are enjoying themselves the champagne keeps flowing. Finger food is always available and most importantly at the end of your event everything is clean and tidy for you.

Cocktail bartenders are also a must to have at events. Charming, dressed to impress, whichever way you would like your bartender to be we think we have just about every cocktail bartender advertised on our Red Masque directory.

Canapé girls can be used for Adult themed evenings, family entertainment and children’s parties so they are not stereotyped to just one event. Their colourful costumes and special props means they will adapt to any event very well.

Party butlers are probably for the ladies where they could be serving champagne naked from the waist up or leaving little to the imagination wearing just an apron for modesty. Now that ladies would be a great addition to a Hen party!!

Professional butlers can be hired also for very grand corporate event entertainment where professionalism will be shown at all times, it’s just up to you what sort of butler you require.

Promotional staff and you have a launch party to organise. You could have a gym opening and you could hire a team of fitness coaches are motivating your guests. Or how about a fashion show where a team of catwalk models could be just the thing to make your evening a success!!

Hiring can take alot of stress away, why shouldn’t you enjoy your party that you’ve organised? Let you and your guests remember what a great time you’ve all had and not you remembering how rushed off your feet you were!!

Entertainment to suit your guests

Posted on by

Ever wanted something different at your private party or corporate event that captures each of your individual guest’s personalities?

If you have children at your event, and you would like to keep them entertained whilst your older guests can get on with some more socialising? Then don’t forget your bouncy castles. Bouncy castles are always a favourite. Or if your older guests are young at heart then hiring some giant games such as giant noughts and crosses, chess or snakes and ladders. The bigger the better, such good fun running up and down those ladders and good exercise!

Bucking broncos are another great attraction to hire, you could hire for a charity event, where paying guests can see who can stay on the longest, or just to hire for a bit of fun with your mates. You must admit a bucking bronco is a good laugh!! Girls, you may need to wear some trousers for this event as there is no room for modesty when on the back of a bucking bronco!!!
Why not hire the most popular and now fantasy photo booths? Your guests can choose to dress up in all sorts of costumes; it could be themed dress, days gone-by dress or a little saucy? Whatever occasion you had in mind we are sure when you get the pictures back they will be a scream and a much talked about affair for many months to come.

Fireworks nowadays are not just for Guy Fawkes night they can be wonderful at a Wedding, Corporate event or just at the end of an event to really finish off superbly!! We have read in the press recently that certainly celebrities have had them at their funeral!

A good firework display oozes opulence and class and tops off a wonderful celebration; young and old alike love to watch these spectacular fireworks in action.

Good lighting is also very important to hire if you were to have a small party or large event, creating the right mood is crucial to the ambiance of your function.

Playing Cards to solve crimes

Posted on by

Playing cards are seen with pretty much every party magician and you have probably learned or been the witness to a very clever card trick at some point or another. But did you know they can help solve crimes?

The idea behind using playing cards to help solve crimes isn’t necessarily a new one but it’s never been used in such a way before now. Back in the early 2000s, the US military infamously handed out decks of playing cards to troops with the faces of important people involved in the Iraq war. After enjoying a bit of time off playing cards, the idea was that the troops may well recognise a face when out on patrol and take down the 4 of Clubs (to give an example picked at random!)

In 2013, the state of Florida decided to copy this idea, replacing the faces of the playing cards with the faces of murder victims. We know, it’s all rather macabre for this blog, especially considering our jazz murder fact a couple of weeks ago! But this is a fascinating fact and we just can’t help but share. Each playing card of ‘Cold Case Cards’ look like the ones posted above and they retail for a couple of bucks, often being the only deck of cards available to bored prison inmates at the penitentiary shop.

But why bother? The answer of course is in the phrase ‘loose lips sink ships’. When inmates play with one another or perform a magic trick for others, somebody might spot a face that they recognise or recall some information that another inmate may have bragged about previously. Realising that the information they now hold could result in their own reduced jail time, these inmates pass on the facts to a warden and the crime may very well be solved.

The idea of putting the face of victims of crime on playing cards has been a definite success with many other states taking up the scheme and according to the New York Post, over 40 crimes being solved since their introduction. Amazingly two murders were solved in the space of a week just last year!

Use entertainment to sell a product

Posted on by

Work Out What You Want
Have a think about what your unique selling point is and how best you can draw attention to that in an original way. If there’s a certain audience you’re after then focus on that at this stage too. Graphologists are cool but it’s difficult to convince sixteen year olds who may well prefer Weapons of Junk.

Get Creative
At the ideas stage, nothing matters. To put it another way, everything does. You see, there is no such thing as a bad idea when you’re looking at a product launch and everything should be considered. Even the bad taste ideas could bring your brand a little promotion through the Chip Shop awards some time down the line. Moreover, you never know which awful idea will inspire the one that you ultimately end up going with. Don’t follow the crowd, think outside the box and allow your mind to run free!

How Will It Be Seen?
It’s not just the idea of your advert that needs to work but ultimately, it also has to be seen or else there was no point coming up with such a creative idea in the first place. Maybe come up with a unique hashtag that can get people engaged? Or maybe even launch an inspired competition involving your entertainment in some way. It pays to be creative but remember that means nothing unless people see it.

Create an Event Around the Product
People enjoy feeling special. Is there perhaps a way that you can create an event and use your choice of entertainer in an impromptu performance to launch the ad? Think about the current trend of secrecy – UberLIVE, Secret Cinema – much of the public love being invited to a showcase but not being entirely sure what to expect. If you pick the right venue, and use the main act on the night, you can rest assured there’ll be a flurry of social media activity.

However, you want to promote or launch your product, the best event entertainment can be a great way of doing so. Take a tour of the site and see if anything ignites a spark.

Book a cartoonist for a conference

Posted on by

When it comes to booking entertainment for a conference, there are a whole raft of options available to event organisers. Naturally the speakers and host for the day will have to be worked out far in advance but as far as everything else goes, there is quite a lot of leeway as far as the rest of the conference goes.

Many clients for conferences like to book party entertainment for when guests arrive or to break up the day. Sometimes they will book an interactive form of entertainment to enhance teamwork amongst the conference attendees or perhaps book a strolling act – a magician or caricaturist to keep things light and fun. Today though, we thought we would offer up a unique form of entertainment that has proven to be a hit at innumerable conferences and corporate days.

You can book Alex Hughes the cartoonist to bring a completely new form of entertainment to your event. Sitting in a corner for the day, Alex will pay close attention to the goings on at the conference and draw up to 25(!) cartoons that sum up the occasion. From topical moments where things might go wrong to key phrases that encompass a particular speaker, there is a lot to enjoy and the best bit is, you can put a camera on Alex throughout, ensuring that everybody sees his sketches as and when he comes up with them.

Once the conference is over and everybody has gone home, the conference organisers or company responsible for putting on the event get to keep the original drawings to frame in offices and Alex will digitally scan each and every one when he draws them, with his clients able to use their drawings for whatever reason they see fit from that moment on.

A truly excellent and different choice for conferences and corporate events, we highly recommend booking Alex Hughes for your next event.

Happy Halloween!!

Posted on by

It has to be said that for a Halloween party, you have to get people in the mood. You can’t have someone walk up all smiles and simply sampling the canapés, oh no! What you need is a few scares here and there before they even reach their welcome drink. In order to do this, we highly recommend a freaky meet and greet act that can create a whole host of incredible characters that are guaranteed to give you the shivers.

Moving on from your meet and greet, it’s now time to get stuck into the party. Perhaps a few themed actors running through some classic scenes from your favourite horror movies could be a big hit, though make sure that they are very well known; you don’t want a guest fainting from the fright as a slasher villain rocks up and nobody knows who they are meant to be.

Interactive strolling entertainment is a classic way for Halloween parties to really make their mark. From stilt walkers to magicians, everyone can get dressed up and go a little macabre for the evening. Magicians love a bit of fire whilst a few mentalism scares are guaranteed to get the guests talking! Strolling bands are also not averse to a bit of costuming!

How best to remember the proceedings from the night before? With a photo booth of course! There are a number of options when it comes to booking a photo booth from ones that provide props, logos, theming and more. You can even book a photo booth that adds a three dimensional feel or gif to the final shot.

There are so many ways to put on the perfect Halloween party and we hope this blog has made you think when it comes to booking party entertainment for your scary event this October.

May the force be with you

Posted on by

Star Wars never goes out of fashion so here’s a few ideas to get you started as you ponder whether you should go as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Upon entering the party, have a drink – a Star Wars cocktail perhaps? – at your Star Wars themed bar before venturing on and sampling the entertainment. Hopefully this won’t be in a galaxy far, far away but fairly close by.

As you meander through your hired event venue, you might begin to notice a few recognisable faces. Whether you’ve gone for lookalikes or costumed characters, a Star Wars party is only really complete when you feel as though you’re in amongst the action. Other Star Wars party ideas might include an area to duel with lightsabers.

Naturally upon entering the party, you’ll be wanting to experience the delight of Star Wars from the get-go with a string quartet playing the Star Wars theme. This has worked at many previous film-themed events. It gets people in the mood to have fun and more importantly, puts them in the right mindset for what is going to be a thrilling experience.

We love a BB-8 inflatable balloons, naturally you can always pick someone else from The Force Awakens, but BB-8 is quite clearly the cutest choice. And once that’s done, you can savour the memory of the occasion by basking in the glory of a Star Wars Photo Booth.

And finally, as the party is fully underway, it might be an idea to ask your party band to turn up the music and play the ultimate song. Enjoy your evening and ‘May the Force be with you’!!!

Game of Thrones

Posted on by

Tourists love London. And who can blame them when we have a building on the north bank of the River Thames which goes by the full title of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London.

What if you wanted to have your very own ‘Game of Thrones’ game and wanted a little medieval entertainment to tie in with the theme of your corporate event? Strictly speaking, the fantasy epic isn’t set within the medieval world but strangely enough, Westeros entertainment isn’t really a thing unless you count the cutting of heads and gruesome events like the red wedding.

Why not hire some utterly brilliant circus entertainment for parties in the form of a few acrobats, who are dressed as court jesters for the duration of the event? Such a sight is truly a marvel to behold – jesters in the Tower of London in 2018!? – which will go down an absolute storm no doubt, or how about a similarly dressed contact juggler entranced those who watch. There’s something mystical about a contact juggler and the way their act works. They’re truly impressive to watch and highly recommended if you’re on the search for unique entertainment.

Don’t stop there, why not hire some musicians, classical would be more apt dressed in traditional Game of Thrones dress. Lastly, but by no means least you could provide a fortune teller because whether you’re a Stark or a Lannister, it’d be pretty great to know what was coming.

If you fancy hiring the Tower of London for a corporate event or if you are interested in medieval Game of Thrones entertainment or something completely different then be sure to look around our website to get some more ideas!!