How Kel and Mike Oulton Ran Endeavour Silver's Christmas Party at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver
The Endeavour Silver team didn't want to manage a stack of vendors. They wanted to show up, host their people, and let someone else run the night.
That's what Mike Oulton and I do.
I'm Kel. I'm a corporate magician based in Vancouver, and Mike is one of the best MCs and game show hosts I've ever worked with. Together, we run corporate Christmas parties end-to-end. MC, music, magic, photobooth, prizes, games. One contract. One team.
This is what that looked like at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver for Endeavour Silver Corp.
The reaction
What Endeavour Silver wanted from their Vancouver Christmas party
Endeavour Silver is a Vancouver-headquartered publicly traded silver mining company with operations across Mexico. The Vancouver team rolls into the holiday season after a long year of investor calls, site visits, and quarterly reporting.
The brief was simple. A high-energy night that pulled the whole room in. No watching from the corner. No "professional networking" awkwardness. Just laughter, prizes, and a room that didn't want to leave.
The kind of night where, as Mike put it from the mic that evening, "if you go to a Christmas party and you're not preparing to write tomorrow off, you are not doing Christmas parties enough."
That's the bar.
How one team runs a Christmas party instead of five vendors
The skeptic turned into a fan
Most corporate planners book entertainment piecemeal. An MC from one company. A DJ from another. A photobooth vendor. A magician. Maybe a band. Five contracts. Five contact people. Five different visions of what the night should feel like.
The result is usually choppy. The MC doesn't know what the magician is doing next. The DJ plays the wrong music at the wrong moment. The games run too long and the show starts late.
Mike and I built a different model. He's the guy with the prizes and the games. I'm the guy with the magic. We work the room together from the first cocktail to the last announcement.
For Endeavour Silver at the Hyatt Regency, that meant:
An elimination matching game that pulled half the room into a circle within minutes
A 30-second fill-in-the-blanks mad libs game with a tax-evasion punchline that broke the room
Close-up magic in guests' hands during cocktail hour
A book test and card divination set after dinner
Audience voting on prize winners, so guests stayed engaged the whole night
One night. One team. One feeling that the room is being held by people who know what they're doing.
Why close-up magic belongs at corporate Christmas parties
I told the Endeavour Silver crowd that night: "Out of 25 years of magic, this is my favourite part. I get to know some of the people."
That's the difference. Close-up magic isn't a show you watch from row 12. It's two arm's length away. The card is in your hand. The reveal happens on your fingertip. You can't take out your phone because you're in it.
For a Christmas party, that matters. People haven't seen each other in a year. They're stuck holding drinks next to colleagues they barely know. Close-up magic gives them a shared three-minute experience and a story to tell at the next desk over on Monday.
The DJ gets them dancing. The MC keeps the energy up. The magic gives them each other.
What most Vancouver planners get wrong about holiday parties
A few patterns I see every December:
The finale with Dan
They book entertainment last. The room is locked, the caterer is locked, the speaker is locked. Then someone Googles "magician near me" three weeks out. The best teams fill six to nine months ahead.
They run the show during dinner. People don't watch when they're chewing. The show goes after dinner. Every time.
They stack prize giveaways at the start. Empty the prize table early and the room empties early. Save the big ones for the end.
They book a kids' magician for a corporate crowd. Family friendly does not mean kids show. It means the CFO laughs as hard as the intern.
They treat entertainment as a line item, not the experience. Catering feeds them. Entertainment is what they remember.
A guest at the Endeavour Silver Christmas party put it best on the way out: "I thought that was very impressive. All the close-up magic. I was quite confused, so it worked out really well."
That's the goal. Not "I watched a magic show." Confused, laughing, holding a drink, talking to someone they didn't know an hour ago.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs corporate Christmas parties in Vancouver as one team?
Kel and Mike Oulton run end-to-end corporate Christmas parties in Vancouver through Turnkey Events Live Entertainment. One contract covers MC, hosted games, close-up magic, photobooth, and DJ. Past clients include Endeavour Silver, McDonald's Canada, RBC, TELUS, and Fairmont. The model replaces booking five separate vendors with one team that's worked together for years.
When should I book a Vancouver corporate Christmas party?
The best entertainment teams fill six to nine months in advance. The Friday before Christmas, the second Saturday in December, and anything in late November are the first dates to go. If you're locking a Q4 date in Vancouver, the time to book entertainment is the same week you book the venue.
What does close-up magic actually do at a corporate event?
Close-up magic happens in guests' hands during cocktail hour and at tables during dinner. The card is in your hand. The reveal happens on your fingertip. For corporate events, that means strangers find a reason to talk to each other within minutes, and the room is warm by the time the program starts. Most planners underestimate how much that changes the whole night.
Can one team really cover MC, magic, music, and games for a corporate Christmas party?
Yes. The model only works when the team has run dozens of nights together. Mike Oulton runs the MC, prizes, and game show segments. Kel runs the close-up magic and the after-dinner show. We co-write the run-of-show with the planner before the night and run it together on the day. One contract, one point of contact.
How much does a Vancouver corporate Christmas party cost when entertainment is handled by one team?
Pricing depends on guest count and the components booked. A medium corporate Christmas party (50 to 200 guests, full evening of mingling magic plus stage show) is $4,000 plus GST for the magic component. Larger nights with conference-scale crowds price differently. The full Turnkey Events Live Entertainment package, with MC, games, magic, photobooth, and DJ, is quoted on a 15-minute call once we know your date, headcount, and venue.
Planning your 2026 corporate Christmas party in Vancouver?
Book a 15-minute call: https://tidycal.com/m8gjl63/15-minute-meeting
Kel Modern Magic kelmodernmagic.com
