Jamie Docherty
Award Winning Magician and Entertainer
Jamie Docherty is an award-winning close-up magician, which means the magic happens inches from your guests and quite often in their own hands. He's also Jay from the double act Jay & Joss, who performed on Britain's Got Talent in 2024.
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Unforgettable Wedding Entertainment
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Modern Corporate Entertainment
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Memorable Private Party Entertainment
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Award Winning Stage and Cabaret Entertainment
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‘East Midlands Wedding Entertainer of the Year 2017’
A regular performer at The Royal Variety After Show Party, Jamie Docherty is an award-winning professional magician and has performed at hundreds of weddings, private parties and corporate events all over the country.
Please Brides, book him! We’re that confident, if you’re disappointed we’ll pay the fee!
Popular Wedding Venue
Northamptonshire
Jamie is awesome! He had both us and our guests mesmerised with his magic, how on earth he does what he does is beyond me. He bent a glass whilst stood inches away from me… I even chose the glass, it’s ridiculous!
Tanya Brearley
Bride
What a fantastic ice-breaker during the waiting around! Easily the best money I spent, and worth every penny!
Ruth Driver
Bride
Jamie’s Recent Clients:
What a close-up magician does at your event
Close-up magic (people also call it walkabout or table magic) is performed for small groups rather than for a whole room at once. Jamie moves between your guests during the parts of an event when people are stood around with a drink, or sat at a table waiting for the next course. A few minutes with one group, then on to the next. Nobody has to stop what they're doing and file into rows of chairs.
Because it's so personal, a good close-up magician gets people talking to each other. Strangers end up comparing notes on what they've just seen, and arguing about how it was done. At an event where half the room has never met the other half, that does a lot of the hard work for you.
The awards, the memberships and a bit of telly
Jamie was named 'Northamptonshire Close-Up Magician of the Year 2015' and 'East Midlands Wedding Entertainer of the Year 2017', and he's been Highly Commended nationally for entertainment within the wedding industry. He's a full Member of The Magic Circle and a member of Equity, the actors' union.
With Jay & Joss he became an Associate of The Inner Magic Circle with Silver Star in 2021, and the pair won The Magic Circle's Champions of Stage Illusion in 2024. That same year they took a wedding-themed routine onto Britain's Got Talent series 17. They've also been on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, BBC Three's School of Hard Tricks and ITV News. So he's well used to people actively trying to catch him out.
He's a regular performer at the Royal Variety After Show Party too, and past bookings include the England Rugby Team's briefing talk, Jamie Carragher's official retirement dinner and New Year's Eve at The Shard.
Close-up magician or a stage show?
Most people book Jamie as a close-up magician, but it isn't the only option. At a wedding he'll usually work the drinks reception and the wedding breakfast, and there's more on how that runs on the wedding entertainment page. Company events tend to want something that fits around networking and dinner, so have a look at corporate entertainment for those.
If you'd rather have the whole room watching the same thing at the same moment, stage entertainment is the way to go. And for birthdays, anniversaries and christenings, the private party page explains how it works at home or in a hired room. Not sure which suits your event? Tell us a bit about it and we'll point you in the right direction.
The moments guests talk about afterwards
The trick people bring up most is the glass. Jamie has bent a glass while standing inches away from a guest, and it was a glass they'd picked themselves. That's the whole appeal of booking a close-up magician. Nothing happens on a distant stage. It happens right under your nose.
And the reviews keep coming back to how he got round everyone. After a big work do, Philippa Fox wrote: "We booked Jamie for a company party for 250 guests and I think he managed to get around to virtually everyone. They all loved it and are still trying to work out how he did some of the tricks!" (Philippa Fox, Google review, October 2019). There are plenty more like that on the testimonials page.
Checking a date
Popular dates go early, Saturdays in summer especially, so it's worth getting in touch as soon as you know your date and venue. Jamie travels far and wide for bookings and keeps travel expenses to a minimum. Pop your details into the quote form and you'll hear back about availability. Simple as that.