Updated September 2026. Reviewed quarterly.
Northern New Jersey is one of the wealthiest stretches of the country, and it books entertainment like it. Estate parties in Alpine and Saddle River, bar and bat mitzvahs in Short Hills, Tenafly and Livingston, weddings at the Pleasantdale Chateau and the Park Savoy, sweet sixteens in Ridgewood and Franklin Lakes, corporate holiday parties on the Jersey City waterfront and in Morristown, and pharma sales meetings in Basking Ridge and Florham Park. Most of it sits within 45 minutes of Manhattan, which means the best New York performers are as available in Bergen, Essex, Morris, Union and Hudson counties as they are on Park Avenue.
This guide covers the best magicians and mentalists working in New Jersey right now, with a focus on the North Jersey communities closest to the city, for corporate events, weddings, private parties, bar and bat mitzvahs and family celebrations. Every performer here is a working professional with a verified track record and a clear specialty, and each entry says what that performer is best for.
How This List Was Put Together
Every performer was judged on the same four things: a documented track record with New Jersey and New York audiences, verified client reviews, range across close-up and stage formats, and the professionalism (contracts, insurance, punctuality) that planners and hosts depend on. Facts come from each performer’s own published materials. Ranking reflects fit for North Jersey bookings specifically, not general fame.
The Best Magicians and Mentalists in New Jersey
1. Daniel Nicholas
Best for: corporate events and galas, weddings, estate parties, bar and bat mitzvahs across Bergen, Essex, Morris, Union and Hudson counties
Daniel Nicholas is a professional magician and mentalist based in New York City, 30 minutes from the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel, who performs across northern New Jersey all year. He combines sleight of hand and sleight of mind: close-up magic that works the cocktail hour at a Short Hills wedding table by table, and a stand-up mentalism show built for a Morristown ballroom that has gathered to watch. He has performed 1,000+ events over 15+ years as a professional, for clients including the New York Yankees, Goldman Sachs, Google, Apple and Meta.
The reviews back it up. Daniel carries 100+ five-star Google reviews with a perfect 5.0 rating. New Jersey clients describe the same pattern: skeptical executives leaning in by the third effect, a country club cocktail hour that stopped talking, a bat mitzvah where the parents were as stunned as the kids. He customizes routines around company messaging, the guest of honor, or the theme of the night, and he reads a room before the guests do.
Pricing for Daniel typically starts at $3,500.
Check Daniel’s availability for your event
2. Chris Dare
Best for: corporate events, VIP and high-end private events
Chris Dare is a New York corporate magician and mentalist with a career spanning more than two decades, trusted by Fortune 500 companies, VIP clients and elite private events. He holds a perfect 5.0 Google rating, and praise for his work comes from names like Jack Hollis, President of Toyota Motor North America, and New York Islanders star Mat Barzal. He also runs Magic with a Mission, a charitable effort he started at 18. Polished, high-energy and equally at home in a boardroom or a Bergen County ballroom.
3. Fred Berthelot
Best for: pharmaceutical, finance and corporate audiences anywhere in New Jersey
Fred Berthelot, known as the Architect of the Mind, is a New Jersey-based mentalist and magician and a former New York architect with 25+ years as a professional. His corporate list reads like a map of the state: Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo, Mondelez, Unilever, Lowenstein Sandler and SHI International, at events in Basking Ridge, Florham Park, Parsippany, Morristown, East Hanover, West Orange, Jersey City and Holmdel. If the room is full of scientists or partners, he is the specialist.
4. Magic of Marco
Best for: weddings, cocktail hours and corporate galas
Marco is a New Jersey magician with more than 20 years of performing, a 5.0 rating across 500+ verified reviews on The Bash, and an appearance on Good Morning America. Known as the short-sleeve magician, he works strolling close-up magic and comedy magic shows for weddings, corporate galas, trade shows and private celebrations across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, with corporate credits including Home Depot and Xfinity.
5. Magic Mike Jacobson
Best for: brand activations, galas and tech-company events
Magic Mike Jacobson is a Brooklyn-based magician and mentalist with 25+ years of performing and a client list of 1,000+ companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, Meta, Bloomberg, Amazon, TikTok, LinkedIn and the NFL. He has been featured in Forbes and Business Insider (both 30 Under 30), New York Magazine and The Guardian, and appeared on America’s Got Talent and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. He works throughout the tri-state area, with about 30 percent of his events national or international.
6. Alex Voz
Best for: high-volume mentalism bookings, mitzvahs and weddings
Alex Voz is a New York mentalist and magician with more than 20 years of professional experience and close to 600 Google reviews at a five-star rating, working throughout the tristate area including New Jersey. A former Wall Street salesman, he built his act around psychology and mind reading, with clients including Amazon, Google and Goldman Sachs and appearances on FOX 5 NYC and CBS.
7. Brian McGovern
Best for: walk-around magic at receptions and mitzvah cocktail hours
Brian McGovern is a New York magician and mentalist with more than 350 verified five-star reviews and corporate clients including Google, JPMorgan, Meta, Citibank and the New York Stock Exchange. He works weddings, corporate events, bar and bat mitzvahs and private parties across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and his specialty is walk-around magic that moves through the room rather than stopping it.
8. Matias Letelier
Best for: illusion and comedy stage shows
Matias Letelier is an award-winning Chilean-American illusionist and mentalist with more than 27 years of experience, a resident performer at Speakeasy Magick in Manhattan, and the founder of Fun Corporate Magic. His corporate clients include Apple, Google, Morgan Stanley, Amazon and Deloitte, and his New Jersey work runs through Fort Lee, Englewood Cliffs, Secaucus, Jersey City and Weehawken, including corporate holiday parties at the Chart House. His one-man show mixes comedy magic, mind reading, stage illusion and pickpocketing with a lot of audience participation.
9. Denny More
Best for: comedy-first events, proms and adult parties that want hypnosis too
Denny More is a New Jersey comic magician, mentalist and hypnotist who started in magic at age nine and turned professional while still in high school. He has played Caroline’s Comedy Club on Broadway, casinos and comedy clubs nationwide, and he works corporate events, college and high school functions, fundraisers and private parties. One performer who can carry stand-up comedy, magic, mentalism and a hypnosis show in a single evening.
10. Mr. Magico
Best for: children’s parties and the kids’ side of a family event
Mr. Magico is a New Jersey children’s magician whose family show is built on audience participation, comedy, ventriloquism and puppets, a live bunny rabbit and balloon animals, with packages that scale from a backyard birthday to a corporate family day. He is on this list for one specific job, and for that job he is a New Jersey standard.
How to Choose the Right Performer for a New Jersey Event
Start with the shape of the event, not the name of the performer.
A cocktail hour, a wedding reception, a networking event or an estate party calls for close-up magic. It needs no stage, no sound system and no schedule. The performer moves through the room in small groups and the energy builds table by table. A dinner, a gala, a milestone birthday or a corporate program with a natural moment where everyone gathers calls for a stand-up show, usually 30 to 45 minutes, with a focal point and a room that can face one direction. Mentalism tends to land hardest with adult and executive crowds, because it feels less like a trick and more like something happening to them.
Many New Jersey events want both: strolling during cocktails, a show after dinner. Ask whether the performer does both formats well, because plenty do only one.
Budget follows format and experience. Established professionals in this market generally start in the low thousands for a strolling set and go up from there for stage shows, custom material and multi-hour bookings. Peak season runs from late October through December, and the strongest performers book out weeks in advance. Spring mitzvah and wedding season is the second crunch.
Finally, ask for a real conversation before you book. A performer who wants to understand your guests, your venue and your goal is a performer who will show up prepared.
What Makes North Jersey Different
The venues are grand and the drives are short. The Pleasantdale Chateau and the Manor in West Orange, the Park Savoy in Florham Park, Crystal Plaza in Livingston, the Legacy Castle in Pompton Plains, the Venetian in Garfield, Liberty House and Maritime Parc on the Jersey City waterfront, Nanina’s in the Park in Belleville, and the country clubs of Alpine, Ridgewood, Montclair and Summit all host rooms of 150 to 400 guests, which changes what entertainment has to do: a performer who is wonderful for 20 people at a dinner table can disappear in a ballroom. The best performers know how to scale.
The corporate side is just as concentrated. The Jersey City and Hoboken waterfront holds the back offices of Wall Street; the Route 24 and Route 287 corridors through Short Hills, Florham Park, Morristown, Parsippany and Basking Ridge hold the pharmaceutical, insurance and telecom headquarters; Newark holds Prudential and Audible. Those companies run holiday parties, sales meetings and client dinners all year, and they would rather not bus everyone through the tunnel to do it.
Further out, the same performers work the pharma campuses in Bridgewater and New Brunswick, the Princeton university and finance crowd, and the Shore from Rumson and Holmdel down to Spring Lake. It is a longer drive, not a different market.
The community is tight, too. The same families see each other at the same clubs, synagogues and schools from Tenafly to Chatham, so entertainment gets talked about afterward. The performers on this list have all earned that room.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a magician or mentalist cost in New Jersey?
Rates depend on experience, format and length. Strolling close-up magic from an established professional generally starts in the low thousands, and full stage shows run higher, especially with custom material. Pricing for Daniel Nicholas typically starts at $3,500. Ask any performer for a clear quote that names the format, the length and what is included.
How far in advance should I book?
For holiday parties and fall galas, two to three months ahead is smart. Top performers fill November and December quickly. For weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, book as soon as the date and venue are set, since the best Saturday nights in May, June, September and October go early. For other events, four to six weeks is usually workable, but earlier is always safer.
Is a magician or a mentalist better for a New Jersey event?
It depends on the crowd. Close-up magic is ideal for cocktail hours, receptions and mingling. Mentalism plays especially well with adult, executive and skeptical audiences, because the experience feels psychological rather than theatrical. Several performers on this list, including Daniel Nicholas, blend both in a single booking.
Do New York performers charge extra to come to New Jersey?
Usually not for Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Morris and Union counties, which are a shorter drive for a Manhattan-based performer than many parts of Long Island. Travel is normally included or quoted up front. For events further south or at the Shore, ask when you inquire.
Can the show be customized for our company, family or theme?
The best performers expect to. Company names, product messaging, the guest of honor’s story and the theme of the night can all be built into the material. Ask about it when you inquire, and ask how far in advance the performer needs your details.
What should I look for to know a performer is actually good?
Volume and consistency of reviews, not just a star rating. A performer with 100-plus five-star reviews across many event types has earned them over time. Watch full performance video rather than highlight reels, and ask for references from events like yours. A confident professional will provide them without hesitation.
Where Else
Daniel Works
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