01 · Cocktail hour
Warm the room, table to table.
Walk-around magic while donors arrive. Every table gets a personal moment. Strangers become table-mates, and the room starts connected instead of clustered.
A gala audience joining in
At San Francisco City Hall, the Boys & Girls Clubs broke the biggest fund-a-need record in their history: $2,000,000 in ten minutes. Not because the ask was louder. Because the room was ready. Johnny Wu, Los Angeles fundraiser and gala magician, mixes magic, hypnosis and motivation to turn donors from spectators into participants, so when the paddles go up, they keep going up.
You'll be surprised how fast you get a call.
Every fund-a-need dies in the same place: the gap between applause and action. By the time the paddle raise starts your donors have eaten, had wine and heard three speeches. The first paddles go up, then the room stalls at the middle levels. That gap is exactly what Johnny closes, working with your auctioneer and run of show, not instead of them.
Walk-around magic while donors arrive. Every table gets a personal moment. Strangers become table-mates, and the room starts connected instead of clustered.
A gala audience joining inA 10 to 15 minute stage piece placed before the ask. Magic and hypnosis built around your mission story, so entertainment and meaning land as one thing, not two. Nobody checks their phone while the impossible is happening.
The set ends at the emotional high point and the ask begins on that crest, timed with your auctioneer and emcee to the minute. No dead air between wonder and giving.
San Francisco City HallJohnny stays engaged through the fund-a-need, lifting the room between giving levels with quick interactive moments so momentum never stalls at the middle tiers. This is where records break.
At City Hall the paddles kept climbing past every previous benchmark. Ten minutes later the club had raised $2,000,000, the largest fund-a-need in its history.
Paddle 504 goes upAn optional dessert walk-around so donors leave retelling the night. The gala they talk about all year is the gala they come back to, at a higher level, next year.
For your major donors there's the VIP donor experience: close-up magic and mentalism for 20 to 60 of your most important guests before the ballroom doors even open.
The room, afterYou'll be surprised how fast you get a call.
The flagship. The full City Hall playbook: cocktail walk-around, the featured stage set before the ask, and live momentum work through the paddle raise. Coordinated with your auctioneer, emcee and run of show. Built to move the number, not just the room.
Cocktail-hour walk-around plus an after-dinner stage set for galas without a live ask, or where the entertainment and the appeal are separate. Sophisticated, mission-aware, and never competing with your program.
The intimate pre-gala reception for your major donors. Close-up magic and mentalism for 20 to 60 of your most important guests. The moment that makes your top table feel chosen before the ballroom doors open.
Real reviews, their words, unedited.
“Saw him at a charity event tonight, and was blown away! Loved the hypnosis trick and as well the trick where he brings a couple on stage with blind folds while he taps one person and the other person is feeling the same tap without being touched. So many good tricks, don't miss seeing him perform!”
“Johnny performed for a company party a while back, but I remember him as the highlight of the evening. Not that the board's speeches and lukewarm food were stiff competition, haha but he really was a great showman. Highly recommended!”
“Was lucky enough to attend a work event where Johnny Wu was the main act for the night. What an amazing performance he put on! Phenomenal stage presence, captivating tricks, and the ability to immerse everyone. I highly recommend for any personal event.”
The opposite, when it's built correctly. A standalone magic act would distract. What Johnny builds is mission-woven: every piece ties back to your cause, your kids, your story. The San Francisco City Hall event proved the model. The entertainment didn't compete with the meaning, it amplified it, and the record-breaking paddle raise happened because the room was emotionally open, not despite it.
Closely and early. Johnny joins a planning call with your auctioneer and event producer 2 to 4 weeks out. You map the run of show minute by minute: where his set sits, exactly how the handoff into the ask works, and what he does between giving levels. Professional benefit auctioneers love this structure because they receive a room at peak attention instead of post-dinner fatigue.
Light, consent-based, feel-good suggestion work with volunteers, the same skill set from the viral Klay Thompson moment that ESPN and NBC Sports covered. Nothing embarrassing, nothing without enthusiastic volunteers. Its role in a fundraiser is energy: collective laughter and shared astonishment, which is exactly the emotional state that makes a room act together.
Registered 501(c)(3) organizations receive 15% off corporate rates. The full Fund-A-Need Activation is quoted on guest count, program length and coordination needs. Against a paddle raise, the math speaks for itself. Send your date and goal and you'll have a precise quote within 24 hours.
Yes. The record-breaking event was in San Francisco. Johnny regularly travels for galas across California and nationwide, and travel is quoted transparently in the proposal.
Gala season (spring and October through December) books 3 to 6 months out. The mission-integration work takes real preparation, since custom pieces are built around your cause, so earlier is better. If your gala is inside 8 weeks, call and you'll get a straight answer on what's possible.
The difference between a good gala and a record-breaking one is ten minutes. Tell us your date, your venue, your fund-a-need goal and who's in the room.
You'll be surprised how fast you get a call.
Before you go
The same magic, mind reading and hypnosis these names saw up close, built around your event. Tell us your date and we take it from there.
You'll be surprised how fast you get a call.
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You'll be surprised how fast you get a call.
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