Huge congratulations to Alexis Conran on winning Celebrity
Masterchef 2016. But who, you may be
asking is Alexis Conran? Well, I first met him more than a decade ago when he
was a jobbing actor, supplementing his income by working as a magician. I was
working with his magical agent on the initial development of what eventually
became my Presentation Skills training programme based around the Rules of
Magic.
I had the pleasure of working alongside Alexis, together
with the likes of Guy Hollingworth and Ali Bongo on a couple of occasions at
The Magic Circle. What impressed me was the work ethic he applied to rehearsal,
his attention to detail – “we need a new
envelope, not this used one” – and his engaging personality. They (my wife, for
one) may not have remembered what he did, but they certainly remembered him, which was why he was so regularly
booked as a magician when he was actually becoming too busy with his acting to
be fiddling around as a magician.
Alexis went on to co-create and star in the BBC’s The Real Hustle and a variety of his own
documentaries, as well as hosting TV and radio shows; when I last saw him about
six months ago he was struggling to even remember his exploits within the magic
world. Watching him triumph on Celebrity Masterchef, however, I could see that
all those qualities of hard work, attention to detail and a winning personality
were now being applied to cooking. Watch out for Alexis hosting a prime time
show on a mainstream channel soon – it may be cookery-based, but he could win
us over with almost anything.
The lesson for business presenters? Draw inspiration from all around you. It’s
Magic, Movies and Music that do it for me, but apply principles from whatever
turns you on to your business presentations and you will soon start to excel.
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