ABOUT OLIVER HENKE – THE PERSON BEHIND THE MAGICIAN
Twenty years of doing one thing properly
Close-up magician among the guests, mentalist in front of a full room. This page is about how that came about — and why the work still happens at arm’s length rather than on a stage.
Where it began
One card trick, and no way back
1998 – 2004
The first tricks came early, the way they do for a lot of children — and then football took over for a few years. What brought Oliver back was a close-up magician working a table at close range, with nothing but a borrowed deck.
Not the spectacle of it. The fact that it held up from thirty centimetres away.
The standard
It has to hold up from thirty centimetres away.
Twenty years onStill the rule every piece is measured against
The work today
Craft rather than presentation
A trick that only works from three metres away is not finished. So the material is built for the table.
How it is played
Ordinary objects go round the group beforehand. Nothing is turned away from view, nothing is shown for only half a second. What guests are left with is not an explanation they missed, but a question they keep.
The mentalism follows the same rule. It is announced as a trick, because that is what it is — and saying so has never cost the effect anything.
Built for close rangeThirty centimetres, not three metres. Everything survives a second look.
Declared as a trickThe mentalism claims no genuine abilities, and says so out loud.
German and EnglishMixed guest lists are no obstacle; most of it works without language at all.
Where he has performed
From company floors to television studios
Corporate evenings, weddings and private celebrations across more than ten European countries.
Along the way
Guests who are used to being entertained have watched from a metre away: Udo Lindenberg, Kobe Bryant, Jupp Heynckes, Johann Lafer, Nelson Müller. The setting changes; the format does not.
It is still a deck of cards and the people sitting closest to it.
An evening that leaves questions.
Send me the occasion, your preferred date and a rough guest count. I will come back with a suggestion that fits your running order — usually within a day.
