Castledaly man wins prestigious Wedding Magician award

Castledaly native and talented magician Oisin Foley (28) was recently named the Wedding Industry Awards 'Wedding Magician of the Year 2023.'

Oisin said: “I’m absolutely over the moon to have won The Wedding Industry Awards 'Wedding Magician of the Year. I was definitely shocked. It was a bit mindblowing.”

He added that the other nominees were amazing and that he was surprised to just be nominated alongside them. Oisin received the call to say that he had been nominated for a Wedding Industry Award last December and following a mixture of a public voting and looking back at reviews posted on social media about the nominees Oisin was crowned the winner.

The award was presented on the night by Keith Barry, and Sara Kennedy from Irish Wedding Blog, after the night kicked off with a performance by Mickey Joe Harte. Oisin has known for Keith the last six or seven years. They were chatting about a magic convention in Blackpool and about meeting up for a coffee in the near future.

Oisin said: “My style of magic is inspired by Keith Barry and Derren Brown mixed with comedy and humour. It's very conversational and more so about who's helping me out (on stage.) They're the real star. For the past couple of years, I've been at everything from communions to weddings and the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown.”

Oisin first started performing with Centre Stage Youth Theatre when he was just six years old and began performing magic a few years later. He also performed on the Late Late Toy Show as famous fictional wizard Harry Potter.

“I'm at it for twenty odd years. I always hoped it would be a career. Getting to do what I do is an award itself.” Oisin got a degree in Law from Maynooth University on the advice of his parents but decided to pursue his dreams to perform as a a magician, mentalist and hypnotist following the completion of his studies. He said: “As soon as the paper was handed to me I decided to give it a go.”

The local magician also posts a lot on Instagram and Tik-Tok where people can see magic tricks with a mixture of interactive pieces such as reading people's minds through a phone.

The former Moate Community School student has also worked abroad in the UK and Spain and worked with Irish Ferries for a number of years travelling over and back to France.

Speaking about his plans for the future, Oisin said that he will keep going with what he's doing. “I'm looking to do another few shows in Westmeath.”

Oisin performed his first public show in 2017 in Tuar Ard Arts Centre in Moate and has done many shows in Dublin and one live show more recently in Offaly last September.

He said that there is an excitement factor associated with performing on stage. “If you're not feeling nervous , you're not doing it right. It's always worth the experience and having the craic.”

Oisin continued: “No two shows are alike. You never know what information you're going to get out of people.”

He enjoys bringing people up on stage and shocking them with what he can discover about them such as the pincode to their phone or the name of their childhood best friend.

The local magician provides a variety of entertainment services such as family shows for family events, like communions and weddings, mix and mingle magic for office parties and work occasions and stand up after dinner shows. He said that the live shows are “mindreader and hypnosis based.”

Oisin is based between Castledaly and Dublin and performs nationwide.

The Wedding Industry Awards took place on Tuesday, February 7 at the Johnstown Estate, Enfield.

Anyone interested in booking Oisin for an event such as a birthday, wedding, corporate event or private party should email foleymagic@live.ie or call him on 085 131 7324. For more information or to see some of Oisin's magic tricks follow his Facebook page, 'Oisin Foley Mindreader' and find him on Instagram @oisinfoleymindreader.

The magician and mindreader also posts videos on Tik-Tok @oisinfoleymindreader.