Far too expensive for the experience he provides. He was also late and didn't perform the full hour, not that we necessarily wanted more time. He provided balloon 'animals' but it was just premade swords and not the experience you think of when someone says they're doing balloon animals. He could not get the birthday girl's name right even after being corrected multiple times. He also picked other kids to participate instead of her most of the time. It was for a small group of young children, we made the best of it, and still had a nice enough time, but would definitely not recommend. read more

Doug recently preformed at my daughters first birthday. He was extremely responsive and clear on what to expect the day of. When he arrived, he was flexible with the space and quietly set up. I was a little nervous because we had a large age range of children but to my delight they were all completely entertained the entire show! What took me by surprise the most is that all of the adults were also entertained and laughing the entire show. Weeks later and we are drill getting comments on how much our friends and family enjoyed the performance. Highly recommend Doug for your next party! read more

It was a wonderful show that Doug gave our nephew's party. It was very entertaining! The kids had so much fun. He definitely knows how to get those little ones' hearts. The Oreo trick was the best and he even gave the kids balloons at the end. Very thankful to this guy who was able to accommodate us even with a very short notice! He was very patient with kids and really knows how to have fun with them. read more

Doug was GREAT at my daughters 7th birthday party! The kids all had a great time and he was very entertaining even for the adults. He was on time and professional, and it was something different and fun. Highly recommend for children's birthday parties! read more

Doug was able to help us out last minute for our event and the kids loved him! He totally engaged the kids, and provided laughs for the whole crowd (adults included). I commend his flexibility and desire to help us out in a pinch. Can't wait to have him at our next event! read more

Doug was a pleasure to have at my sons 1st birthday party. He kept the kids and rhe adults very much entertained!! We highly recommend him for any events! read more

He was great. Kids loved him and the adults were entertained. He had the conversation going all day.

I really loved having Doug the Magician as part of our event. Hiring him made the party more fun and exciting for the family. The kids were engaged and smiling through the whole show. The adults were laughing at all the jokes and were amazed at the magic. We truly enjoyed the show and would pass his info along to family and friends for their parties as well as hire him again for a longer show for our own! Loved it!!!! read more

Doug was kind enough to donate his time at a charity event that the organization I work for hosted. Leading up to the event, getting in touch with him was easy and prompt. On the day of the event, he arrived on time, and kept our younger audience entertained and enthralled for a solid 45 minutes. It was a great way to end an awesome day. read more

Thank you so much for a fabulous magic show during my daughter's 4th birthday. The kids were enthralled with your performance and you got them all giggling (and some parents too). They absolutely loved it - it was a totally unique party and your magic was perfect for our crowd! read more

We found Doug Shaller via the website, Thumbtack. On a positive note, Doug responded quickly, was very polite, and was willing to come to our party with only 24 hours notice. Because he also had another show to get to after ours, we agreed upon doing an abbreviated performance of about 45 minutes. We were still charged the full price of $225 though. Doug performed 4 tricks and drew them out over the 45 minutes. His jokes were inappropriate in content and inappropriate for keeping the attention of mostly 4-5 yr olds or any child of any age really. His 1st trick while impressive, took him about 10 min or more to get to the "Ta-Da" moment that he had totally lost the kids attention and almost all the adults had left the room by that time. During another trick, Doug made a comment to the children stating, "sometimes grown-ups cheat". One of the fathers at the party was so upset about this comment that he angrily said out loud to the room, "Yeah, that's a great lesson to teach the kids!". During another trick where Doug was making a balloon animal, he asked a child what her favorite animal was and when she said "a cat" Doug said "too bad I can only make a dog" and then made a balloon dog. He pretended to make the dog do tricks like "rolling over" (just turning the balloon upside down). Finally he said, "the dog has one last trick...he can play dead" and throwing the balloon dog on the floor, slammed his shoe on the balloon dog and popping it. I was dumbfounded that he did that in front of the kids not to mention, we now have a lovely dent and crack in our newly installed wide plank wood floors that are less then four months old thanks to the heel of his shoe slamming into the floor!!! When we spoke on the phone, he asked me what my son's favorite candy was so that he could magically make it appear during the show. When he emailed me the invoice a little while later he stated, "If I am unable to purchase this [Favorite candy] in time, I will magically produce lollipops and marshmallows as part of my finale." Unfortunately, he did not come with my son's favorite candy, marshmallows, OR lollipops. Instead, he made a plate of Oreos appear and put them in front of the children. Right away all the kids jumped up because they wanted to grab a cookie without even giving parents an opportunity to be able to say I don't want my child to eat that, especially since we had no idea where the cookies had been stored and b/c they were unwrapped. My husband was furious the entire time telling me "this is such a waste of money, I'm going to tell Doug to leave, I don't want him in the house anymore". I stopped my husband from doing this just because I felt bad for Doug and thought it was rude to kick him out of the house. Additionally, Doug requires that you pay him his fee upon his arrival to your house which meant we had already given him all of his money and I kept hoping that by some pure stroke of luck the show would improve. The biggest disappointment of the show was that he failed to make the birthday boy feel special in any way, having him participate as the main volunteer for only one trick. A couple of the kids asked if he would make a balloon animal for them too, and Doug proceeded to say, "if you invite me to your birthday party I'd be more than happy to make a balloon animal for you"; however, the 1 balloon animal he did make at our house was not even given to the birthday boy. Instead, he gave it to another guest. We all had to keep telling our children to sit down and watch the show because five minutes into the show they had already lost interest and we're trying to wander off. When Doug left, my son, the birthday boy, said to me that "he didn't like the magician much, but that at least his friends laughed a couple of times." So sad! I will say that the kids did laugh at some parts because they themselves made funny comments and were being silly. I feel as if Doug misrepresented himself and gave no indication of how inexperienced he actually was. At first, I decided I would not post a review because I knew my honestly would by really disheartening to Doug, but then a day or two after the party I got a v-mail from him thanking us and asking me to post reviews on several websites for him; he even emailed me links where to post reviews. At that point I realized he had no idea just how terribly bad the show went and that meant this would happen over and over again to unsuspecting parents wanting to provide fun entertainment for their children and being sorely disappointed just as we were. I would never want another birthday boy or girl feeling like my son did after Doug left our home. This was such a waste of a lot of money and I so wish there was a way to get a refund and treat my son to something else more fun, and that he wouldn't have felt so disappointed on his special day! read more