Magic on the move

Hosting Tour Pro Talks is always pretty magical, but no one's ever performed actual magic before.

Until last Thursday, when @DavidHarry slipped in a card trick so amazing that I was in danger of losing my train of thought altogether...

To watch the card trick (and listen to David's fascinating career story) catch the replay here.

You might be wondering what card tricks have to do with tour guiding.

Quite a lot if you're David.

You see, David does magic on a daily basis on his tours of London. Magic was an interest before he became a guide (he used to perform it in London comedy clubs and at corporate events) so it wasn't a huge leap to work it into his tours.

David adjusts his magic tricks to suit where he is and what he's talking about. For example, if his tour group is at the Bank of England, he'll take a ￡5 note and turn it into a ￡50 one. Or if he's at Tower Hill, he'll talk about executions, incorporating different lengths of ropes into his magical performance.

From hedge funds to history tours

David began his journey into tour guiding after taking early retirement from the Deutsche Bank (of which he was a vice-president). He turned his fascination with London's rich history into a new career by becoming a certified City of London guide.

On the first day as a student on the City of London Guides course, a tutor told David that he would "never make much money as a tour guide" and that he should adjust his expectations accordingly.

Never one to be put off, David thought "let's see what I can do about that". He became a full-time tour guide bang in the middle of lockdown, specialising in Zoom tours. Thanks to his LinkedIn contacts he got some work straight away.

David was also proactive when it came to client acquisition, approaching all of the livery companies in London. He offered them Zoom tours of London's history with video backgrounds on Zoom to recreate the experience of an IRL guided tour.

They said: "...you will never make much money as a tour guide. You know, very few people ever actually get a full time career from this. So just set your expectations" I thought "let's see what I can do about that".

Following his interests

One of the many things that's inspiring about David is the way he follows his true interests and weaves his hobbies into his work.

Not just magic tricks, but also tales of London's spy history (his business name The London Spy comes from Ned Ward's eighteenth century book about the seedier side of London life).

David also invests in unique documents and artefacts to enrich his tours, such as an invitation to the coronation of King George the Fourth in 1821 and a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I love creating a tour from scratch and [it's] like learning a language. So there are two aspects to a language. You've got the grammar and you've got the vocabulary. So the grammar is the nuts and bolts of how to guide. Basically, you know, it's the practical skills, that audience management structure. And then you've got the, the vocabulary which is the knowledge that you have about certain places [...]the more I do tours of London, the more I've got these amazing vocabulary that I can then throw around and mix into a new order and create a new narrative that links them together and a new story.

Tik Tok Fame

David's foray into TikTok began in June 2022, when he filmed himself throwing a bag of his dog's poo into a bin from a distance.

From this humble beginning, David moved on to share historical tidbits and peeks of his London tours – and audiences were soon hooked.

One of David's early videos highlighted an intriguing fact about a building in London earmarked as a potential SS headquarters by Hitler. This quickly went viral, catapulting him to TikTok fame.

I have very few production standards, you know, I just wave my camera about [...] I have invested in a microphone recently, but I haven't used it yet.

David's advice for guiding success

• Build up reviews: David volunteered to do free tours for charities when starting out and collected loads of glowing reviews on Trip Advisor and Google Reviews in the process. He is now number 18 in London out of 2300 guides, a pretty amazing achievement.
• Watch and learn from others: David observed other tour guides and performers, seeing what he could pick up about their performance and projection.
• Put yourself in your customers' shoes: Whenever David does a stop, he tries to see things through the eyes of his spectators. He says: "I'm always looking to see if anyone's on their phone. And if they are I don't blame them, I blame me. I'm not being interesting enough."
• Make it a two-way conversation: For David, it's not all about him. It's about the people who are on his tour. He explains: "I get so many stories from them. It really helps me to to pay attention to what they're saying and what they're feeling as well."

The above is just a basic summary, and I'd strongly recommend listening to David's inspiring story in his own words (and of course, keeping an eye out for that magic trick!).

Once again, you can watch the replay here. And, if you'd like to find out more about David, his website is here and here's the link to his TikTok videos (be warned, they're highly bingeable!)

In other news, Tour Pro Talks is hosting its first ever panel discussion on Monday the 17th at 10.30am UK time.

Five travel and tourism experts, with expertise in slow travel, brand strategy, sustainable tourism and digital marketing, are coming together to discuss current trends and share their tips on how best to navigate our constantly evolving industry.

Please join us, and bring your thoughts and questions.