Mentalist and Magician for Hire — Where Gentry Performs
Based in Philadelphia. Booked up and down the Northeast Corridor, and flown in beyond it.
Check availability for your date → Send the date, the city, the venue and the headcount, and you get a straight answer on format and availability.
Gentry is a mentalist and corporate entertainer based in Philadelphia. Most of the calendar sits between Boston and Washington, because the corridor is a train ride rather than a flight and a train ride is a schedule that holds. Beyond it, he flies — he has performed in dozens of countries, and a booking in a city that is not on this page is an ordinary booking, not an exception.
Each city below has its own page, because each city books differently. A trade show floor in Manhattan and a hospital gala in Baltimore are not the same job, and pretending otherwise is how planners end up with entertainment that does not fit the room.
The Northeast Corridor
Philadelphia
Home. He lives here, taught at Temple here, and plays bass here, which is why the jazz-and-mentalism format exists at all. Documented rooms include the Union League on South Broad and the Ritz-Carlton on the Avenue of the Arts. The city's calendar runs on law, insurance, health systems, universities and a fast-growing life sciences sector — partner dinners, awards nights, association galas and December holiday parties. The one market with no flight between the performer and your date.
New York
Ninety minutes from Moynihan. The strongest market for trade show booth activation — Javits and the Penn District run shorter, denser, more local floors than Las Vegas, so a higher share of the people in your aisle are buyers rather than badge-collectors. Also Midtown ballroom receptions on schedules that do not flex, and private entertaining in Manhattan apartments and Brooklyn lofts.
Washington, DC
A city that entertains around influence: associations, fly-ins, contractors, and firms whose product is access. Ballrooms around Mount Vernon Square, law firm receptions in Penn Quarter and Georgetown, and the convention district at National Harbor.
Baltimore
Forty miles from Washington and nothing like it. Baltimore entertains around institutions — hospitals, medical schools, universities and their foundations, the port, and a philanthropic sector that is large for a city this size. Harbor East and Inner Harbor ballrooms, and a museum and historic-venue circuit that is genuinely the city's advantage.
Maryland
The rest of the state: biotech and health-sector dinners along the I-270 corridor, corporate evenings in Bethesda and Rockville, recognition nights in Columbia and Howard County, association receptions in Annapolis, and the convention district at National Harbor. An unusual concentration of people whose profession is the careful evaluation of evidence.
Virginia
Contractor award galas in Tysons and Reston, association receptions in Alexandria, client dinners in Arlington, awards nights in Richmond, conference programming in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, and private celebrations in Loudoun wine country. A market where reading people for a living is the local trade.
New Jersey
The densest corporate corridor in the country, and a state that runs in two orbits — one facing New York, one facing Philadelphia. The pharma belt from Princeton up through Somerset and Morris, North Jersey headquarters, the Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel offices twenty minutes from his door, and Union League National in Cape May County, which has booked him back over the July 4th weekend.
Atlantic City
Two event economies at once: the convention floor, and the private evening booked around it. Every large convention puts dozens of companies’ customers in one square mile for three days at a cost already sunk, and almost nobody uses that. The Borgata evening for Allied Mortgage Group is the model.
Delaware
A corporate base far out of proportion to the population. The incorporation economy around Rodney Square, Wilmington banking out to Christiana, the chemical and life sciences corridor up Route 202, and Brandywine Valley estate rooms where close-range work is the only thing that carries.
Beyond the corridor
Chicago
The country's convention capital, and a city with a long, unsentimental sense of what is good and what is merely expensive. Association annual meetings and citywides around McCormick Place, Loop and Michigan Avenue ballrooms, client evenings in River North and Fulton Market, and a museum and landmark circuit that few cities can match.
Pittsburgh
Where the credential comes from. His MA in Rhetoric is from Carnegie Mellon, and he taught at Carnegie Mellon, Pitt and Duquesne — three of the four universities where he has taught are Pittsburgh schools. He learned to hold a room in Pittsburgh classrooms before he ever held a Pittsburgh ballroom.
Las Vegas
The largest and most saturated trade show floors in the country, where exhibitors fly him in and put him to work at a booth. Black Hat at Mandalay Bay for LayerX; a developer-platform show at Caesars Forum for Port.io, targeting Platform Engineer, DevOps, SRE, Cloud and Infrastructure badges.
Orlando
A meetings economy with a destination attached, which means an evening program competes with the parks and the pool. Gaylord Palms exhibit floor for Peake Technology; a stand-up show at Wyndham Orlando Bonnet Creek for BeaconMedaes.
San Diego
The one market he has worked from the inside. He held a headlining residency at The Comedy Palace on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and played The LaFayette Hotel. Biotech at Torrey Pines and Sorrento Valley, defense and government contracting, and the wider Southern California resort corridor.
Everywhere else
Gentry is engaged nationally and internationally, and has performed in dozens of countries. Documented engagements also run through Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, Atlantic City, Delaware and New Jersey. Send the date and the venue and you will get the same straight answer wherever the event is.
What travels, and what changes
What stays the same everywhere: the material, the governing rule that every volunteer comes out of it looking sharp, and the logistics. Walk-around requires no stage, no sound, no power and no setup window. A stand-up show typically wants a handheld microphone and light on the performance area. A full technical rider ships with every contract.
What changes city to city: what the room is actually for. An association opening reception, a hospital benefit dinner, a partner evening at a law firm, a booth on an exhibit floor and a milestone birthday in a private home are five different briefs. The city pages exist because the right recommendation depends on which one you are running.
What a quote covers: the date, the format, the length of coverage and how many programs the event includes — walk-around, stand-up show, keynote, booth activation, or a combination. Gentry never bills separately for travel or accommodation — fees are all-inclusive.
FAQ
Do you only work in these cities?
No — these are the markets with enough repeat work to justify a page each. Bookings elsewhere in the United States and internationally are ordinary, and fees are all-inclusive.
Will it cost more to bring Gentry in from out of state?
Gentry never bills separately for travel or accommodation. Fees are all-inclusive — one number, agreed in advance, covering the program and getting it to your room.
How far in advance should we book?
As soon as the date and the venue are set. October through December fills first, with May and June close behind. Short notice is always worth asking about — a planner whose entertainment has just fallen through is exactly the call worth making.
Which city page should I read?
The one where the event is happening. If your event is in a city without a page, read the main services page instead — it covers the formats without the local detail.
Check availability
Send the date, the city, the venue, the headcount and what the event is supposed to accomplish. You will get a straight answer on format and the version of the program that does the most for it.