I have done both in a restaurant, but I had the advantage that that restaurant in particular has a small stage, which helps a little bit it get people's attention, so it is not table magic.

I also agree with Eric about the advertisement issue, because I have had that problem not only at restaurants but even in theaters, because a lot of people, here in Ecuador, hear the words magic or magician and they relate them only to children’s entertainment. Once I had to improvise a whole kids routine, leaving a couple of strong mentalism effects for the end. Because most of the audience in the theater were children.

So, currently I am leaving kids magic, which I did and enjoy for a while, because for advertisement reasons I think it does not help my mentalist / hypnotist image.

Giovanni.

Once I was hired to do walk around mentalism in small a corporative cocktail party with about 60 to 80 guests, but after doing it for a few minutes I had all the audience around me, so it turned into a stage show; which was much better in the end. I think it was probably because I was too loud in the beginning but that was helpful to catch people’s attention.

Giovanni.

Hi Patrick,
I don't know about walk around mentalism, and would bow to the vastly more experienced people who have already answered you here. But hypnosis - well that I know a lot better.

Walk around it's risky in as much that it is unlikely you will find a somnambulist at every single table. However I remember once doing a particularly packed place in Nottingham. So packed that the waiting staff were struggling getting round. So I set a speaker up in a corner and did a cabaret style presentation and dropped them in at their tables. Fortunately I could see everyone I had. The routines were simple - Sticking them to the tables, themselves, other people. Making everyone in the room naked except for very skimpy Lingerie [Too many kids for naked] Forgetting who they were with etc...

Hope this helps.