My wife and I have hosted several "house concerts" for friends who happen to be professional singer/songwriters. Unlike a "house party," where the music is background atmosphere, house concerts make the music the center of the evening. We usually serve a buffet dinner first and have some social time before everybody sits down for the concert. It's normally two sets, with a dessert/CD sales break in between.

These are generally during the week or on Sunday nights, which are off-nights for performers. They are happy to get some extra cash and sell some product, and we get a good rate. (Some house concerts sell tickets or have a donation jar, but we usually compensate the performers outright.) Often the performers are on their way to a weekend gig in the city, and we'll put them up for the night. Some of these artists (mostly acoustic folk) schedule entire cross-country tours based mainly on house concerts.

My question is could this/has this work/worked for magicians? I know that plenty of people have hired walk-around magicians to add flavor to parties. But I'm talking about the "house concert" format, where the magician would be the center of the evening.

Wow, what a GREAT idea! I have never heard of this occurring in the magic community.