At an event, the magician isn't who people watch longest. It's the guest holding the card, the one hesitating, the one who has just realised something happened. Around them, everyone else is looking at that face rather than at the performer's hands.
That's where Harry Covert's work begins. A magician, mentalist and hypnotist, he builds his performances around the audience rather than in front of it, for companies, local authorities, hotels, weddings and private receptions, in France and in Switzerland.
It isn't a tagline. It's a way of building a performance.
Every effect is built around what the audience does: a choice, a hesitation, an object held by a guest. The room isn't watching the magician's hands. It's watching the face of the person who has just understood.
At a corporate event, it's the employees who end up at the centre. At a wedding, it's the family and close friends. At a family show, it's the children and the parents watching them.
What stays with people afterwards isn't a trick, but a moment they lived through together and go on retelling to each other.
Harry Covert is a self-taught performer. From the age of six he learned his first card, coin and rope tricks, and performed them first for his family.
At sixteen he became an activity leader at summer camps and holiday centres. That is where he learned the real craft: holding a group, reading a room, knowing when to push and when to stay quiet.
At nineteen, while working in a ski resort, he discovered street and stage magic. He staged his first shows there.
After seven years in tourism he left for Denmark, where he met the country's leading magicians and spent several months assisting them backstage. Backstage is where you see what an audience never does: the preparation, the failures, the last-minute adjustments.
In 2010, he became a professional magician.
In 2015, Harry Covert won first prize for close-up magic at the Festival de la Magie in Bourg-de-Péage. He went on to train in Magie Nouvelle at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque, France's national circus arts school. In 2018, 2020 and 2021 he received the Wedding Award from Mariages.net.
A large part of his career has taken place in mountain hotels, on long engagements: three years at Les Fermes de Marie in Megève, six years at Au Cœur du Village in La Clusaz, and two seasons at the Annapurna in Courchevel 1850.
A hotel isn't looking for an act. It's looking for someone who can come back week after week, in front of a constantly changing clientele, without ever seeming to repeat himself.
Alongside this, he regularly performs family shows for tourist offices, local councils and events committees, in front of audiences of all ages.
Between 2020 and 2024, Harry Covert trained in stage hypnosis, which he weaves into his performances rather than treating as a separate act.
Since 2022 he has volunteered once a month at Annecy hospital, with the association Magie à l'hôpital. Performing in a hospital room has nothing in common with a corporate evening: the audience is captive, sometimes tired, often alone. You have to come in without imposing, and let the person in front of you set the pace.
In 2025 he worked as magic coach on the show Mickey and the Magician at Disneyland Paris.
Clients in recent years include Courchevel, Val d'Isère, the K2 Palace, the Annapurna, Disneyland Paris, Porsche, SNCF, Vinci and La Poste.
Performances are delivered in French and in English. Harry Covert is based in Saint-Jorioz, on Lake Annecy. He works regularly across Haute-Savoie, Savoie and French-speaking Switzerland, and travels further afield depending on the project.
Harry Covert, whose real name is Jean-Marie Meo, chose this stage name for three reasons.
Houdini, Kellar, Potter. All the great magicians are called Harry.
n music, a cover is someone else's song played again. Magic works the same way: Mr Covert takes certain great classics and reworks them for today, alongside his own creations. And covert — hidden, concealed — isn't the worst word for a magician either.
Said aloud in French, "Harry Covert" sounds exactly like haricot vert, a green bean. Which suits him: since you need to laugh at least five times a day to stay healthy, Harry Covert is a mischievous, spontaneous and playful magician.
Venez découvrir comment Harry Covert peut transformer vos événements en expériences magiques inoubliables.
Découvrir mes réalisations
