Home Counties Magical Society

BBC Radio Four today featured a program on the changing face of Magic, with performers creating bigger and better tricks to impress us. Times have changed since a magician produced a startled rabbit out of top hat with a puff of smoke.

The programme visited the 58th Blackpool Magic Convention, attended by 3500 magicians, and spoke to the organizers and the performers, as well as featuring discussions with the late Ali Bongo, the late Pat Page, current President of The Magic Circle, Jack Delvin, along with other prominent faces from the magic world, including Paul Daniels, and Alan Alan.

Listen to the program at BBC iPlayer

Phil Creighton has an interview featured on GetReading.co.uk with Paul Daniels including details of Pauls appearance at the Best of British Variety Tour 2010, on Saturday September 18 at The Anvil in Basingstoke.

The master magician will soon be sharing a stage with the staples of 80s children’s TV as part of this year’s Best of British Variety Tour, writes Phil Creighton. It comes to the Anvil in Basingstoke in September and the wizard of Wargrave can’t wait to get back on the road with the double act.

In the interview Paul talks about his tour, magic, and working the variety circuit.

The Best Of British Variety Tour returns for it's third consecutive year after the success of the last two years. The unique tour unites the well known variety entertainment from past decades.

After popular demand, Paul Daniels and The Krankies who took part in the inaugural tour return to Best of British alongside the host for the show, the irrepressible Christopher Biggins, Irish singer Dana, The Grumbleweeds and for the first time as a solo act one half of one of the most famous comedy double acts since comedy began - Syd Little of Little & Large fame.

You can see more dates and book tickets for The Best of British Variety Tour through ticketmaster

As part of Reading Comedy Festival 2010, Pete Firman will be presenting 'Jokes and Tricks' on Thursday 14th October 2010 at Reading's South Street.

Pete Firman is one of Britain leading comedy Magicians, and has sold out shows throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009 establishing himself as one of Edinburgh’s hottest tickets.

Television appearances include ‘Monkey Magic’(FIVE),‘Dirty Tricks’ and ‘Derren Brown’s 3D Magic Spectacular’(Channel4) and ‘For One Night Only’(ITV1).

'The man from Middlesbrough sets the pace for comedy-meets-magic in the 21st century' (The Times)

'Funnier than most comedians and more magical than Dumbledore on a good day' (Time Out)

'Fusing jaw-dropping tricks with a fast and furious delivery of gags...A killer combo indeed.' (The List)

The show is suitable for ages 14+. Under-14s will not be permitted into the venue. For more information visit - www.petefirman.co.uk.

Tickets cost £12 and are subject to a booking fee and can be booked directly through The Reading Arts Booking site

It includes several classic effects, and some completely original, all with Steve's unique presentational twists.

"thoroughly entertaining" - Coventry Magic Circle

"a splendid evening" - Surrey Society of Magicians

"your material was great" - Edinburgh Magic Circle

"it was fabulous" - Sussex Magic Circle

Steve is professionally crazy. He uses his unique mix of comedy, magic and mayhem to amaze and amuse audiences all around the world. A full time magician for over five years and definitely one of the magicians to look out for.

See the Programme and Lecture Page for all the details of our upcoming lectures this year.

Magic Convention Guide is covering EMC 2010, the worlds first internet based magic conference. Full details on the speakers can be found on the mian EMC site, and you can still register for what is becoming an amazing three day event.

Read all the Essential Magic Conference Coverage here

Fism discussion panel with Topas, Helder Guimarães, Richard MacDougall and Eric Eswin, moderated by Max Maven

A number of people picked up yesterday that Eventful.com, a ticket feed site was listing David Copperfield appearing at The Manchester Apollo in November and December 2010.

This obviously caused a lot of excitement in the Magic world, as this would be Copperfield's first UK appearance for almost 15 years.

Rather than jumping on the bandwagon, we did a bit of searching and talking to those in the know..

Odd fact number one was that nobody that should know David was on the way over, knew anything about this.

Odd fact number two was that the show dates lasted 2 months, and included the normal scheduled Vegas dates on November 28th 2010.

The last oddity was that our source at the Apollo told us:

"No certainly not, we dont have David Copperfield booked on those dates, in fact we already have a confirmed event during that time"

They also went on to say, potentially hinting at a future date:

"We don't even have him down as a potential artist for the venue at the moment, thats not to say we won't, but currently no"

This seems to point to some horrible error that will leave a lot of magicians slightly disappointed.

We also spoke to Chris Kenner yesterday, who is the Executive Producer for David Copperfield, and he confirmed that David was not going to be appearing in the UK during the dates listed on eventful.com

So it appears that UK David Copperfield fans will need to wait, although how long is unclear, as at last years International Magic Convention, during a live video feed David did hint at a 'european' date in 2011/2012.

Ghost Stories, The truly terrifying theatrical production will be transferring to the West End’s Duke of York Theatre on 25^th June, after a sell out run at the Lyric Hammersmith

Having broken all box office records and following sell-out seasons at the Lyric Hammersmith and Liverpool Everyman, Ghost Stories will be terrifying audiences at The Duke of York’s Theatre, London from the 25^th June.

The show, which is totally unique to West End Theatre, comes from the truly talented and dark minds of The League of Gentlemen’s master of the macabre, Jeremy Dyson, and Andy Nyman, co-creator and director of Derren Brown’s television and stage shows and star of Dead Set and Severance.

During its previous runs at The Lyric, Hammersmith and Liverpool Playhouse, Ghost Stories developed a huge cult following among horror fans and the general public alike, as well as receiving rave reviews from the critics.

A truly heart pounding theatrical experience, Ghost Stories has left even the most hardened of viewers gasping for breath and reaching for their coats to hide behind. Many of the audience have been so shocked by what they have seen, an advisory age limit and warning has had to be given to the show.

At last night's Special General Meeting, Robert Bone was voted in as the new Hon. Treasurer.

Rob will be taking over during a transition period from Simon Williams, who has served as treasurer for a long period.

We'd like to thank Simon for his hard work for the society, and welcome Rob to the council and his new job as treasurer.

Also joining the council are Rodney Type, and Richard Young.

At the Annual General Meeting last Thursday, the subject of joining The Magic Circle cropped up. Members may remember that in September 2008 an entertaining examination evening was held at our September meeting and four of our members were successful in gaining admittance, after approval by the Council of The Magic Circle.

If there are, amongst the welcome number of new faces at the Society any  members interested in joining The Magic Circle I will be pleased to hear from them, either at a meeting or via Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  - I have all the details needed, including an introductory DVD and will be pleased to hear from you to discuss this very worthwhile step further.

Andrew Webb, our talented Society WebMaster is also actively engaged with the running and improvement of The Magic Circle's WebSite, having joined TMC following his successful audition for membership in 2008 and the Membership Secretary for TMC is Robert Cox, a former member of the Home Counties Magical Society back in the 1960's.

If there is sufficient response, it may well be possible arrange another examination evening. If you are already a member then you might be interested in obtaining your Associate Membership of The Inner Magic Circle, and our three members who just "missed the boat" in 2008 may think the time is ripe for a further attempt at this advancement of their status in TMC.

I look forward to hearing from you.