Home Counties Magical Society

On Saturday night at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford 175 people gathered for the annual CBIT (Child Brain Injury Trust) Charity Dinner. Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee were in attendance with Paul presenting a 45 minute after dinner spot.

HMCS member Richard Young was also booked as the table magician for the evening. Appearing alonside Paul Daniels was quite an experience for Richard:

"Let me tell you walking up to do magic at Paul and Debbie's tables was possibly the most intimidating moment of my life! I felt very lucky to be the only magician in the room watching Paul work for a real audience. He began his show with a classy gesture of asking everyone in the audience to applaud my contribution to the evening with the table magic, which I very much appreciated.

He was absolutely on top of his game. The magic was flawless and his comedy whit as sharp as ever. He took full advantage of things happening around him and turned them into comedy gold. One particular moment comes to mind when he got a lawyer and a firemen out of the audience and asked to borrow a bank note from each. The fireman produced a handful of notes and the lawyer apologised to Paul and said he had no cash on him. "Well you want to drop the lawyer thing and get a job as a fireman" he said. Brilliant stuff!

His Chop Cup routine is even better now than it was on the BBC clip that is now famous on youtube from 20 years ago. It should be considered a measuring stick for any magician brave enough to pick up the cup and the ball. He got lots of time and business of out the Professor's Nightmare, which the audience loved. He fooled me with a great presentation of Dean Dill's box, and finished with a truly baffling bank note inside of a nut which was inside an egg.

Paul is a class act, and still very busy performing his show regularly to public audiences. If you ever see his show advertised within 100 miles of where you live I can assure you it will be worth the petrol money to go and learn from one of the very best. Last night was the strongest 45 minutes of magical entertainment I have personally seen in the last few years.

The Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT) is a UK-wide charity offering support, information and training on childhood acquired brain injury. The impact of childhood acquired brain injury on a family is enormous and lifelong. Families are often unprepared to deal with the issues and often unaware of the services they will need to access. Cebit can be contacted via their website www.cebituk.org