Alex Elmsley – Gentleman genius.

An appreciation by John Derris

I knew him for over fifty years. Intellectually he was light years ahead of me but he was a genuine friend who shared his magic, his time and his thinking with great generosity. He spoke with an upper class accent and was quintessentially English although born in Scotland and bore a strong facial resemblance to the philosopher Bertrand Russell. Around the world he was acknowledged as one of the sharpest and most inventive brains in magic for the past fifty years.

In his retirement years he was seen occasionally at London magic gatherings, recognisable by his bushy eyebrows, check sports coat, carpet slippers and a large glass of whisky in his hand. Prominent magic visitors from overseas would often telephone me hesitatingly asking if there was any way they could privately meet this magic brain of Britain. An appeal that was usually delivered with solemn deference as if asking for an audience with the Pope. He was such a gentleman that he nearly always acceded to such requests.

His writings and his originality of method were quite unique. Widely praised by the great and the good, they filled two hard-backed volumes totalling nearly a thousand pages which are among the definitive works on magic. It would be true to say that every magician who sports a pack of cards has used one of his unique sleights, in particular the cunning ploy he devised for openly counting four cards but only displaying three, a vital card being concealed.

Alex burst onto the magic scene in the 1950’s and dazzled everyone with his inventiveness. Not just devising a few good tricks but scores of them, involving new sleights and new plots that have achieved status as modern classics. Talk to any card aficionado and he will instantly recognise Elmsley gems – Between your Palms, Point of Departure, Diamond cut Diamond, En Voyage, Brainweave, The Four Card Trick and many others that take their place alongside card classics of yesteryear like Everywhere and Nowhere, The Ladies Looking Glass and The Danbury Deviler.

In ten prodigious years between 1949 and 1959 over seventy original Elmsley tricks and sleights appeared in print: few magicians achieve that kind of output in a lifetime. His skill and fame attracted the greats from the USA and many names sought sessions with him in London – Dai Vernon, Paul Le Paul, Slydini, Persi Diconis and many others who openly admitted to having been fooled.

His first magic lecture was delivered at the I.B.M. British Ring Convention, Scarborough in 1957 under the title “Low Cunning”, the lecture notes of which are now a collector’s item. Later he presented a similar lecture in Chicago followed by other US city lectures where he had further sessions with Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo and Charlie Miller. They were an outstanding success and are still talked about today.

Born in St. Andrews, Scotland, the son of a naval officer, it was during a period of convalescence following an operation for appendicitis that he became interested in – juggling! A search for juggling equipment led him to magic which quickly deposed the art of tossing balls in the air. His father died in 1937 and with little money during the war his mind turned to sleight of hand and manipulations, a skill fostered by his original interest in juggling.

Later he started developing his own tricks and presentations and soon his unique perception and inventiveness became noted by other magi. His intellectual mind and sharp brain eventually led him to be educated at Eton and following a period of two years National Service in the Army, he entered Kings College University, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree in mathematics and physics. During this time he became a leading light in The Pentacle Club, a magic society within the university. Following his graduation he moved to London and acquired a position with a Patent agency. This location brought him into close involvement with the London magic scene when he started his prodigious period of invention and contributing his ideas to magazines.

Then in the 1960’s – he suddenly disappeared from magic.

Science fiction and the launch of computer technology supplanted his interest in magic and he was hired by a leading British computer company, travelling the world as an international lecturer in computer languages. He still kept brief contact with close magic friends like Jack Avis, Peter Warlock and Francis Haxton and he experienced a fresh interest in magic in 1972 when his work was recognized with a Creative Fellowship from The Academy of Magic Arts in Hollywood. This led to more articles for magic magazines and a new lecture which had its début in London and Monte Carlo and then on to the USA.; it was a brilliant sell-out everywhere he went.

Then in 1975 following his highly successful lecture tour – he disappeared from magic for a second time.

He cited no dramatic reason for this sudden withdrawal but with his constant travels to computer clients all over the world, plus the need to look after his widowed and now blind mother living in London, and his passion for science fiction, he said that his mind was fully occupied. Thankfully, renewed and widespread magic interest was re-awakened in 1991 with the publication of the first volume of of The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, a magnificent book written by American author Stephen Minch and published by Louis Falanga of L & L Publishing. Stephen Minch should be thanked by every practising magician for his gargantuan task of tracing and assembling the work of Alex Elmsley, who granted permission to publish but said that he did not wish to be involved in the actual writing but passed on Xerox copies of some of his notes.

Minch went on the international detective trail with the help of many names formerly associated with Alex – Jack Avis, Roy Walton, Gordon Bruce, Milt Kort, Ron Bauer, Dr. Gene Matsuura and many others, who all gave time and contributions in helping to compile one of the greatest books ever published on the unique work of one man. The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley was followed in 1994 with a second 500 page volume containing a further 110 original Elmsley tricks and sleights including his acknowledged card masterpiece The Dazzle Act. The two volumes are rightly deemed to be classics and thousands of copies are to be found on the bookshelves of serious magicians around the world. This was later followed by the highly successful launch of four video tapes, recorded and issued by Louis Falanga and showing Elmsley performing and explaining many of his famed moves and routines. Thankfully, magic now has a permanent, visual record of the work of this outstanding magician.

On retiring he lived a recluse existence in a basement flat in Chelsea affectionately named by his close friends as “Wuthering Depths”. He loved the company of fellow magicians and one could see a visible change in him with his occasional rises to the magic surface prompted by his friends of many years. His mother and brother having passed on his only nearby living relative at that time was a nephew in Shepherds Bush. He spent his time reading detective novels, writing poetry, smoking too many cigarettes and was occasionally given a jump start into magic by friends proving that the dormant but still effective adrenaline was still there The fire was not blazing but the embers were always smouldering.

He was perhaps a too close a companion of the amber nectar of Scotland which he courted for many years, largely to quell his lifelong torment of clinical depression. Like Winston Churchill he too referred to this as his “Black Dog”. He was aware of the situation but strived to achieve a balance between his health and his lifestyle. He was utterly polite, English to the core with all the courtesies and elegance of his middle class upbringing. He was a magic gentleman and it was my privilege to have enjoyed his friendship for over fifty years. Anyone who shuffles a pack of cards should offer grateful thanks to Alex Elmsley for all that he so freely gave to the wide world of magic.

At the time of one of my telephone calls to him to advise of the next meeting of our coterie of conjurers I received no reply. The same happened on the following two days. I telephoned his hospital who contacted the police; they broke into his flat and found him lying dead on the floor. An autopsy revealed that he had died of cancer, a condition about which none of us had any inkling as at no time had he given any verbal or physical indication of his illness. An example surely of the stiff upper lip stoicism inherent in his middle class background.

We contacted his nieces and nephews living in Ireland and invited them as special guests to a tribute evening to Alex at The Magic Circle at which we showed film clips of him together with some of the country’s leading magicians performing his outstanding magic. With tears in their eyes they revealed that he had never told them of his world status and achievements in magic; they said he occasionally did a couple of simple tricks with cards and coins for their children. A revelation to the world of the true measure of one of magic’s greatest and most modest of people. Finally they told that as a youngster he was nicknamed “Bonzo” a name that stayed with him in his family circle throughout his life.

But in magic, somehow The Bonzo Count doesn’t sound quite the same

He was quite mischievous both with magicians and lay people in his magic. He kept a grocery shop in Ayr in Scotland and the story goes that a provisions salesman called on him to take an order not knowing that Johnny was a magician. The salesman said “Oh Mr Ramsay I’ve got a wee magic trick you might like to see” and then proceeded to show the cap and pence effect. Johnny played along and said “Oh no, that’s very good, I don’t know how you did that, it’s very clever”

A month later the same salesman called on Johnny who said “I think I’ve worked out that wee trick you showed me last time you were here” and then proceeded to perform the cap and pence on the back of his hand. But when he lifted the brass cap at the end of the trick – a pile of rice tumbled out! The salesman’s face was typical of the many people both in  and out of magic who were fooled by Ramsay’s unique subtleties.

But in my half century plus of magic there are not one but three magicians who impressed me the most -Dai Vernon, Fred Kaps and John Ramsay, particularly the latter. I saw Dai Vernon when I was in my twenties and whilst I was nowhere in that league I was impressed with the sheer breadth of his knowledge and ability and particularly with the fact that he was not just a specialist in one faction of magic technique. He was as adept at doing a bottom deal as he was in using a hook coin, a faked card or a pull to achieve the miracles that he presented. All credit to Harry Stanley who first brought him over to this country.

Then Fred Kaps. His perfection in thinking and handling was superb and whatever he turned to was the result of outstanding natural ability and technique at which he practised much more than most. To present the floating cork on television with Michael Parkinson, so casual, so natural and then hand the cork to Parkinson was masterly and made you believe in magic. And if you see his tapes note his facial expressions both on and off stage. He showed real surprise and enjoyment in what he was doing and that emotion was conveyed to the audience who joined in. He was magic.

And lastly Johnny Ramsay. I was privileged to see this Scottish grocer and amateur magician in many private sessions in our hotel bedroom at conventions along with other Ramsay fans Jack Avis, Roy Walton and Bobby Bernard.An event that was photographed and published by the national press. But it was Johnny’s naturalness, timing and misdirection that would beat you, long before such strategies blossomed in the USA. Vernon praised Ramsay as the finest close-up magician he had seen and many overseas magicians travelled to his little town on the West coast of Scotland just to witness first-hand his unique and very personal magic. I could write reams about Johnny Ramsay (and probably will) for he was well ahead of his time with outstanding magic that was disguised with his Scottish mannerisms and quaint ways. There are a few (very few) films of him working around today but if you want to get a very good idea of his magic and his way of working get hold of a tape of his magic performed by Scottish magician Andy Galloway (available from International Magic U.K.) who was a protege of Johnny and who was taught his methods and presentations for over a period of seven years. You’ll be fooled (as you always were with Ramsay) and its the nearest thing you’ll see to the original. Or if you fancy diving into the very special world of Johnny Ramsay and his routines, Galloway has published many of his original  effects in several books available from Andy Galloway and dealers.

You’ll probably gather from the above wordage that I am a great fan of Ramsay but I also would count as great close-up workers Vernon and Kaps. There aren’t so many around like that today. They had a very special charisma. They were something special that made them stand out in the crowd. More about Ramsay later and a few routines perhaps that I published based on his style.

We were in concert party together. Sixteen years of age and bursting with footlights fever. I did magic, he did vent. He looked the same as he does today. Balding, thick lens glasses, with a Jewish persona (here he interrupts me as he always did and says it’s Semitic, not Jewish) an endless stream of chat and a skin as thick as a well-filled Gucci wallet (not pigskin).

Born in the East End of London, his mother was a singer and theatrical costumier and his father a furrier. His father spoke with an East European accent but insisted he was French rather than acknowledge that his homeland was Poland. He felt that a French ancestry carried more class. Many times his father related how he sat in a Paris restaurant and saw “dis liddle cripple fidgeting and doodling on de tablecloth”. Bobby always remonstrated with his father for never retrieving a Toulouse Lautrec original!

Born with bad eyesight, at four years of age his mother promised to take him to the “joke” shop if he accepted the painful eye treatment with acetic acid prescribed by the school doctors. Never one to miss an opportunity he finished up in Davenports where a man in a Fedora hat changed a penny into a shilling and George Davenport made a penknife change colour. The seed was sown even at that early age.

His was a typical, continuing, youthful interest in magic and in his teens he had the semblance of a magic act with ventriloquism thrown in. That’s when I met him and together we joined the Institute of Magicians in Bolt Court, London under the beady, watchful eye of President Madame Zomah. By day he was a clerk in a shipping office and by night a magician and a member of a repertory company – The Dickensian Tabard Players – headed by a famed actor Bransby Williams. For a pittance they presented plays in old people’s homes, institutions, schools, anywhere there was an audience who could not afford the price of a West End theatre ticket.

Whilst still passionate about magic, Bobby, a born extrovert, became, hooked on theatre and stage performances and his unique Jewsih visage saw him cast in many character roles including Fagin in “Oliver Twist” (Unlike Alec Guinness he needed little make up!) Magic and acting were mutual bedfellows and his employers were very understanding when it came to time off to play a theatre or magic booking. The fact that his managing director’s wife was the sister of magician Eddie Dexter probably had something to do with it.

Always good at selling himself, in 1956 he went to the U.S. where he was booked to present an act in a convention gala show. His lifetime friend Val Andrews wrote and produced an original magic act for him built around a nouveau riche golfer that had some genuinely funny and original highspots. One of his youthful characteristics was his conceit, which at that time prevented him from adequately rehearsing and working in the act before leaving these shores despite strong protestations from Val Andrews.The act died a death thus creating a tombstone in the U.S. around the name Bernard. Today he commendably and gracefully acknowledges that it was sheer arrogance and egotism that led him to take this fateful course.

Another acting highlight that did win praise was his character impersonation of historic magician Isaac Fawkes at The Magic Circle Diamond Jubilee celebrations. By now his voice and stage projection became noticeably stronger and more professional and he decided to go into the acting business full time. His employer (still under the influence of Eddie Dexter’s sister) allowed him to continue working in the shipping office as temporary clerk with approved absences to take acting parts when they occurred

But with such distinctive facial appearance and mannerisms he was never going to get the lead in Hamlet. But over the years he has performed in theatre, television, radio and films in many notable classic character roles. He has also worked in opera with the English National Opera Company and at Covent Garden, not as a singer but as supporting actor in many classic productions. For one opera he recreated Horace Goldin’s “Sawing Through” .But his main claim to fame in the magic world is his infallible, encyclopaedic knowledge of magic and magicians. He has met most of the greats in the past fifty years – you name them, he’s met them. Jack Chanin, Al Flosso, Al Baker, Dai Vernon, Billy O’Connor, John Ramsay, Albert Goshman, Herb Zarrow,Slydini, Jimmy Grippo, Jay Marshall, Jasper Maskelyne, The Great Masoni. Cecil Lyle, Robert Harbin, Dante, Kalanag, Edward Victor, Al Koran, Cy Endfield – the international list is endless. Each account of his discussions with them contain a certain amount of theatrical embroidery but the basic facts are infuriatingly correct.

He also has knowledge and has been a friend of many performers on the fringe of magic. The ones you don’t see at magic clubs like Charlie Edwards a London street performer who did the stacked deck better than Si Stebbins according to Dai Vernon. Bobby has a repertoire of set pieces which always impress the uninitiated and  newcomers to magic. He does an excellent coin star where five coins are balanced on each fingertip, dropped into the opposite hand, vanished only to appear back on each fingertip. He also handles Spellbound very well as he does with most coin moves. Nowadays he doesn’t perform magic but has tutored many younger performers who’ve gone on to win many competitions under his magic and stage guidance.

Now in his retirement he will still take on lucrative TV commercials or stage roles if offered. A great collector of close-up magic and ephemera as well as knowledge, his bachelor flat in North London where he has lived for over 50 years is a veritable museum of magic as performed for over half a century. It is like the scene from Citizen Kane where a lifetime’s acquisitions are stacked ceiling high. Collectors from America and Europe often seek him out and persuade him to part with an unobtainable treasure but he drives a hard bargain with his well researched knowledge.

Nowadays I find him more mellow, more tolerant and kindly to younger magicians whom he helps with advice and knowledge. He still does not tolerate fools (He extinguishes them) and is scornful of magicians who lack a basic knowledge of the history of the art. A heart attack and surgery remind him of the approaching scenario of the rest of his life but his mind is still clear, still sharp. A regular visitor to The Magic Circle every Monday where he seeks the company of magicians and once a week, before his recent death, he visited his friend Val Andrews  with whom he shared a half century of friendship, show business and magic.

In a rare, quiet moment recently Bobby said to me “ I don’t kid myself about acting – it’s nothing more than being paid for showing off!” As I’ve always suspected, underneath all the huff and puff, schmaltz and brouhaha, there is a genuine, nice human being.

But he has been around magic for over half a century, mixed with many of the greats and seen many things magical that are not around anymore. He’s like hundreds of other middle-of-the-road magicians who enjoy the scene and practice it up to a performing standard. But in practical terms he’s pasted up quite a history of his contribution to magic. He’s been a performer since he was fifteen and except for a period when he ran an advertising agency continues today as a full time professional.

He’s performed all over the world from St. Petersburg to St. Albans and still has a full engagement book presenting magic on stage, close-up and in a 60 minute one-man show called “Behind the Doors of The Magic Circle”. As a teenager he won several talent shows developing a precocious comedy style, was called for national service in the R.A.F. and after training toured in revues and plays. Returning to his career in advertising, he trained as a graphic designer, turned to management and later formed his own international advertising agency.

Go back some years and you will find many of his tricks and routines published in “Abracadabra”, “Pentagram” and other magazines worldwide and he also marketed several effects at that time – “Trilogy” a triple prediction effect, “Pen-i-Pin” the penetration of a coin and many others. He has written scores of feature articles and biographies on magic for magazines, has broadcast on the subject and has written two books “Vis a Vis” with Jack Avis and “Come a Little Closer”.

A member of The Inner Magic Circle and awarded their gold star, he regularly performs at their public shows, has served on the council for many years, is an official examiner and covers many of their events for the press in words and pictures. Phew!

Hope you forgive the flag waving but this piece was written in response to many people overseas who said – John Derris – who he!

Jack Avis would show him a trick and he’d go away , worry the life out of the idea and turn up the following week with a whole raft of variations. He was always experimenting. Trying this, trying that and he came up with some outstanding ideas. The Miracle Card Stab with a borrowed deck, a borrowed penknife and a banknote, a baffling secret he kept to himself a long time before he released it. The Hanky Panky routine, stringing together a whole batch of coin and handkerchief effects.

The locked box, in which a word was written in chalk on the bottom of a mahogany box which was locked, placed on a slate and covered with a cloth. Not only did he reveal the name but he vanished the large mahogany box at the conclusion of the trick (Recognise the old vanishing bowl of water effect!) That was cute but that’s what he was good at – taking tricks and giving them an original twist.

He floored us when he he first showed Ring Flite in which a borrowed ring vanished only to be found hanging inside his key case. In those days he experimented with many very powerful reels ripping many of his shirts to pieces in the process before he got it right. He came up with a second version of Ring Flite in which the borrowed ring finished up mounted in a velvet cushion inside an engagement ring presentation box.

He was very excitable in his conversation and enthusiasm for magic and stuttered very badly, something he never did when performing on stage. It was said that this affliction was the result of injuries sustained in the war during his time as a paratrooper in the battle of Arnhem.

In his quest for magic success he tried everything. There is a picture of him wearing a fez, a slick moustache and a glove puppet monkey picking a card from a fan. Another time he created an act called “Song and Sorcery” in which he sang and did magic at the same time. I remember a miser’s dream routine with him singing “Zip-a-de-do-dah” producing silver coins all the time. When he came to the line “There’s a bluebird on my shoulder” he produced a bird at his finger tips. He was always striving to find more and better magic. He rang the bell when he developed a mental act, adopted the name Al Koran ( would there be a fatwah out on him if he was alive today?) and began to secure regular bookings with agents. The act developed, improving all the time and he got appearances on television enough to give up the daily grind of cutting patrons hair at The Ritz.

He then had a regular series on television and national fame with a mental act that was not only skillful but totally audacious. He achieved impact by living on the edge and taking chances. Witness the courageous working and carefully stage managed routine with the Gold Medallion in which a prediction is ostensibly engraved on a gold medal. Audacity was his friend and he used it mercilessly in his act.

With national success and fame in Britain he sought an international and wider audience and moved with his wife Kath to the USA staying I believe with his brother in law in Chicago. He made an impact with U.S. magicians and secured bookings but never I was told with the same success that he had enjoyed in Britain. And then in is fifties he succumbed to cancer and died, cutting short what could have been a glittering career in the new world.

The last person to see him alive was Billy McComb. Remembering that Al had always harboured an ambition, never fulfilled, to play the London Palladium, Billy, one of magic’s true gentlemen secured some of Al’s ashes after his cremation, brought them back to England and scattered them on the stage of the Palladium In our magic village there have been many such generous acts of kindness; after Al’s death his widow was left with a massive bill for his medical treatment whilst in hospital and it was Ken Brooke who organised a collection from magicians all over Britain who generously cleared the outstanding debt.

I am warmed when I recall over the last sixty years many similar acts of kindness, often unannounced, by fellow magicians who prove the true fellowship we have in our art.

He has now lived there for the past forty something years, in a delightful Victorian House in Helensburgh just outside of Glasgow, bringing up his two daughters, Sarah and Julia who now work in that famous little magic shop on Queen Street. He has also been the fountainhead of inspiration of some of Scotland’s finest card magicians – Peter Duffie, Gordon Bruce, Jerry Sadowitz and many others.

 It was an excellent meeting that revealed our joint  realisation and gratitude at what we have both witnessed and been part of for the last half century. In terms of card work he reveres natural card handling, the philosophy of his idols Johnny Ramsay and Dai Vernon and he is dismissive of what he terms “card juggling”

He believes that a card should be simply selected, placed back in the pack, handed to the spectator to shuffle and then returned, the magician having the selection totally under is control throughout the whole procedure. Roy does exactly that and it is sheer poetry to see his work and style that has sixty years of study, research and practice behind it. The world acknowledges Roy Walton as one of the greats of close-quarter work and I am honoured to have been his friend.

It was a wonderful afternoon of reverie and nostalgia recalling the time we were all part of a group of six young magicians of which sadly three have passed on. Jean too, looking the image of her father George “Gilly” Davenport has many memories of magic having been brought up in one of the leading magic families of the land although her chosen career was in nursing.

Both now retired, both looking well although Roy now has impaired hearing but  still enjoying their business, their family and keeping connections with the magic world.

Roy is now sought as a world figure, author and skilled card  technician notably for his effect “Card Warp” which has put food on the table of magicians the world over. Not a vindictive man but he is saddened at the way that the effect is now sold shamelessly all over the world with little or no credit as to it origin. He shrugs his shoulders and says it’s the way the world is today. Roy told me that at one time a magician came into the shop with some tricks to sell. When he opened his case it was full of “Cascade” – a trick that was originated by Roy years ago! Another who feels the same is Angelo Carbone whose effect “Out of Order” is on sale at dealers all over the world with no acknowledgement or permission from the originator. Angelo at FISM in Stockholm complained to the organisers at the effect being offered for sale in the dealer’s hall. The organisers then asked him to prove he was the originator of the effect! A man who is very adept with computers he pulled up a mass of documentation  proving his claim which only resulted in the effect being removed from the stands despite the trading rules stating that anyone selling unofficial magic items would be ejected from the convention.

Despite all this Roy is still upbeat about magic, doesn’t worry too much about exposure, has a strong belief in the genesis of magic and the work of the early masters – Vernon, Marlo, Paul Le Paul, Leipzig, Malini and many others.

It was an afternoon I will long remember and I am very proud  to have enjoyed his friendship for over half a century.

I had known him all my magic life and he used to come to my home once a month to a small magic soiree with other friends – Jack Avis, Lewis Jones, Bernard Weller, Tom Whitestone and a few others. I telephoned him one day to arrange a date for the next meeting but got no reply. I tried several times over a number of days with the same result and when a friend from Scotland called to say that he was experiencing the same problem, I felt that I should make deeper enquiries.

I telephoned the local hospital he used to attend, the social welfare people with no answer and then I telephoned the police. They visited the flat and receiving no response , broke open the door – and found Alex lying dead on the floor.

The post mortem revealed that he had died of widespread cancer, something about which he had never spoken and having seen him regularly for months he had never revealed that he had an advancing illness. Someone suggested that perhaps he was unaware of the problem but Alex used to visit hospital fairly regularly for his depression and general health and I feel sure they would have spotted the symptoms.

No, my guess is that being brought up as a stiff, upper lip individual in a middle class family, coupled with the fact that he didn’t much like the world he saw about him and the way it was going, that he chose to say nothing and meet his end in his own time. That attitude summed up Alex – he was a gentleman of a different generation.

He had no relatives other than a few nieces in Ireland and their family who he visited a couple of times a year and of course they were immediately notified and flew to England. In discussion with them and trying to help with the funeral arrangements they said that they had no idea that he was a world -famous magician whose work had entered the repertoire of nearly every performer. His niece said that when he came to Ireland he used to show the children a few tricks with a pack of cards and coins but that was all.

The funeral was held at Putney and at the time I suggested that at a later date we would stage a tribute evening to Alex at The Magic Circle. His nieces and relatives said they would very much like to come over for that evening and so I started to put a suitable programme together. We gathered films and clips including his last appearance at The Magic Circle Centenary Celebrations together with anecdotes from magicians who knew him and some demonstrations of his favourite effects by our members.

The nieces, family and friends all sat in the front row of the theatre as special guests, about twelve people in all. The atmosphere was reverent and emotional as many episodes of his life were unfolded for his relatives for the first time. When the lights went up nearly all the family were grief stricken and in tears. His niece said to me, the words being choked out with some difficulty ” We had no idea that Alex was as famous and revered as he was – he never said a thing”. That surely sums up the nature of this unique and true man of magic – highly creative, skilled, self- effacing and with a respect and politeness that was nurtured in a different age.

I said to her “We are making a DVD of this evening and would like to send you copies for the family as our tribute to a great man and a great magician” The tears reappeared and she thanked me and said. “We all loved him ever since he was in hospital as a young boy in Scotland and his mother gave him a copy of a book about a dog called Bonzo. He loved that book and thereafter he was nicknamed throughout his life by all the family with that literary name – Bonzo. We all called him by that name whenever he came to see us.

Bonzo!

The first time the magic world had ever had heard that name associated with one of their heroes.

But perhaps it was as well,  for future world-class  card technicians giving international lectures would I am sure not feel quite the same when showing five cards as four and referring to it as the Bonzo count!.

I’m thinking here of far-flung magical thinkers like Stewart James, buried in the wilderness of Canada whose output and ideas were revolutionary. Others like Peter Duffie, a man who is largely incommunicado, hidden in the outskirts of Glasgow and his nearby neighbour Roy Walton who is rarely seen but whose original output over the years has led to world fame. Another was Jack Avis who published over six hundred effects and routines during a lifetime of reading and research pursued in an armchair in Sydenham and who presented magic to an audience on less than six occasions.

But there is another ghost, also hiding in a tree-lined street in SE26, not a cough away from Jack Avis. Lewis Jones. Whose close proximity led to regular weekly meetings that resulted in a huge output of magic ideas that were jointly published in a book “Ahead of the Pack.” You may have seen his name in books and magazines from time to time but are not familiar with his work. But many of the greats have applauded his ideas and creativity. Paul Daniels admits to having included several of Jones’s routines in his permanent performances. Michael Close has compared him with Stewart James. Ian Rowland says he has a remarkable mind with alarmingly baffling plots. Al Smith compares him to Paul Curry and Stewart James. Steve Beam states that Jones is in his top ten card men of the world and Penn & Teller said “Don’t buy his books – they give away too many secrets!”

Jones has spent a lifetime in pure magic creativity lubricated  by his academic background in languages and science. He has come up with some quite brilliant ideas and filled twelve books with some of the most profound thinking to be seen this side of Annemann, T.A. Waters and Larry Becker. A quiet, polite, retiring personality who looks something like a university professor and whose dogged pursuit of magical knowledge is prodigious. He has authored hundreds of ideas with cards, coins, small magic, mental magic, mathematical principles and others utilising his probing mind.

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne his first contact with magic was a performance by Dante at a local theatre, a casual interest that stayed with him throughout his childhood. Later he won a state scholarship to Cambridge University where he graduated in modern languages. With a vivid imagination and a natural aptitude for writing he created a number of radio drama scripts and short stories for the BBC at the same time feeding his interest in magic theory and detail throughout his academic years. Like Avis he is an avid reader and collector of information and he began to amass books and references on magic and other subjects relevant to his profession. A habit that continues today where the walls of his home are hidden by thousands of books, a collection that required him to move to a larger house some years ago. At one time he was regularly in touch with famed magic bookseller George Jenness who kept him fed with volumes of the latest magic.

On leaving university he wrote scripts and took a number of teaching posts and was then offered a position in Singapore working as a script writer and producer in national radio. The opportunity to work in a small, flexible, creative environment suited his temperament and he stayed for eleven years. Not only was he writing plays, scripts and producing programmes, but he became a broadcaster and commentator on various events including badminton which had become a passion and an active pastime.

It was here that he met Susheela Devi, the lead violinist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra that led to their return to England where she took up a position with Sadlers Wells. Lewis became a freelance writer and scripted a number of science series for the BBC for many years. Today, in semi retirement he still makes contributions on scientific matters to American publications.  It was in England that he recognised a face in a TV magic show of a former pupil at his school. It was Martin Breese and the two met and celebrated their hitherto unknown interest in magic.

His analytical and encyclopaedic mind has devised many codes, cryptographic and mathematical methods that have led to the publication of several highly praised magic books and manuscripts. His long distance thought-reading effect “Transmission Impossible” was used by Paul Daniels as a climax to one of his TV magic spectaculars.

In constant touch with many of the scattered, like-minded, worldwide magi he continues today developing ideas, making notes and observing the world scene of serious magic. To this end he flies back to Singapore twice a year to keep contact with his friends in and out of magic. Here they made him an honorary member of the IBM. This octogenarian wizard shows no let up in his output having just completed and published his twelfth book “The Magic Gourmet” which has received enthusiastic reviews worldwide.

On the shelves of many of the world’s finest creators of magic you will find Jones’s lifetime output – Shampagne, Imp Romp 2, The Spring of 52, Cardiograms, Con Sessions, Lusions, Counter Feats, The Paragon Move, Person to Person – a book of teleohone telepathy, Ahead of the Pack (with Jack Avis), Seventh Heaven, Encyclopedia of Impromptu Card Forces and now The Magic Gourmet. He must be currently Britain’s most prodigious magic author.

Now then all together, what about a quick riffle of the cards around the world for Lewis Jones.

He was one of the ghosts of magic, very much in the background, rarely seen at magic functions but an outstanding card worker. The reason for his shadowy presence in magic was due to his career. He was a Scotland Yard Detective with special duties as a bodyguard to members of the Royal family which required him to travel all over the world usually somewhat undercover. Consequently he spent many hours sitting alone in hotel bedrooms when his companions were a copy of Erdnase and  Expert Card Technique, magic magazines from the U.S. and a number of packs of Bicycle playing cards. Like many lone workers with many hours of isolation  he practised endlessly acquiring a very high stand of expertise with the paste-boards.

Born in New Zealand, his family moved to Scotland where his first job was with a shipping company in Glasgow. His first contact with magic was on seeing a copy of Foulsham’s Modern Card Magic in the window of Tam Shepherd’s magic shop in Glasgow, a business that still exists today under the management of Roy Walton. Hugh purchased the book and such was the impact of the window display he said he still remembered the name of the back palmed card shown on the cover. The seven of hearts.

He was a very quiet man. Over six feet tall, looking a bit like George Clooney and wearing a snapbrim hat, a double breasted raincoat and a dark suit, he could have passed as private investigator Sam Spade at any time. Because of his work he married quite late in life but Jack Avis and I met him when he was living in police barracks in Camden Town and used to visit Davenports on Saturday mornings which is where we first made contact with him.

Jack took to him instantly recognising a fellow cardician and he spent many magic hours with him at his police lodgings. He told us of many stories of meetings he had with  professional magicians Howard de Courcy, Tommy Martin, Billy O’Connor and  Ade Duval after seeing their performances at the local variety theatre and was shown many of their pet moves once they had witnessed his skill. It was Howard de Courcy who taught him the one handed riffle shuffle, largely unknown at that time, which he practised throughout the night until he acquired the knack. De Courcy told him that he had first seen the shuffle in continental Europe and later, when showing it to a U.S. Army Colonel, the officer asked De Courcy to teach him the shuffle. In that time of rationing, clothing coupons and short supplies, he offered tuition in exchange for a U.S. Officer’s trench coat. De Courcy got his coat and never saw the officer again. 

An unusual card flourish of Scotts was  to riffle a pack of cards upside down, so that instead of the cards water-falling down, he changed his grip so that they merged together upwards. It was quite offbeat but something he did all his life.

He published a few original moves and card ideas and attended the odd convention with Jack Avis and myself but he never sought to become a name in magic. But those that saw him testified that he was an outstanding card magician in a quiet, mannered way.

He retired from the police, worked in security, married and had a son but rarely emerged into the magic scene. Jack and I saw him from time to time at his home in Eltham where his health deteriorated and he died in his late eighties,

You’ll find a picture of him performing his upside down riffle shuffle on page 65 of my book “Come a Little Closer” together with an original move of his based on the Glide.