I’VE HAD AN ITEM UNDERGROUND FOR MANY YEARS made for me by a mechanic friend who is no longer with us. It’s an Okito Box with which you can do the normal Okito Box routines. But the climax is a stunner. At the end of the routine when perhaps four coins have passed through the box [...]
Posted on March 25th, 2009 by John
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AT THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION three magicians came up to me to talk about ideas on items and presentations. During the conversations they all asked if I had in mind to stage a limited, one-to-one workshop based on the presentation ideas and simple magic effects that I have given in the KISS lectures over the past few [...]
Posted on December 8th, 2008 by John
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IF YOU LOOK AROUND TODAY AT MAGIC that is sold by the ton to the fraternity, there are hundreds of gizmo cards, bits of cardboard, fake coins, routines and things that are cooked up from such sources as stationers, hardware shops and the like. There are few pieces of beautifully handmade magic that are created and [...]
Posted on November 28th, 2008 by John
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AS THE PENTACLE CLUB OF CAMBRIDGE celebrate their 90th anniversary, I was asked if I would write an appreciation of Alex Elmsley for the occasion. I thought you might like to read the following.
Alex Elmsley – Gentleman genius.
An appreciation by John Derris
I knew him for over fifty years. Intellectually he was light years ahead of [...]
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by John
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MANY YEARS AGO I WAS WORKING IN SPAIN and one evening my wife telephoned to say that my friend John Styles, possibly Britain’s leading Punch and Judy worker, had called. It seems he had been booked to present the ages-old entertainment by a local council but that an objection had been raised by a ladies guild stating [...]
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by John
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I SAW A CRACKING SHOW LAST WEEK - for the second time in a month it was that good. La Cage aux Folles, a musical about a gay nightclub on the Riviera and the family problems of two gay parents and a straight son wishing to marry the daughter of an anti-gay goverment official! Great fun and outstanding [...]
Posted on November 12th, 2008 by John
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YOU DON’T GET MANY ONE MAN SHOWS IN MAGIC these days so it’s interesting to hear that Circle magician Ivor Cole is presenting his “Mirrored Images” a programme of baffling mind illusions on Sunday 23rd November at 7.30pm. Not the first time he has presented this show having appeared previously at The King’s Head and again at [...]
Posted on November 9th, 2008 by John
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I HAVE LONG BEEN AN ADVOCATE of the philosophy that magic is not about secrets – it’s about performances. Not just my belief but that also of such giants of magic and theatre presentation as John Fisher, Pat Page, Jeff Hobson, Richard McDougall and Bobby Bernard. It’s the basis of the KISS lecture that I [...]
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by John
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Last minute thoughts on some of the highlights.
* Mel Mellers who tore ‘em up in the opening show with his acerbic but very entertaining magic and comedy.
* The entertaining act of Levent packed with a thousand very funny sight gags but an artiste whose depth of magic thinking is profound as witness his brilliantly devised Miser’s Dream [...]
Posted on October 7th, 2008 by John
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THERE’S A CARD EFFECT I’VE HAD FOR YEARS – didn’t think much of it until a friend showed me a terrific adaptation he’d seen in Germany that made it outstanding and it’s now in constant use in my close-up and particularly mix and mingle shows. Visually it’s unbelievable and I stunned Tessa Jowell with it at a [...]
Posted on October 6th, 2008 by John
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