Group magic.

Vernon and the greats used it. Fred Kaps used it.Peter Warlock, Jack Avis, Francis Haxton and other names used it. And I’ve used it together with Alex Elmsley, Jack Avis, Lewis Jones, Bob Read and others. So what is group magic?

I’m not knocking the magic clubs, the conventions and celebrity lectures but to get to the real meat of magic free thinking and creativity you assemble a group of magic friends who you admire, are talented and with whom you can talk freely without inhibition. You meet in someone’s home say once every six weeks on an evening. You talk, show things, ideas, discuss dvds, other magicians, the latest magic items but you talk freely. Everyone has to show or discuss at least one item during the evening, It can be a trick, a move and even just an idea and everyone says truthfully what they think. Nobody takes offence – nobody is offended if someone says it’s not as good as so and so. It’s a very free discussion on your magic, the magic scene, anything and the criticism is not personal but genuine. And the presenter accepts the comment in good faith,

The results are outstanding. Just a little suggestion about the handling of a move, or an idea that takes a trick in another direction, or a recollection from something seen in the past. In Jack and Alex’s day some wonderful thinking came out of these group meetings that helped create outstanding magic.And I can personally testify to many genuine ideas that have made all the difference in my own presentations of a stage or close-up effect. Just someone seeing the idea from a different direction can make a world of difference.

There are really only two rules. Pick a group of six or seven magic friends whose work or thinking your really admire (and they of you) and be very open in your discussion and throwing out any ideas.

Whilst Jack and Alex and Bernard Weller, all former members of our group have passed on we currently have six like-minded magi, but each with different interests and skills. They are Lewis Jones, Tom Whitestone, Angelo Carbone. Michael Symes, Don Wyatt and myself.

And whilst we all enjoy magic club life we are all agreed that some real valuable, in-depth magic and ideas has resulted from these meetings that would not have been possible in the everyday social atmosphere of the average magic club. Noel Britten has said that you are not as good as you think you are and he’s right

I promise you, this is a really valuable concept that will improve your own magic. And it costs nothing but effort.

I am not a Punch and Judy man and was in the middle of Spain but I sat down and composed the following essay based on my inherent knowledge and common sense. Several workers have subsequently asked to have this as a reply to similar complaints which in many cases has resulted in the objection being withdrawn. For the common good I am happy to publish the essay again.

Punch and Judy are no Bonnie and Clyde

Punch and Judy is a 300 year-old theatrical, Italian fairy tale that depicts the light and shade of life that has entertained millions of children for three centuries without psychological harm or terror. In concert with all classic stories for the young it concludes with the triumph of good over evil when Punch is apprehended by the law.

That said, there is scant difference between the scenario of this quaint piece of children’s theatre, with its garish, colourful, wooden characters and squawking voices to the range of experiences described in classic, traditional tales for children like Grimm’s fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Rumpelstiltskin, The Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and many other stories All contain elements of villainy and heroism but children remain impervious to alleged psychological damage for such stories seek to show the highs and lows of life and all pointing the way to a moral conclusion.

If you compare these time-tested tales to the highly visual and audible children’s video games sold in millions as entertainment, that portray high speed violence against property and persons, it is not difficult to consider that acts of vandalism and crime by young people are more inspired by these contemporary blueprints than by the portrayal of a wooden figure, knocking his partner on the head with a stick, in the way that circus clowns right down to Laurel and Hardy have done for years.

Punch and Judy is pure, simple theatre based on a formula that is the basic ingredient of Opera or Shakespeare where the vagaries of life are presented in a way that entertains as well as moralises. Punch and Judy are no Bonnie and Clyde and in the current climate of gratuitous violence for the old and the young, they depict nothing more than an individuals misfortune – the man slipping on a banana skin, that has been the basis of comedy since Roman times.

John Derris – November 1999

Like a dealer stand I saw selling the most incredible children’s effects. Not necessarily the magic but the graphics used on the cards and items they produced. With pictures and cartoons of rabbits, little men, ghosts etc that were absolutly stunning and of a quality that you could believe came from the hands of the Disney studios. They were the most outstanding graphics I have ever seen in magic offered by a dealer called “Razamatazz  Magic” run by Andy and Sue Hobbs. I worked in the advertising business all my life and I tell you truly the sheer quality of their product was outstanding.

The effects are not cheap and the proprietors told me they had commissioned the top illustrators in the business, mortgaging their home to establish this high level of product. I am not into children’s magic so I have no axe to grind but I was bowled over by the best illustrated magic effects I have ever seen. If you want to get some idea check out their web site www.razamatazzmagic.com and see if you don’t agree.   

Call it geriatric nostalgia if you will but it is a widespread social trend that I have observed for a long time. Which is why I was interested to see the launch of a new TV series called “For One Night Only” listed as a  show that presents acts that truly represent variety. With comperes Vernon Kay and Joan Rivers, comedians, singing groups, contortionists, magicians and the like  it reflects the style of yesteryear with funny rather than crude humour, and music acts that offer melodies that one can remember. Something like the days of   “Sunday Night at the London Palladium”The only difference is the presence of an audience that screams continuously over many of the acts – but then, they did that for  Frank Sinatra! Is this the return of variety or is it just the wishful thinking of a grey haired, mellowing magician?

When asked how they became a great act with superb timing, funny material and sight bits he said ” Well, way back we did thirteen shows a day. If a gag went well we kept it in, if it didn’t work we threw it out”

Apply that to magic – do as many shows as you can and keeping honing your material. That’s how in the days of variety,magicians who worked regularly created their so smooth acts.

Certainly!

So – do you do sponge balls? Of course you do. Everybody does but I think we are all guilty of unwittingly revealing the secret.

Let me tell you a story. When I was seventeen I did a show for a scout troop and performed a sponge ball routine. Two years later after my national service I was asked to present another show at the same scout troop. The organiser said “will you do that trick whereby you put a ball in a boy’s hand and three came out?” “Oh” I replied, “you mean the sponge ball trick” “Oh” he said “they’re made of sponge are they!” And I realised I had blown the method.

Since that day I have never called them sponge balls which we all do in the magic vernacular. If you avoid the noun “sponge “and call it a ball, the participating spectator may know they collapse in his hand but there could be a hundred people out in the audience who think they are solid balls. And with the close-textured Goshman balls made today, it is easy to believe that they are solid.

Some of the great sponge ball workers never called them “sponge” Don Alan would show a ball in his hand and joke “I have a small red ball – but I do the best I can!” Likewise Billy McComb would say “I have a small red ball – which was of great concern to my parents!”

Similarly when I do a vanishing cane in newspaper I walk into the booking with the cane already set and make a great play of showing it, tapping it on the floor and pointing to things.

Then when it vanishes, they think “where the devil did the solid cane go.” If you walk in with a small bag and suddenly appear on stage with a three -foot walking cane, it could begin to suggest that it’s collapsible.

It’s little things like that that can give away the beginnings of a secret. I do a book test and put on my glasses to read a crib for the word revelation. A very intelligent  lady – a chemistry professor – said “Why do you put your glasses on when you reveal the word to the spectator ?” 

I quickly re-routined the effect and put the glasses on way, way ahead of the actual revelation. It’s important to view your magic from the audience’s position. It can be very revealing.

I have a stage act which varies little and in fact uses some effects(and patter!) that I first performed half a century ago. Just an odd tweak here and there to heighten something but that’s about all. Close-up the same. The same half dozen effects that I know are solid, get an excellent response together with funnies where I know when to expect a laugh in varying situations. Also the 60 minute show “Behind the Doors of The Magic Circle” which I’ve presented to scores of groups over the last four years stepping out and knowing exactly what I was going to do and what kind of response to expect.

But I’ve recently done a show for a club for the third time this year – and they’ve just booked me for another in December, with the same audience!  It’s very flattering to  know that they like you enough to re-book the act but wow! I repeated the same act for the second time and for the third appearance I made up a programme of mental items but with different laugh lines. It went well but it didn’t flow and was a bit staccato due to lack of use. So how do I face the fourth appearance?

Well I regard it as a challenge, will seek out items that I’ve played with over the years but never adopted into the act and work on the jokes of which I have hundreds written in many books. But I’m rather pleased in a way  that this has forced me out of my lethargic attitude and made me work on a strong, second programme that with time and usage could be perhaps as successful and reliable as the No.1 act. And I’m finding that I’m quite enjoying it and re-discovering effects that once appealed to me but were passed over for one reason or another. Plus hopefully with the accrued performing experience of the past years I may be able to create something that gives me (and hopefully the audience) real pleasure and satisfaction. Let you know more later – after the December show!

Until.

As a fan  of Jeff Hobson I once saw him do a 30 minute spot in a London West End theatre and get a standing ovation with just two tricks – one of which was the egg bag. It was then I realised that it was what the magician could add to the effect that made it a classic effect and with Hobson ’s unique camp patter and mannerisms it became an outstanding piece of entertainment.

Following that I saw Johnny Thompson achieve solid success with the prop but using the Malini version of the bag with its superior design, smooth fabric and careful needlework and of course Thomson’s handling and humour. Then a good friend, Tom Whitestone who presents the bag close-up at the table showed it to me  and made it very convincing and magical. He said he was influenced the day he saw Fred Kaps do the routine informally in Ken Brooke place with minimal patter but very convincing handling as you would expect from Kaps. Tom was so struck with how mysterious this age old prop could be made that he adopted it and today works the Malini design bag. A magician for whom I have a very high regard is Wayne Dobson and I saw a recording of one of his TV spectaculars before he was clobbered with M.S. doing the bag sitting quietly alongside a lady from the audience. No  endless crash banging the bag to prove its emptiness but a sheer piece of magic that used just three phases climaxing with the spectator making the egg reappear herself after proving that the bag was empty. It is a  real mystery and easy now to understand why it has been a classic for centuries…..when in the hands of a real artiste.

What’s this all about. It’s about taking a backward look at some of the magic we all met and passed by on our way to being a contemporary performer. It’s why some of the great entertainers who worked for big bucks like Al Flosso did Miser’s Dream, Cards Across, Paper Hat Trick and other considered hoary old tricks with big success. It ain’t what you do …………

Get a thumb tip and a 4 feet coloured silk streamer. Attach one end of the streamer into the tip then fold the silk inside and store it in your trousers pocket.

Carry it ALWAYS whenever you leave home.

When the challenge comes – stall and say “Okay, can I borrow a pencil and a gas cooker!” As no cooker is forthcoming, borrow a pencil taking the opportunity to get the tip onto your right thumb in your pocket as you search for the pencil.

Make a great play of touching different parts of the spectators with the pencil and then touching the palm of your left hand say “Can you see the tiny silk worm in the palm of my hand?” They look closely but see nothing. Ditch the thumb tip into the closed left fist by your favourite method, then with the tip of the pencil pull out the end of the silk streamer.

Then keep pulling out the streamer slowly making a pile of silk on the table or the spectator’s hand which after a time looks considerable and quite impossible. I’ve used this a lot and the impact of this apparently impromptu piece of visual magic is powerful and very memorable.

The great Polish magician, the late Silvano who was a great exponent of the thumb tip, always used to keep a tip on his person, even when he was sitting in bathing trunks beside a hotel swimming pool. When challenged he would stand up, pull up his trunks and go into action.

It so stuck in my mind that I replicated the effect when I used to do children’s shows years ago And as a touch of added drama I used to put the ball of wool into a goldfish bowl and have the children pull the end to unwind the ball.It sounded very dramatic as the box was gradually revealed, making a noise as it bounced around inside the bowl, the end of the wool being fastened inside the lid of the locked box. It was a great children’s effect – must have been for me to remember all the details over the years. I even remember the colour of the original ball of wool. It was yellow and I replicated that as well!

The first trick I did was after witnessing a school friend who showed me the Sybil Rising Cards. This is where a freely selected card is returned to the pack which is placed inside a houlette with glass plates placed back and front and the card mysteriously rises from the centre of the pack. The cards and the houlette  can then be handed to the spectator for examination. 

I pleaded with this friend to tell me how it was done but he stubbornly refused (quite right) but he did tell me that I could buy the trick at a little magic shop in Green Street just off Leicester Square in London. I walked up some darkened stairs and an imposing man with bald head and glasses admitted me into this Aladdin’s Cave of Magic covered from floor to ceiling with magic props, posters, books and magic ephemera. It was a wonderland for a young fourteen year-old.

I told him what I wanted, he produced it,  wrapped it in an old magic poster, took seven shillings and sixpence off me and hurriedly ushered me out and locked the door. But I was enthralled and it was a trick that I did for some time later. (I should have kept the poster – today they’re worth thousands!)

It was Will Goldston’s Magic Shop that I had been directed to which is no longer there, in fact even the name of the street has been changed.

And the first book on magic I ever bought was “The Boy’s Book of Conjuring” which again was a revelation and handed me the key to performing tricks and starting on the road to a lifetime of magic. I still have that book today.

What was your first magic memory?