Many magicians are aware that nothing has appeared in this site for over a year. Illness was part of the reason but happily I’m fit again and back doing shows. However during that time I did something I’d thought about for a long time.

I wrote a book.

Many of you will remember that I lectured to around 50 magic clubs a few years ago. Intriguingly called KISS. Keep it simple stupid! It was all about how to sell yourself based on a proven business technique that I used for winning big business for my advertising agency for nearly 30 very successful years against many big international advertising agencies.

When I retired I turned full time professional magician and adapted the system and created a new magic programme that got me bookings in Japan, Russia, Greece, Europe and many other countries all over the world. It also got me to Buckingham Palace!

And as of two days ago it’s now here. A very unique book .” KISS. The word that got me magic bookings in Athens, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Marbella, Osaka, Paris, Rabat, St. Petersburg and Buckingham Palace” 31 ways to better magic magic, better bookings and bigger fees.Not just another book of tricks, but the real low down on how to be a better performer. And I proved the principle for 30 years in the hard nose business world of advertising.

Many magicians asked me to elaborate on the system and the effects I built into the programme. And so with an enforced stay of convalescence I sat down and wrote the book. 133 pages of it with all the subtleties of presentation, tips on marketing and selling yourself. Plus all the routines that I used, all the touches, the nuances, the funnies that got me class bookings for 15 years. It’s all here ready for you to lift your act to a higher level of bookings and fees.

Check out my web site www.magicderris and it will cost you no more than half a dozen packs of cards. Post free to any part of the world. Prepare to go one better. You know you’ve got a better performance inside you. Here’s how!

Filed under: Magic Miscellanea | No Comments »

A bold claim – but true. Not a brilliant new gimmick. Not a new routine from the Vernon archives. Not something requiring a big investment but a proven procedure that does really work.

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.

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Miscellanea, Magic Thoughts | 4 Comments »

I’M JUST A CHILD IN THE BAFFLING WORLD OF COMPUTERS and for some unknown reason my web site has been unavailable for some considerable time bringing up a horrifc healdine that said – FORBIDDEN! I know nothing and explanations from the computer intelligensia (my nephew Martin Avis – he’s brilliant and makes his living out of computer marketing) are meaningless to this brain brought up on a John Bull printing outfit.

That said, here I am again witn a promise to keep you up to date with occasional items that I recently said would be of real interest and value rather than pumping  out a blog everyday.

In my last announcement I touched on an effect I’ve done for some time at wedding receptions which I am thinking of putting out. The truthful reaction I’ve had from laypeople tells me that in real, visual terms it’s a stunner and I’m glad to pass it on. For those that missed the first news item – quite simply you show a ladies diamond wedding ring and a gentleman’s gold signet ring in each hand, drop them into a glass of champagne, handed to the spectator who, after drinking the champagne tips out the rings which are now seen to be – joined! A truthful description. Everything can be examined and the magician’s hands are empty. The gimmick has to be specially made and so it will be made to order for each request. Price? I don’t know but I think it will be in the region of £40.00. to be advised. I’ll be putting out announcements on the internet – Magic Week and this web site plus possibly some press ads. It’s called “Welded Bliss” (blame my advertising background for that awful pun.) Keep a look out or contact me if you’re interested.

Keep looking.

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »

HAVEN’T SAID MUCH ON THIS BLOG FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS.. No particular reason other than I was pumping out news and trivia almost on a daily basis and I think this could devalue the content of the information.  There’s too much info around today in my view.  Therefore I will only release news that I feel is of real interest and value to magicians who kindly check into this site. In that mode there are two important announcements that I’d like to make here. 

Firstly – I’ve been persuaded to record many memories and sometimes hitherto unknown facts and magic ideas about many of my colleagues of earlier days. Friends like Alex Elmsley, Jack Avis, John Ramsay, Cy Enfield, Al Koran, Hugh Scott and many others with whom I mixed over fifty years ago. In relating these tales it was pointed out that when I’m gone much of this intruiging information will be lost forever. Consequently I’m writing a series of 2,500 word essays  called “Yesterday” about these magicians many of whom fashioned some of the magic we treasure today. These will be available as a pdf downloaded from your computer, with the added bonus of a magic effect or item from the subject of the essay. The first of these will be Alex Elmsley and watch this site for details. If you love the romance of magic and magicians of the past, you’ll love this new series – “Yesterday”

Did you know for example Alex Elmsley’s nick name? Did any one ever tell you that Jack Avis, a most polite and modest man publicly stormed out of a convention in a rage? Did you know that Cy Endfield, a most creative man in all directions once made a chess set that fitted inside a magic wand? And off stage Al Koran stuttered very badly, struggling with words and screwing up his eyes as he tried to speak – there was a reason for this.These and many other interesting stories, magic ideas and tips will be the subject of this new series on this site, to be announced shortly.

And secondly – and I’m really excited about this. I’m shortly putting out an effect I’ve used that truthfully is a blinder. Not for the method necessarily (although it’s quite ingenious) but for the effect on an audience, particularly at a wedding reception. It’s called “Welded Bliss”. In one hand you show a ladies diamond wedding ring. In the other a gentleman’s gold signet ring. You speak about your own personal and successful marriage happiness and openly drop the two rings into a wine glass. Nothing in the hands. Continuing the dialogue you tip the rings into a spectator’s hands – and the two rings are seen to be permanently linked together. And everything can be examined. I’ve done this at weddings and cocktail receptions, sometimes dropping the rings into a half empty flute of champagne, drunk the champagne and then tipped out the joined rings. The audience impact has been amazing.

I’m just working out final details as to how I am going to distribute this but check this site for future announcement. That’s all for rhe moment. Play your cards right!

Filed under: Magic Miscellanea | 3 Comments »

THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF CARD MAGICIANS AROUND THE WORLD and over half a century I’ve seen many of them. I’m not a card man myself but know enough to know the difference between a demonstrator of card tricks and an artiste who can really entertain with just a pack of cards. In the distant past one that comes to mind is Ricky Jay’s show at the Old Vic – “Ricky Jay and his 52 assistants” It was unique.  Recently in London I saw a second, supreme entertainer with just a pack of cards. Guy Hollingworth with his Edinburgh Festival one-hour show “The Expert at the Card Table“.

I’ll not go into a listing of the effects but just to say that what Guy added to his outstanding teechnique (performed in a slow, natural style a la Dai Vernon) was a brilliant playlet that told the story of the ubiquitous Erdnase whose book “The Expert at the Card Table” has defined card work around the world for over a century. Presented by Guy in full evening dress and setting with just a card table, some chairs, a desk with mirror, tumblers and other ephemera, he wove an intruiging tale of the legend of Erdnase interspersed with card deals, card routines and other effects including his amazing torn and restored card, in a manner like an unfolding plot by Raymond Chandler with an ending that had a  touch of Alfred Hitchcock.

It was sheer theatre and the packed, largely non-magic audience were clearly enthralled and the performance restored one’s faith in the belief that magic for the public should be an entertainment and not a demonstration of digital skill. For me Guy Hollingworth has crossed that line that separates the thousands of demonstrators from the true artistes of magic that in the present day can be counted on the fingers of two hands. Guy Hollingworth has added an extra finger.

In the audience was one who in my view is part of that select coterie – Richard McDougall. As we left the theatre together, it was he who uttered the single word that summed up the performance, Sublime! 

Filed under: Magic Miscellanea, Magic Reviews | No Comments »

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 and your hand onto the table, the spectator picks up the four coins, places them back in the box, replaces the lid himself, snaps his fingers and on lifting the lid the box is full of…rice, the coins having vanished! It’s a wonderful climax to a classic routine.

I published the outline of the workings of the box and the gimmick some years ago and a few magicians have asked me where they could get the gimmick made. Good metal workers who can handle magic props on a lathe are few but I believe I’ve found a technician in magic who is able to create the precision required to make this rather stunning and unique item that is so different from the run of close-up effects.

So if there are a number of  magi out there who are interested in this specialist item, I believe I could commission from him a small quantity to be exclusively made (he won’t make a number of this precision item) . If anyone is interested contact me early and if the number is right I would be prepared to commission this rather special magic item. It won’t be cheap, custom made precision work never is but you would be the owner of a very exclusive and  stunning classic of magic. 

Filed under: Magic Miscellanea | No Comments »

NOTHING ON THIS BLOG SINCE DECEMBER. No I haven’t retired, demised or emigrated. Firstly I had a lot of work, magic, publicity and design  over Christmas and I was churning out a blog almost on a daily basis prior to that. I did not get many responses, messages etc from magicians so I eased up a bit on the blog front.

However, since then my nephew who’s a whiz on computer technology advised me that from the stats on this site I was getting around six hundred people a time tuning in and at Blackpool and beyond many magicians have come up and asked if I’d closed down and was I going to resume. Well, thank you and yes.

But rather than continue to belt out something everyday and knowing that people’s time is under pressure generally speaking I’ve thought it fair to resume with news, ideas, reviews and the magic scene from a viewpoint that’s been observing the changing world of magic for the past sixty years. I hope to give you recollections and magic memories from the days when most magic was performed on a stage and close-up was called “pocket tricks” But I will do this on a casual basis, from time to time as events and  news emerges.

Hope that suits the many magicians who have shown keen interest in my blasts from the past! Nothing much at the moment but there was a terrific surprise 80th birthday celebration for Patrick Page at the Brick Lane Music Hall in London where he was booked for what he thought was an afternoon Old Time Music Hall Show and on walking on stage was greeted by the biggest audience applause and standing ovation he’d ever received – and even before he’d performed his first effect.

Shading his eyes from the footlights and knowing absolutely nothing of the celebration that his children had arranged, he espied over one hundred members of The Magic Circle, friends and wives. They had gathered to celebrate the birthday of one of magic’s greatest performers and gentlemen. Pat doesn’t usually show emotion but there is no doubt he was touched by this warm display of affection to celebrate his special day, that a hundred people had managed to keep a secret under wraps until the show. It was one of the great moments of magic.

Post you some more later. Thanks for your interest.

Filed under: Magic News | 2 Comments »

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 years. I hadn’t planned anything but this is not the first time that the suggestion has made to me and so if there are say perhaps six magicians (and two have already said they wished to come) who are interested in a one-day workshop, get in touch and I’ll see if we can arrange something in London. As is well known, the sector of the magic community I work to are middle-of -the -road magicians who are competetnt,  love magic, would like to improve their magic and presentation and gain a few more bookings. This would not be a high profile sleight of hand workshop. John Derris tel: 020 8467 7856 or email as above.

Filed under: Magic Miscellanea | 1 Comment »

RECENTLY I WROTE THAT I WAS GOING TO PUT OUT a monte routine originated by Jack Avis that involved three like cards and a queen that mysteriously appears and disappears during the effect. In itself it’s very good as Jack showed it to me but I did it for a close friend, Tom Whitestone (an excellent magician who hides in the background but who has some great magic ideas and presentations) and he has come up with a stunning presentation.

I hope to get it on film shortly and show it to you on this website and thereafter we’ll be putting it out for sale. It looks like tremendous digital skill but it’s a dream to work and I’ll keep you posted as to further details. It’s called “Find the Phantom“

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News | No Comments »

BEEN WORKING AWAY RECENTLY AND LAST WEEKEND I went to the International Convention organised by the MacMillan family. A great weekend of magic both close-up and stage with the accent on international. This is a trend that was started by Ron MacMillan who was well in touch with magic and magicians all over Europe and other parts of the world which makes a change from mass imports from the US. At the last IBM Convention at Eastbourne I went to the close-up show which had around five or more top card workers from Las Vegas all doing poker deals, gambling demos and the like. All excellent but hooray for our own Nick Einhorn who presented a magic show with variety with coins, ropes, and a few cards. How refreshing.

The stage show at the International was very good but I was particularly taken with an act from Holland –  Robert and Emiel who presented a mental telepathy act. I’ve seen some great ones over the years – “What have I here?” “A comb” “And here?” “A long balloon” “Well, near enough!” and so on. A sheer demonstration of skill and speed with a pace and pzazz.

But Robert and Emiel took their act to a different level. The curtains opened with no announcement and seen centre stage is a young man, dressed in what appeared to be white pyjamas, sitting on a stool by a microphone and fidgeting with his hands. An off stage announcement told that here was a five year old boy in the body of a grown man who nevertheless has amazing powers beyond the ken of others. He was then blindfolded  and demonstrated some quite amazing revelations about items held up by members of the audience and numbers of banknotes, sometimes without any apparent oral prompting.

All the time the boy on stage was fidgeting with his clothing as perhaps a young child would and engaging in a brother to brother conversation as if seeking approval. The act finished to great applause and even as the young Emiel walked off stage holding his brother’s hand he did not drop the persona of a handicapped child. And all his impaired mannerisms were minimal and did not create any embarrassment with the audience. It was a masterful presentation that left the audience wondering, with echoes of Raymond in the film “Rain Man” - was this really  a handicapped man with special powers?

It was a different presentation that for me was excellent in it’s concept. Even as the two walked off stage the young “savant” was heard to quietly say to his brother “Can I have the ice cream now” Sheer theatre.

Filed under: Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »