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.

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!

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

There are many other random mathematical thoughts in the book. The technique in flipping a coin and knowing which will come up – heads or tails. How to turn your ten fingers into an instant digital calculator. At a wedding reception, how do you calculate how many people will have the same birthday as you? There are many such mathematical trivia in the book that fascinate many magicians (Alex Elmsley would have loved it and I bet mental magician Ian Rowland will buy a copy) The book is “How Many Socks Make a Pair?” published by J.R.Books at £12.99

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!

Effect:

A card is selected and returned and the pack is freely shuffled and cut by several spectators and placed on the floor. It was then covered by a tabloid size newspaper and the cards were commanded to cut themselves at the selected card. The spectator removed the paper and the cards were seen to be cut a right angles in the form of a cross and when the top half of the pack was removed, the chosen card was revealed on top of the lower half.

This simple plot succeeded because of Alex’s reputation and the build-up that he used to surround the presentation (Read his book “The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley” if you want more depth to his ideas on how to present an effect).

Method:

There is no method. As mentioned it was sheer audacity. Alex was sitting beside a table on which rested a glass of his favourite falling down water and his evening paper. Some time earlier he had deposited about a quarter of the pack face down under the newspaper and left it there. (John Ramsay also used to get up to this same kind of subterfuge from time to time. He’d sit with coins palmed in his hands for half an hour, knowing that at some time someone would ask him to do a trick.)

Inevitably someone asked Alex to do a trick so he produced a pack of cards (less the cards already under the newspaper), had a card selected, controlled, palmed out whilst the pack was split in two and given to two spectators to shuffle and cut. This covered the fact that it was a short pack. The cards were assembled and the card was secretly re-introduced on top of the pack.

The pack was placed on the floor and the newspaper picked up with one hand, together with the cards underneath and casually tossed over the pack making sure that the added pack was roughly at right angles to the cards on the floor.

A sip of whisky and Alex extolled the impossible conditions and the presence of a ghostly gambler who could always cut a pack to any position. A spectator was asked to lift the paper to reveal the cut pack in a cross. The top half was removed and the next card turned over to reveal the chosen card.

Many people that evening were fooled because their minds were conditioned to believe that Alex possessed some super new idea involving one of his cunning methods. But he was just as adept at presenting an effect as performing a difficult method.

I believe it was Max Maven who said that doing a mental effect was easy – it’s the presentation that is the hard part. Alex later said his inspiration for this casual piece of foolery came from the coin tray whereby coins on a small metal tray were poured into the spectators hand whilst extra coins hidden underneath the tray were added in the move.

If you want inspiration think simple – think of the magic of past years.

 I knew Mitch Devano, the inventor and bought many packs off him – he always had a supply in his case when at The Magic Circle. I still have six today and they still work perfectly. I have tried the other methods offered on the market that use a sticky pad rather than Devano’s needles but I personally have found the original design to be the most reliable.

But there was one tip thatAlex Elmsley gave me years ago which made all the difference in the world to the presentation. Magicians who do this effect will often find that the card will start to rise then jump up very quickly and tilt to one side. Not very mysterious. Alex advised me to apply zinc stearate powder to the whole pack and the result is that the cards rise almost imperceptibly and very, very slowly and keep straight during the rise. This drags out the tension and for me does make the magic of the effect far more mysterious. I’ve done this for years and coat the cards about every few performances to make sure that the amount of resistance between the cards is constant between shows. It has made a lot of difference to what I think is one of the great classics of magic.

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.

They were Bobby Bernard, Ted Danson, Roy Walton, Jack Avis, Alex Elmsley and myself.

The proprietor George Davenport was a kindly man who tolerated our using his premises as a clubroom, knowing that many of us had few pennies to spend which we did from time to time on the latest trick or book. But he was always most generous in advising us of items that were not suitable for our emerging skills. He encouraged us in our regular visits knowing that we would one day emerge from our chrysalis and become regular magicians and repay his kindness with future patronage.

His kindness went beyond the doors of that Oxford Street magic shop. At the IBM convention banquets he always used to send over a bottle of wine to Jack Avis and myself and at Christmas gave us magically meaningful presents like a large bath-towel covered in playing cards. George was one of magic’s real gentlemen and we’ll never forget him.

At lunchtime we would repair to a nearby Greek cafe sited ironically in Vernon Place. Here we would spend hours over a plate of spaghetti Bolognese and a cup of coffee interspersed with card moves, the latest from the U.S. and discussion on a recent performance of a name magician. In the mid-afternoon we were often joined by Al Koran, film director and magician Cy Endfield and a largely unknown but excellent card worker Hugh Scott. His visits were infrequent being fitted in between his duties as a royal bodyguard Scotland Yard detective.

Later onto Soho where we would often have a brief visit to Harry Stanley’s studio followed by tea and strawberry shortcake in an Austrian cafe welcomed by the amply bodied Haus Frau Madame Maurier. Then the evening was usually filled by an underground trip to one of the circuit of variety theatres around central London to see a magician appearing on the bill. I remember them all. Benson Du Lay, Douglas Francis, Francis Watts, Shek Ben Ali, Kardomah, Lionel King, Howard de Courcy, Robert Harbin, Donald B. Stuart, Pat Hatton & Peggy, Deveen and his New York Blondes, Cingalee, Reg Salmon, the list is endless. None of them top of the bill but always good, entertaining acts that worked week after week all over Britain. These were halcyon days indeed.

Is it any wonder that my magic is so influenced by my years of seeing stage magicians who only got regular bookings because they were entertaining? Sorry for the drift into nostalgia but I am delighted to know that there are still many magicians today who also have a regular get together with colleagues where I believe some of the best magic is originated. The tradition continues.

It would have been invaluable to see Nate Leipzig actually performing  and Max Malini whereas we have the descriptions that were written by some of their contemporaries, but the nuances of performance, subtleties and misdirection really had to be seen.

 I knew Johnny Ramsay quite well and other than a few clips of amateur 8mm film showing him throwing a thimble into the air and making vanish and his legendary four coins hung in the air, I don’t think there is any other evidence. His protege Andy Galloway who studied with Ramsay for seven years has some of these clips and Andy’s own performance of Ramsay’s routine closely echo the masters style and luckily have been recorded for future generations courtesy of Martin MacMillan

We have had a few scattered clips turning up around the world. I’ve seen Roy Benson’s TV act with the Chinese Sticks and the Salt Pour also his stunning Billiard Ball routine (taught to him by Leipzig!) but it’s his unique personality and style that is so valuable in studying magic presentation. And his voice and style of humour isn’t a bit like I imagined before seeing the film.It’s better.

I never saw Al Flosso but someone sold me a clip of his famous act and his wonderful Miser’s Dream and then you realise why he was so unique and good. Don Alan, another idol of mine appeared on TV and fortunately there are some recordings available notably the Magic Ranch TV series where he had many  guests of the 50’s and 60’s. Clarke Crandall, Richard Himber, Johnny Platt and many other names of that period.

If you pull up You Tube on the Internet and insert Cardini you can see a clip of his act – cigarettes, cards, billiard balls and realise why he was so good and everyone raved about him. And to back up your interest in this icon of the last century somehow get a copy of John Fisher’s fabulous book “Cardini – the Suave Deceiver”. It’s worth every penny of the near £100.00  it’ll  cost you to secure a copy in the U.K.

With the mainstream of magic performance today being close-up, I think that the study of the performance style of some of the greats of the last century is valuable and could lift some close-up performers to much higher levels of entertainment. Pat Page once said to me that some of our best close-up workers are magicians who have worked on stage. He said it shows in presentation.

For a long time I begged Jack Avis, one of Britain’s top card and close-up magicians,  who was not a performer, to let me privately  film some of his unique work on a camcorder but self-effacing man that he was he never said no but never got round to it before he died four years ago. This saddens me.

Fortunately Alex Elmsley was not so shy and his unique work has been recorded by L&L Publishing in the U.S. by The Magic Circle during their centenary celebrations and by Colin Rose of Five of Hearts Productions who has two discs of Alex in session in their studio. Effects and casual talk and demonstrations to a private group of magicians at Colin Rose’s studio. It’s priceless and preserves the legacy of one of the last century’s greatest magician’s.

And lastly the third member of the great triumvirate – Jack Avis and Alex Elmsley is famed card magician hiding in Scotland - Roy Walton. I’ve known Roy since we were teenagers and again I’ve implored him to put some of his work on film or tape perhaps in the company of his close magic friends Gordon Bruce and Peter Duffie. Again a slightly self-effacing individual and whilst I have pestered him many times fearing that we would lose a permanent record of his magic, he told me recently that it is being done within the Davenport family and will be available through that source at some time in the future.

I am delighted and relieved at this news as I am passionate about preserving the performances of some of the greatest magicians of our time.

( Steps down from the soap box).