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.

I love Blackpool and go every year and often leave saying I won’t return next year as it’s got too big with too many events competing with each other. Even with a VIP card I find I cannot see everything and trying to comfortably view the dealers is near impossible with packed crowds jamming the gangways. But so what – I’ll still be there next February.. And by the way. Thanks for the amazing response to the news last week of the KISS lecture going online. It’s been outstanding. See you at Eastbourne.

NEW MEL MELLERS DVD –  He’s not everyone’s cup of tea as his humour is very acerbic but he is a good magician with some good presentation ideas – his routine on The Mind Reading Duck is very commercial  – and his patter is very individual but he’s always working.

ETIENNE PRADIER DVD - I think he is one of our best table workers which added to his Gallic charm and accent makes him a very bookable performer. His new 2 disc dvd shows him in action with explanations of his handling. All known effects and routines but his methods are very practical and performance tested although not easy. High spot is his bill change routine changing a £10.00 note to any named currency – Dollars, Euros, Yen etc and very fast. Not easy but a good disc to have to see a real pro in action.

SHAWN FARQUHAR – great to see this very accomplished FISM winning Canadian magician with some very off beat presentations and a delightful, whimsical patter style. He presented his FISM winning act, an ambitious card routine performed on stage, filmed on a camcorder and projected onto a back screen. But all presented to a guitar solo with special lyrics that relate to the cards that appeared at intervals in the routine.

He has a cute bit whereby a card is selected, pack shuffled, the card spins out the pack and he catches it on the end of his nose. (It’s not on his nose – he sucks the card onto his mouth so that it covers his nose.)  Very much in the class of other top canadians Richard Saunders and Jay Sankey.

SHOOT OGAWA – Haven’t seen him since he erupted onto the scene as a young teenager with his amazing Ninja Rings some years ago. Now a matured magician living in Los Angeles, with smooth U.S. chat and performing beautifully in everything he does notable his thimble routine. Catch him any time you can – one of the greats of modern magic.

JUPITER – a dealer from Hungary whose been coming to conventions for years and who appeared in the close-up competition. Doesn’t speak English but a very smooth, visual performer with an amaxing rope routine (which he sells of course) combining Professors Nightmare, Cut and Restored, Stretching a Rope, all the standards into one startling routine. He’ll be at Macmillans International Convention end of year so catch him there.

DAVID STONE – manic, funny, very smooth handler from Paris whose Gallic charm works in restaurants etc  and who has a very individual style that would be hard to copy. Lots of personality but grab one of his dvd’s if you get the chance. His bottle production is nearly as good as Bob Reads.

RAFAEL – stage performer from Belgium. Did a great Dracula act in one show with many original ideas. Skeleton walking across the stage with real legs pushing a trolley etc. Very original and worth catching. Also did his FISM comedy act in a bright chequered suit with various comedy and magic items, producing doves and putting them in the standard cage on an open table for the vanish finish. Under the cloth the cage grows  and grows up to 6 feet and when uncovered produces a girl inside.

RICHARD SAUNDERS – another excellent magician from Canada who stunned with two of his  known effects. An impossible rope routine “Fibre Optics” that is visually impossible to the spectator (the two ends of the rope travel along the rope to the opposite end – spooky) And his Flying Ring routine whereby the borrowed ring finishes tied on the magician’s shoelace. Good worker bristling with original ideas.

Lots, lots more but can’t think straight right now but will  blog you some more tomorrow.

Elmwood Magic from the USA had some good items particularly a wallet in which the spectatot could write a name or number, place it in the wallet and hold it on their open hand or place it on the table. Some cute optics involved as the magician could read the number through the wallet but nothing was visible from any other direction, No itys not like the Cornelius wallet which was illuminated from inside. It was good.

 Pat Page back from surgery in hospital doing well with his diary effect, just about the best version since Ted Danson came up with the concept years ago. You choose a card and name your birthday, turn to the date and there is your card printed in colour on your birthdate. It’s very good.

Martin Sanderson had a cute version of the Flying Ring which vanishes and appears tied on the collar around a soft toy puppy dog. It’s called “My litle sausage” but be careful where you use that patter in some audiences.

Geoffrey Durham did great business with his new book(told you so!), bought the new Mel Mellors video from Rus Stevens (not your cup of tea if your not into aceric humour) but I struck gold when I found a copy of the new Caedini book by John Fisher, unavailable normally in Britain as the publishers are not making it available wholesale for dealers but of course a few copies are being smuggled across.

First night in bed I read the first 50 pages. If you’re into magic history it’s great – wonderful in fact and packed with lots of photos, hitherto unknown fcts and detailed to the nth degree. John Fisher has done a great service in penning this outstanding book. It’s not cheap – I pai £95.00 for a copy off a dealer in the exhibition but if you’re really into magic in a serious way it’s a great buy.

Biggest thrill of all was in meeting a lifelong friend who never comes to conventions – Roy Walton. He of the card warp and one of the most respected and featured card workers in the world today. We were teenagers together and close friends until he married one of George Davenports daughters and moved to Glasgow to manage Tam Shepherd’s Magic Shop. He became the Mecca for all card workers in Scotland and his influence has been prodigious and is associated with some of the great card and close-up workers from Scotland today. Peter Duffie, Gordon Bruce, Jerry Sadowitz and many other who owe their early interest and influence in magic to Roy. Now over seventy, hard of hearing but still bristling with ideas and enthusiasm for pasteboard wizardry. Sometime I’ll tell you more about the early days of the great triumvirate of close quarter magic – Jack Avis, Alex Elmsley and Roy Walton when we were all a part of a lille group who wrote a book called “Come a Little Closer” (hence the title to this blog. Phew! More later.

So if you’re on that train, walk around and meet up with the 100 mile an hour convention on wheels. (I’ll be in coach C)

No doubt there will be some terrific tricks on show but if you want to buy just one magic item that I guarantee will enable you to become a better magician – close up or stage – then I would recommend you get a copy of Geoffrey Durham’s new book “Professional Secrets – A Life in Magic” It’s packed with twelve ideas and routines plucked from his professional programme honed over thirty years of performances all over the world and interspersed with twelve essays on the real inside story of being a successful professional performer. Real life, valuable information that you cannot buy at a magic shop. There are thousands of books and manuscripts on magic technique but few on the real business of success in magic. This in my opinion is one of them. There are more gold nuggets in this book than the state of Alaska.

After his talk at The Magic Circle he sold out his entire stock in twenty minutes and at Blackpool he’s offering it at a special convention price of £25.00 following his lecture. If you really believe that magic is about performing and not just about secrets -do yourself a favour and get a copy at Blackpool.