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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I’M OFTEN ASKED WHO WAS THE GREATEST CLOSE-UP MAGICIAN I’ve ever seen? Well, I can go back fifty years and give you my opinion acknowledging that by reputation alone there were obviously some greats in the period before my time. I thinking here of Nate Leipzig and Max Malini and whilst I know that time [...]
Posted on August 23rd, 2008 by John
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HE’S NOT EVERYONE’S CUP OF LOKSHEN SOUP.. He can be argumentative, abrasive, pushy, boastful, attention-seeking, outspoken, petulant, intrusive and has irritated some of the best -known names in magic. I have known him for over sixty years. He has verbally laid into me many times, contradicting much of my conversation, which infuriates me because he [...]
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by John
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I HAVE WRITTEN EARLIER about my good friend Bobby Bernard who now in his sunset years and not in the best of health has decided to release his lifetime’s collection of close-up magic apparatus and ephemera into safe hands. Magic has been his life; he has met and talked with nearly all of the greats in the [...]
Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by John
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ONE OF THE DELIGHTS of my sunrise magic years happened every Saturday morning in London. Six sorcerers, some apprentices, some established, used to meet in Davenports magic shop in Holborn where we would talk magic, gaze in awe at the many name professionals who called in (Orson Welles, Dante, Edward Victor, Jasper Maskylene, Robert Harbin and [...]
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by John
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BOBBY BERNARD AND I have been friends for over sixty years. As teenagers we were in concert party together – he did vent dressed as a schoolmaster with a naughty boy pupil and I did magic. I remember it well. “What’s your name?” “Isaiah sir” “Why do they call you Isaiah?” “Cos one eyes ‘igher than the other!” [...]
Posted on March 14th, 2008 by John
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