1.What do you look like on stage?

Before you can sell your magic you have to get people to like you. What is the impression they get when you step on stage or at their table? Do you look friendly? Do you make them feel they could welcome you into their home? Step outside of yourself and take a look at the person on stage from their viewpoint. Be bold and make improvements

2. Strike an attitude.

Do your clothes fit with your audience and performing environment? Do you smell nice?(Important!) Do they like your personality and feel they’d like to know you better? Act your age. Do you connect with the audience? Once you do, you’re more than halfway to success.

3. Make eye to eye contact and smile.

Many very skilled magicians never look at their audience but focus on their hands. That’s nerves or ego. Both on and off stage always look directly at people and smile. You’ll get an immediate response Defensive barriers are immediately lowered. Try it next time you show a trick or talk to a waiter. Don’t gush, be yourself

3. Make an initial, friendly remark.

The audience want you to be successful. But they seek a signal that confirms that you are friendly. Make the opening, positive remark that bridges the gap immediately. It can be slightly humorous or formal. Michael Bailey used to open with “Hello. My name is Michael Bailey – I expect you know yours” The ice was broken. Mac King says “Howdy – I’m Mac King” affirming his friendly, country-style persona.

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But in my half century plus of magic there are not one but three magicians who impressed me the most -Dai Vernon, Fred Kaps and John Ramsay, particularly the latter. I saw Dai Vernon when I was in my twenties and whilst I was nowhere in that league I was impressed with the sheer breadth of his knowledge and ability and particularly with the fact that he was not just a specialist in one faction of magic technique. He was as adept at doing a bottom deal as he was in using a hook coin, a faked card or a pull to achieve the miracles that he presented. All credit to Harry Stanley who first brought him over to this country.

Then Fred Kaps. His perfection in thinking and handling was superb and whatever he turned to was the result of outstanding natural ability and technique at which he practised much more than most. To present the floating cork on television with Michael Parkinson, so casual, so natural and then hand the cork to Parkinson was masterly and made you believe in magic. And if you see his tapes note his facial expressions both on and off stage. He showed real surprise and enjoyment in what he was doing and that emotion was conveyed to the audience who joined in. He was magic.

And lastly Johnny Ramsay. I was privileged to see this Scottish grocer and amateur magician in many private sessions in our hotel bedroom at conventions along with other Ramsay fans Jack Avis, Roy Walton and Bobby Bernard.An event that was photographed and published by the national press. But it was Johnny’s naturalness, timing and misdirection that would beat you, long before such strategies blossomed in the USA. Vernon praised Ramsay as the finest close-up magician he had seen and many overseas magicians travelled to his little town on the West coast of Scotland just to witness first-hand his unique and very personal magic. I could write reams about Johnny Ramsay (and probably will) for he was well ahead of his time with outstanding magic that was disguised with his Scottish mannerisms and quaint ways. There are a few (very few) films of him working around today but if you want to get a very good idea of his magic and his way of working get hold of a tape of his magic performed by Scottish magician Andy Galloway (available from International Magic U.K.) who was a protege of Johnny and who was taught his methods and presentations for over a period of seven years. You’ll be fooled (as you always were with Ramsay) and its the nearest thing you’ll see to the original. Or if you fancy diving into the very special world of Johnny Ramsay and his routines, Galloway has published many of his original  effects in several books available from Andy Galloway and dealers.

You’ll probably gather from the above wordage that I am a great fan of Ramsay but I also would count as great close-up workers Vernon and Kaps. There aren’t so many around like that today. They had a very special charisma. They were something special that made them stand out in the crowd. More about Ramsay later and a few routines perhaps that I published based on his style.

We were in concert party together. Sixteen years of age and bursting with footlights fever. I did magic, he did vent. He looked the same as he does today. Balding, thick lens glasses, with a Jewish persona (here he interrupts me as he always did and says it’s Semitic, not Jewish) an endless stream of chat and a skin as thick as a well-filled Gucci wallet (not pigskin).

Born in the East End of London, his mother was a singer and theatrical costumier and his father a furrier. His father spoke with an East European accent but insisted he was French rather than acknowledge that his homeland was Poland. He felt that a French ancestry carried more class. Many times his father related how he sat in a Paris restaurant and saw “dis liddle cripple fidgeting and doodling on de tablecloth”. Bobby always remonstrated with his father for never retrieving a Toulouse Lautrec original!

Born with bad eyesight, at four years of age his mother promised to take him to the “joke” shop if he accepted the painful eye treatment with acetic acid prescribed by the school doctors. Never one to miss an opportunity he finished up in Davenports where a man in a Fedora hat changed a penny into a shilling and George Davenport made a penknife change colour. The seed was sown even at that early age.

His was a typical, continuing, youthful interest in magic and in his teens he had the semblance of a magic act with ventriloquism thrown in. That’s when I met him and together we joined the Institute of Magicians in Bolt Court, London under the beady, watchful eye of President Madame Zomah. By day he was a clerk in a shipping office and by night a magician and a member of a repertory company – The Dickensian Tabard Players – headed by a famed actor Bransby Williams. For a pittance they presented plays in old people’s homes, institutions, schools, anywhere there was an audience who could not afford the price of a West End theatre ticket.

Whilst still passionate about magic, Bobby, a born extrovert, became, hooked on theatre and stage performances and his unique Jewsih visage saw him cast in many character roles including Fagin in “Oliver Twist” (Unlike Alec Guinness he needed little make up!) Magic and acting were mutual bedfellows and his employers were very understanding when it came to time off to play a theatre or magic booking. The fact that his managing director’s wife was the sister of magician Eddie Dexter probably had something to do with it.

Always good at selling himself, in 1956 he went to the U.S. where he was booked to present an act in a convention gala show. His lifetime friend Val Andrews wrote and produced an original magic act for him built around a nouveau riche golfer that had some genuinely funny and original highspots. One of his youthful characteristics was his conceit, which at that time prevented him from adequately rehearsing and working in the act before leaving these shores despite strong protestations from Val Andrews.The act died a death thus creating a tombstone in the U.S. around the name Bernard. Today he commendably and gracefully acknowledges that it was sheer arrogance and egotism that led him to take this fateful course.

Another acting highlight that did win praise was his character impersonation of historic magician Isaac Fawkes at The Magic Circle Diamond Jubilee celebrations. By now his voice and stage projection became noticeably stronger and more professional and he decided to go into the acting business full time. His employer (still under the influence of Eddie Dexter’s sister) allowed him to continue working in the shipping office as temporary clerk with approved absences to take acting parts when they occurred

But with such distinctive facial appearance and mannerisms he was never going to get the lead in Hamlet. But over the years he has performed in theatre, television, radio and films in many notable classic character roles. He has also worked in opera with the English National Opera Company and at Covent Garden, not as a singer but as supporting actor in many classic productions. For one opera he recreated Horace Goldin’s “Sawing Through” .But his main claim to fame in the magic world is his infallible, encyclopaedic knowledge of magic and magicians. He has met most of the greats in the past fifty years – you name them, he’s met them. Jack Chanin, Al Flosso, Al Baker, Dai Vernon, Billy O’Connor, John Ramsay, Albert Goshman, Herb Zarrow,Slydini, Jimmy Grippo, Jay Marshall, Jasper Maskelyne, The Great Masoni. Cecil Lyle, Robert Harbin, Dante, Kalanag, Edward Victor, Al Koran, Cy Endfield – the international list is endless. Each account of his discussions with them contain a certain amount of theatrical embroidery but the basic facts are infuriatingly correct.

He also has knowledge and has been a friend of many performers on the fringe of magic. The ones you don’t see at magic clubs like Charlie Edwards a London street performer who did the stacked deck better than Si Stebbins according to Dai Vernon. Bobby has a repertoire of set pieces which always impress the uninitiated and  newcomers to magic. He does an excellent coin star where five coins are balanced on each fingertip, dropped into the opposite hand, vanished only to appear back on each fingertip. He also handles Spellbound very well as he does with most coin moves. Nowadays he doesn’t perform magic but has tutored many younger performers who’ve gone on to win many competitions under his magic and stage guidance.

Now in his retirement he will still take on lucrative TV commercials or stage roles if offered. A great collector of close-up magic and ephemera as well as knowledge, his bachelor flat in North London where he has lived for over 50 years is a veritable museum of magic as performed for over half a century. It is like the scene from Citizen Kane where a lifetime’s acquisitions are stacked ceiling high. Collectors from America and Europe often seek him out and persuade him to part with an unobtainable treasure but he drives a hard bargain with his well researched knowledge.

Nowadays I find him more mellow, more tolerant and kindly to younger magicians whom he helps with advice and knowledge. He still does not tolerate fools (He extinguishes them) and is scornful of magicians who lack a basic knowledge of the history of the art. A heart attack and surgery remind him of the approaching scenario of the rest of his life but his mind is still clear, still sharp. A regular visitor to The Magic Circle every Monday where he seeks the company of magicians and once a week, before his recent death, he visited his friend Val Andrews  with whom he shared a half century of friendship, show business and magic.

In a rare, quiet moment recently Bobby said to me “ I don’t kid myself about acting – it’s nothing more than being paid for showing off!” As I’ve always suspected, underneath all the huff and puff, schmaltz and brouhaha, there is a genuine, nice human being.

He has now decided to pass these items into other hands to preserve the historic value of these unique pieces and so he has put up much of his private collection for auction. It will take place at the Bloomsbury Auction Rooms on the 16th May at 24 Maddox Street, London W.1. at 11.00 am. A catalogue would be worth acquiring but if you want more information contact www.bloomsburyauctions.com.You’ll find a rare Aladdin’s cave of magic.

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.

“What’s your name?”

“Isaiah sir”

“Why do they call you Isaiah?”

“Cos one eyes ‘igher than the other!” 

Later we were both members of the group that used to meet every Saturday in London with Jack Avis, Roy Walton, Alex Elmsley and others and Bobby was always at every magic event in the magic calendar. He is part of the scenery of the last half century and nobody has had more contact with the greats all over the world or has more detailed knowledge of magic, its methods and its practitioners than most other people of that era.

He is truly a walking magic encyclopedia.

Which is why it is somewhat sad but timely I suppose that I read that he is putting his lifetime’s collection of magic, apparatus, ephemera and souvenirs of his close relationship with magic and magicians, carefully gathered for  the last sixty years up for auction.

I’ve been to his flat and it is truly an Aladdin’s cave. It is packed from floor to ceiling with wonderful items. Tricks that you cannot buy any more. Gifts from many of the greats he has met. Exquisite paintings of himself and other magicians, signed photographs, one off items made by the legendary magic craftsman Martin and much more.

It’s sad that such a loving collection is being released to the magic world but Bobby as well as many of us is getting older, not always in the best of health but still turning up every week at The Magic Circle and conventions and unable to care for the wonderful souvenirs of a lifetime in magic.

I’m glad that a professional auctioneer is to handle the sale of his collection, the same company that did so well in disposing recently of part of John Fisher’s vast collection. The date was fixed for 3rd April but I understand that it is now to be staged in May the date to be announced.

 If you’d like to possess a unique part of the history of magic from the last half century then you’d do well to grab the catalogue when it is published and get yourself along to the auction when the date is announced. Watch this space.

It’s sad that Bobby is giving up his lifetime’s acqisitions but generous that he is passing real magic  gems onto the next generation so they may enjoy their real worth.

I’ll tell you more about Bobby in a later item.