Certainly!

So – do you do sponge balls? Of course you do. Everybody does but I think we are all guilty of unwittingly revealing the secret.

Let me tell you a story. When I was seventeen I did a show for a scout troop and performed a sponge ball routine. Two years later after my national service I was asked to present another show at the same scout troop. The organiser said “will you do that trick whereby you put a ball in a boy’s hand and three came out?” “Oh” I replied, “you mean the sponge ball trick” “Oh” he said “they’re made of sponge are they!” And I realised I had blown the method.

Since that day I have never called them sponge balls which we all do in the magic vernacular. If you avoid the noun “sponge “and call it a ball, the participating spectator may know they collapse in his hand but there could be a hundred people out in the audience who think they are solid balls. And with the close-textured Goshman balls made today, it is easy to believe that they are solid.

Some of the great sponge ball workers never called them “sponge” Don Alan would show a ball in his hand and joke “I have a small red ball – but I do the best I can!” Likewise Billy McComb would say “I have a small red ball – which was of great concern to my parents!”

Similarly when I do a vanishing cane in newspaper I walk into the booking with the cane already set and make a great play of showing it, tapping it on the floor and pointing to things.

Then when it vanishes, they think “where the devil did the solid cane go.” If you walk in with a small bag and suddenly appear on stage with a three -foot walking cane, it could begin to suggest that it’s collapsible.

It’s little things like that that can give away the beginnings of a secret. I do a book test and put on my glasses to read a crib for the word revelation. A very intelligent  lady – a chemistry professor – said “Why do you put your glasses on when you reveal the word to the spectator ?” 

I quickly re-routined the effect and put the glasses on way, way ahead of the actual revelation. It’s important to view your magic from the audience’s position. It can be very revealing.

Magic wise there are an awful lot of magicians doing their version of matrix and the like and many of them not good. However the site is full of some great clips of performers by some of the greats of the past – Cardini, Channing Pollock, Al Koran,Marvyn Roy, Howard de Courcey, Roy Benson, Karrell Fox, Mac King, Johnny Paul, Al Flosso, Don Alan, and I even found a old and blurry film of Dante but with enough detail to make it interesting. Now there was a find for anyone who never saw him. I think you could probably call up any name magician past and present and be pretty sure that you’ll find something of interest.

Comedy wise I found some gems of great comedians of the past both U.K. and U.S. Bob Hope, Max Miller, Jimmy James, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, George Burns, Jack Benny and many many more. I had never seen comedy magician Harry Anderson until I stumbled across an 11 minute clip of his stage act doing a straight jacket escape alongside his wife tied up in rope to a chair. His style and comedy presentation was valuable in studying performances rather than secrets  and I  have spent many pleasant evenings pulling up artistes that I remember from years ago and the experience is thoroughly entertaining and of great interest.

If you want to improve your magic  presentation spend some time on You Tube. I promise you’ll not regret it.

In the  Great Room  at Grosvenor House  in London there are normally seated 800 guests at eighty tables; they are all talking, the band is playing very loudly as if to prove its professionalism and guests are there to drink, eat and have a good time. What would happen if you walked unannounced up to the table and said “Good evening. I’m a magician and I’d like to show you some tricks!” Not much.

I came back to magic some ten years ago working with Bob Read and a very experienced  group of table magicians  at Grosvenor House and I quickly learned the art of crashing a table. They gave me some very good tips.

* Spot a gap on the table where there is likely to be a sympathetic guest – usually a lady.

* Don’t go in until there is a gap in the conversation. There’s nothing worse than walking in when a guest is coming to the punchline of a joke. Watch your timing.

* On every table there is a comedian – a guest who’ll take over all the conversation, tell the jokes and aspire to be the star of the group. You step in and steal his limelight and he’ll hate you. Identify him, involve him and make him important by including him one of your effects. Make him your ally.

* When working (I always try and work with lady guests- they’re usually more co-operative) after presenting a trick or two go to the other side of the table and present a few more effects from that position so involving the whole table. 

* Try for effects that you can present at eye level so everyone can see. Nothing starts people talking and becoming disinterested as a trick that you work down at waist level, Watch out for big vases of flowers centre table – either move them or work around them so everyone can see what you’re doing.

* Find a way of introducing yourself to the table.  In a smaller restaurant you can say “The Manager has asked me to provide you with some entertainment with his compliments” And then go into your first effect.

* A strategy I’ve used for many years is to walk up to a table, dressed in dinner suit which could mistake you for a manager and done the following.

1) I walk up and say “We’ve found a ladies gold wedding ring in the restaurant” Wait for some negative replies and then pull out of your pocket a large two inch gold ring and say “I take it this ring doesn’t belong to anyone on this table!” You’ll get a laugh or a snigger but smile and say “I’m kidding you – this is my wife’s wedding ring – she came from a big family”

They then realise  that something special is about to happen. I then go into my “Staggering” routine with the ring and a lace which I have done for over ten years. I’ve never been told to push off. People are there to enjoy themselves.

2) Other ways I’ve used to break into a table are dropping a Fire Wallet on the floor, bending down to pick it up, showing it and saying “We’ve found a gentleman’s wallet on the floor - does this belong to anyone on this table?” Before you get a reply or riposte open the wallet, ignite the flame,  let it burn for a few moments and say “Oh I expect it belongs to the Fire Prevention Officer”. Put the wallet away and as they realise that it’s a joke go into your magic.

3) Another approach similar to the above is to make up a folding note with a £50.00 banknote, pick it up off the floor and ask the same question. After any remarks just extend your hand toward the middle of the table, pause for a few seconds and then have the note fold it self in half, then into quarters and then into eighths. Do it slowly and you’ll get rapt attention from everyone. A lovely dodge shown to me by Pat Page was to have a similar folded note palmed in the right finger palm and after the note has folded do a shuttle pass into the right hand open it up and display the note.

* Another stunt I do to gain attention is to use Don Alan’s Coat Hanger from Purse. Pick up a purse, ask the question and then open it and show coins, keys etc finally pulling a coat hanger from the purse. When you do this always drop the coat hanger loudly onto the table to prove its solidity.

* There is another excellent stunt shown to me by a magician in the west of England. Add a blank card to a normal pack, spread them so that all you see are the white ends of the cards and the blank card on top and hold the spread pack in the left hand so it looks like an order pad  Then pretend to hold a pencil at similar height in the right hand. Approach the table and say”May I take your wine order” in a manner perhaps like John Cleese. You’ll be told that they’ve already ordered the wine and then say “In that case can I show you a card trick” and in so doing fold or slip the blank card onto the bottom of the pack and fan the cards as if inviting a selection.

I hope these ideas will give you some thoughts as to how you might like to crash into a table. All the above have been used at Grosvenor House and  truly – they worked.

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).