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.

So I was delighted to hear that there is a new Pat Page book in preparation being compiled by American Matt Field, long time editor of over seventy books in the U.S. , winner of a major award for contributions to magic literature and now the editor of The Magic Circular, the official magazine of The Magic Circle, now acknowledged as perhaps the most professional magic magazine in Britain today. Not only in the stunning graphic style he has created but the in depth content which reveals his long experience  and  knowledge of magic and magicians from his many years in the U.S. Now retired and living in Britain where he has taken up the literary magic baton to become one of our most prolific and professional writers of the genre.

No doubt the book will be full of the little subtleties and professional touches that Pat has brought to the performance of magic and I for one am certain that this will be a major publication that will find a huge audience all over the world.

We will give you more details when known.

Patrick takes a pack of cards out of their case and hands the case to the spectator to hold. He will always hold it in the preferred hand – always.That is, if he’s right handed he will always take it in his right hand and vice versa.

Patrick now goes into a classic card force but the spectator now has to choose the card with his other hand – the one he does not  normally use in everyday life. Pat says that because of this, his selection is not immediate and he has to concentrate more than if he were using his preferred hand.

 Patrick swears this makes it a lot easier to get him to pick out the force card. Seeing Pat’s smooth handling of the classic card force I don’t think he’s bothered one way or the other but I know that this subtle piece of performance management works.

Ask him anything about an effect, routine or method and you will get an immediate and accurate response and his knowledge of magic history and past performers is uncanny, on a par with that other encyclopedia of magic Bobby Bernard.

I hope this is true and I warmly applaud the award to one of Britain’s finest magicians.