Nowhere was this philosophy more confirmed this week when I read that Nick Einhorn, one of our busiest, skilled and most  successful performers did a high profile gig for a bank in the South of France – and scored with the 20th century bra trick! When I  know some of the brilliant things that he does that  I am sure he presented for his audience, I am heartened when I hear that he also included what many dismiss as old time music hall magic, below the interest of many of our magic elite.

This was also confirmed when I saw an interview given to the media by Paul Daniels, unquestionably one of our most successful magicians of the last century, when asked to do a trick to promote his forthcoming variety tour - did the long card!

These tricks may be passe to many but to magicians who know the public and are paid to entertain them – they are gold dust.

For example. Frank Carson, still belting out the Irish one liners and still  getting the bookings at corporate dinners and other venues.

Cannon and Ball – had a period out of the limelight with personal problems – the duo comedy routines and style are possibly dated but they’ll probably catch the right mood with the audience that will be attracted to this show.

 Paul Daniels – still a name and still appearing all over the place but I bet he’ll present the act that got him into TV in the first place and brought national success - the chop cup, linking rings and the electric chair routine, all of which he still does superbly today better than most magicians. His high speed chop cup routine is totally individual  and he has made it his own. He’ll be good.

And then Jimmy Cricket, still funny in his quaint Irish way and I bet he’ll score. Did you know that at one time he worked in the shop for Ron MacMillan and had a legs table made with two legs in green wellies for his act?

Rest of the bill are Brotherhood of Man, Eurovision contest winner and The Krankies – we’ll I don’t know about them for I haven’t seen them for years. It may be old style entertainment but I bet they’ll get good houses.

The 20 million viewers that “Britain’s Got Talent” secured for the final  and the whole series could I believe  signal the renaissance of a new audience for variety. It could happen, not in theatres but in town halls, civic centres and other venues.

The “Best of British Variety“ is touring throughout Britain in 21 towns and you’ll find details on www.tdpromo.com  

I’m thinking here of far-flung magical thinkers like Stewart James, buried in the wilderness of Canada whose output and ideas were revolutionary. Others like Peter Duffie, a man who is largely incommunicado, hidden in the outskirts of Glasgow and his nearby neighbour Roy Walton who is rarely seen but whose original output over the years has led to world fame. Another was Jack Avis who published over six hundred effects and routines during a lifetime of reading and research pursued in an armchair in Sydenham and who presented magic to an audience on less than six occasions.

But there is another ghost, also hiding in a tree-lined street in SE26, not a cough away from Jack Avis. Lewis Jones. Whose close proximity led to regular weekly meetings that resulted in a huge output of magic ideas that were jointly published in a book “Ahead of the Pack.” You may have seen his name in books and magazines from time to time but are not familiar with his work. But many of the greats have applauded his ideas and creativity. Paul Daniels admits to having included several of Jones’s routines in his permanent performances. Michael Close has compared him with Stewart James. Ian Rowland says he has a remarkable mind with alarmingly baffling plots. Al Smith compares him to Paul Curry and Stewart James. Steve Beam states that Jones is in his top ten card men of the world and Penn & Teller said “Don’t buy his books – they give away too many secrets!”

Jones has spent a lifetime in pure magic creativity lubricated  by his academic background in languages and science. He has come up with some quite brilliant ideas and filled twelve books with some of the most profound thinking to be seen this side of Annemann, T.A. Waters and Larry Becker. A quiet, polite, retiring personality who looks something like a university professor and whose dogged pursuit of magical knowledge is prodigious. He has authored hundreds of ideas with cards, coins, small magic, mental magic, mathematical principles and others utilising his probing mind.

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne his first contact with magic was a performance by Dante at a local theatre, a casual interest that stayed with him throughout his childhood. Later he won a state scholarship to Cambridge University where he graduated in modern languages. With a vivid imagination and a natural aptitude for writing he created a number of radio drama scripts and short stories for the BBC at the same time feeding his interest in magic theory and detail throughout his academic years. Like Avis he is an avid reader and collector of information and he began to amass books and references on magic and other subjects relevant to his profession. A habit that continues today where the walls of his home are hidden by thousands of books, a collection that required him to move to a larger house some years ago. At one time he was regularly in touch with famed magic bookseller George Jenness who kept him fed with volumes of the latest magic.

On leaving university he wrote scripts and took a number of teaching posts and was then offered a position in Singapore working as a script writer and producer in national radio. The opportunity to work in a small, flexible, creative environment suited his temperament and he stayed for eleven years. Not only was he writing plays, scripts and producing programmes, but he became a broadcaster and commentator on various events including badminton which had become a passion and an active pastime.

It was here that he met Susheela Devi, the lead violinist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra that led to their return to England where she took up a position with Sadlers Wells. Lewis became a freelance writer and scripted a number of science series for the BBC for many years. Today, in semi retirement he still makes contributions on scientific matters to American publications.  It was in England that he recognised a face in a TV magic show of a former pupil at his school. It was Martin Breese and the two met and celebrated their hitherto unknown interest in magic.

His analytical and encyclopaedic mind has devised many codes, cryptographic and mathematical methods that have led to the publication of several highly praised magic books and manuscripts. His long distance thought-reading effect “Transmission Impossible” was used by Paul Daniels as a climax to one of his TV magic spectaculars.

In constant touch with many of the scattered, like-minded, worldwide magi he continues today developing ideas, making notes and observing the world scene of serious magic. To this end he flies back to Singapore twice a year to keep contact with his friends in and out of magic. Here they made him an honorary member of the IBM. This octogenarian wizard shows no let up in his output having just completed and published his twelfth book “The Magic Gourmet” which has received enthusiastic reviews worldwide.

On the shelves of many of the world’s finest creators of magic you will find Jones’s lifetime output – Shampagne, Imp Romp 2, The Spring of 52, Cardiograms, Con Sessions, Lusions, Counter Feats, The Paragon Move, Person to Person – a book of teleohone telepathy, Ahead of the Pack (with Jack Avis), Seventh Heaven, Encyclopedia of Impromptu Card Forces and now The Magic Gourmet. He must be currently Britain’s most prodigious magic author.

Now then all together, what about a quick riffle of the cards around the world for Lewis Jones.