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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I’VE ALWAYS BEEN AN ADVOCATE of the magic philosophy expressed by Pat Page and top TV producer John Fisher who both said “Magic isn’t about secrets – it’s about performances” I was reminded of this when speaking recently with Roy Walton, he told me of one Saturday morning when we were all assembled in Davenports when someone [...]
Posted on July 6th, 2008 by John
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HAD A DELIGHTFUL LUNCH WITH ROY WALTON and his wife Jean this week (started at 1.00pm and finished at 5.00pm!) during their brief visit to the big smoke. We have been friends since we were teenagers but after marrying Jean of the famed Davenport family, he gave up a career in the computing industry and decided [...]
Posted on June 21st, 2008 by John
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THERE ARE MANY GHOSTS IN MAGIC. People who are heard but not seen. People buried in the scenery of the magic landscape. People who make a tremendous contribution to the intellect of magic by their profound thinking and creativity often stimulated by their isolation from the magic tribe. People who rarely or never perform magic in [...]
Posted on May 26th, 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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I THINK IT IMPORTANTthat the performances of some of our greatest magicians are preserved on film or tape for future generations, to be aware of what made them the best. Nowadays with camcorders and widespread visual technology this is happening but it would have been wonderful had such facility been available years ago. It would [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2008 by John
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I KNEW JACK AVIS FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS. Ten years after I first met him I married his sister and whilst we didn’t discuss much magic whilst I was in business, for the first ten years of my retirement and my return to magic we met every week, sometimes more, had holidays together and talked much [...]
Posted on March 16th, 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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Just come to the surface after drowning in magic in the past few days at Blackpool. Lots of highlights, some lowlights but like a mixed grill you might like the sausages but hate the tomatoes! Making notes for this site in the next two days so lots more details and things to see for the [...]
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by John
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