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.

I spoke to Matt who confirmed that many of the Page classics, the Miser’s Dream, the Stacked Deck, the Coins Through the Table and other gems were indeed included in this new book to which Pat is constantly adding fresh touches and photographs. This must be his Opus, a publication of his lifetime in magic which will undoubtedly be a major work that will be an outstanding British publication as I understand that Pat is publishing it himself.

This is big news indeed and I know a hundred people who would place an order tomorrow for possession of the work of one of Britain’s finest masters of magic. Put me down for the first copy!

Entrance is free to Magic Circle members on production of their membership card. Other guests – £5.00 per adult  and £3.00 per person under 16 years of age. Tickets are available at the door. For further guest or dealer enquiries please contact the organiser –  Dr. Peter Altman 01923 404918

He then visually compounded his view by showing film clips of great moments in films, sport and theatre where the performance commanded  excitement, anticipation, attention and focus that led to a personal emotional experience on the part of the viewer.. This included diverse subjects such as the lighting of the Olympic flame by an athlete firing a flaming arrow high into the air to ignite the opening of the world’s greatest sporting event. He showed how Michael Jackson burst on stage and stood motionless for over two minutes, boosting the audience frenzy prior to his performance.  Back in time we saw clips as to how silent film star Buster Keaton could provoke genuine emotion and anticipation without words being one of the world’s greatest silent clowns.

All this was sheer joy to me as for years I have asserted the value of presentation over secrets and Richard McDougall is a fine example of the value of this philosophy. His FISM prizewinning magic act embraces sleight of hand and mime that is pure theatre and lifts him above the crowd. And he has an act holding a large white goose; no cheeky boy cross talk but a wonderful solo script and acting with the bird that is sheer entertainment. I once saw Richard give a talk on stage movement and motivation to a magic convention in Paris some years ago that shook many out of their perpetual card juggling. Nowadays, as well as his magic he makes his living conducting seminars for corporate groups teaching them how to present and sell themselves and their products. Richard McDougall represents in Europe an overlooked magic theatre philosophy that could change the careers of many magicians much as Jeff McBride has done in the USA.

I don’t wish to muscle in on Richard’s work but his beliefs about presentation are echoed completely in my KISS lecture which perhaps accounts for my enthusiasm for his work. Make sure you catch Richard  who will be appearing at the IBM Eastbourne convention in three weeks time. 

He ran with clockwork precision the stage show for the “Meet The Magic Circle” evenings and the Magic Circle Christmas Show which became a sell out and financially successful event year after year attracting performers from all over the world. I remember one magic routine which he performed to perfection whereby he could riffle the pack and find any card called for. He told me it was taught to him by another practitioner of the effect Len Wallace and Chris did it with the ease of a master.It was his signature piece. With a career in the legal profession he always presented a calm, considered persona even in sometimes heated political arguments on magic matters but I never, never saw him lose his cool. It was an admirable trait that endeared him to many but sometimes drew caustic comment from others.

He was a gentleman in every way both on and off stage and magic has lost a true friend and ally. All our feelings and condolences are extended to his wife Gill and her family at this time although his demise follows a long and debilitating illness when they staunchly stood by him day by day. Thank you Chris for your friendship and all you kindnesses.

Effect:

A card is selected and returned and the pack is freely shuffled and cut by several spectators and placed on the floor. It was then covered by a tabloid size newspaper and the cards were commanded to cut themselves at the selected card. The spectator removed the paper and the cards were seen to be cut a right angles in the form of a cross and when the top half of the pack was removed, the chosen card was revealed on top of the lower half.

This simple plot succeeded because of Alex’s reputation and the build-up that he used to surround the presentation (Read his book “The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley” if you want more depth to his ideas on how to present an effect).

Method:

There is no method. As mentioned it was sheer audacity. Alex was sitting beside a table on which rested a glass of his favourite falling down water and his evening paper. Some time earlier he had deposited about a quarter of the pack face down under the newspaper and left it there. (John Ramsay also used to get up to this same kind of subterfuge from time to time. He’d sit with coins palmed in his hands for half an hour, knowing that at some time someone would ask him to do a trick.)

Inevitably someone asked Alex to do a trick so he produced a pack of cards (less the cards already under the newspaper), had a card selected, controlled, palmed out whilst the pack was split in two and given to two spectators to shuffle and cut. This covered the fact that it was a short pack. The cards were assembled and the card was secretly re-introduced on top of the pack.

The pack was placed on the floor and the newspaper picked up with one hand, together with the cards underneath and casually tossed over the pack making sure that the added pack was roughly at right angles to the cards on the floor.

A sip of whisky and Alex extolled the impossible conditions and the presence of a ghostly gambler who could always cut a pack to any position. A spectator was asked to lift the paper to reveal the cut pack in a cross. The top half was removed and the next card turned over to reveal the chosen card.

Many people that evening were fooled because their minds were conditioned to believe that Alex possessed some super new idea involving one of his cunning methods. But he was just as adept at presenting an effect as performing a difficult method.

I believe it was Max Maven who said that doing a mental effect was easy – it’s the presentation that is the hard part. Alex later said his inspiration for this casual piece of foolery came from the coin tray whereby coins on a small metal tray were poured into the spectators hand whilst extra coins hidden underneath the tray were added in the move.

If you want inspiration think simple – think of the magic of past years.

I have a show next Tuesday at The Magic Circle so thoughts are back on stream.  Twice a month they have an open evening “Meet the Magic Circle” in which people can come and have an evening of magic at their great headquarters in Euston, London. Reception, drinks, refreshments, a close-up show with six pro magicians, a tour of The Magic Circle Museum, a talk by the President Alan Shaxon on “The History of Mystery” and then a show with compere and four acts in the 120 seat theatre. I am one of the acts.

Its been very popular for ten years and is always fully booked almost twelve months ahead. There is an admission charge and this is how we pay for the upkeep of this fabulous Centre for the Magic Arts. We are very lucky to have such a fabulous headquarters. Anyhow – back to the routine.

It is a grand, Victorian building high on a hill overlooking the City of London where many disabled people are tended by a very dedicated and caring staff. And it was a delight to find that the nurses, carers and doctors, largely a younger generation, all knew of David Devant and his connection with the home. They also spoke of the visits by The Magic Circle to present shows that have continued since Devant’s time, when a story hit the press when he proclaimed that he was baffled by a trick performed by the then president Francis White which gleaned much publicity for him.

It all confirms the wide awareness and esteem held by the public today about possibly the most famous magic society in the world.

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.

“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.