Posted by Ian on 2009-12-01
in Magician
A book has just been written on the life and times of David Nixon; and at The Magic Circle on Monday there was a tribute to his life.
I began to get interested in magic just as David Nixon was coming towards the end of his career (he tragically died at the age of 59 of cancer); so I can’t recall much about his television magic shows. What everybody was agreed upon was that he had genuine charm. We saw a couple of clips from his old shows on Monday and this charm certainly came across.
However the pace of performing was very pedestrian compared to today’s television. He did one illusion which, if he had performed it on Britain’s Got Talent, he would have been buzzed off long before he was even half way through.
My favourite David Nixon trick was Card in Cigarette. It’s a trick you probably couldn’t even perform now as it involved the transposition of a signed card with a lit cigarette. The card ended up in the cigarette, whilst the tobacco from the latter ended up in the envelope which previously contained the playing card.
So good was the comedy patter which Nixon used that I purloined much of it in my book Stand-Up, A Professional Guide to Comedy Magic, as a template for anybody performing. All the lines (they weren’t really jokes as such) played on his supposed meanness (using second hand envelopes, keeping the cigarette stubs, not wanting to waste the matches) in an amusing way.
It’s long forgotten now but when Paul Daniels came along he was a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to the style of David Nixon: his sharp wit and speed of delivery was in welcome contrast to the slightly sluggish approach of Nixon.
Apparently Nixon told Daniels, when they met by chance in a television studio: “I’ve had my time - it’s your turn now.” It was possible that Nixon knew then he was dying – but it was still a magnanimous gesture.
Ironically, although in many ways Paul Daniels was undoubtedly a better magician than David Nixon, I suspect that posterity will remember Nixon with more affection.
I began to get interested in magic just as David Nixon was coming towards the end of his career (he tragically died at the age of 59 of cancer); so I can’t recall much about his television magic shows. What everybody was agreed upon was that he had genuine charm. We saw a couple of clips from his old shows on Monday and this charm certainly came across.
However the pace of performing was very pedestrian compared to today’s television. He did one illusion which, if he had performed it on Britain’s Got Talent, he would have been buzzed off long before he was even half way through.
My favourite David Nixon trick was Card in Cigarette. It’s a trick you probably couldn’t even perform now as it involved the transposition of a signed card with a lit cigarette. The card ended up in the cigarette, whilst the tobacco from the latter ended up in the envelope which previously contained the playing card.
So good was the comedy patter which Nixon used that I purloined much of it in my book Stand-Up, A Professional Guide to Comedy Magic, as a template for anybody performing. All the lines (they weren’t really jokes as such) played on his supposed meanness (using second hand envelopes, keeping the cigarette stubs, not wanting to waste the matches) in an amusing way.
It’s long forgotten now but when Paul Daniels came along he was a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to the style of David Nixon: his sharp wit and speed of delivery was in welcome contrast to the slightly sluggish approach of Nixon.
Apparently Nixon told Daniels, when they met by chance in a television studio: “I’ve had my time - it’s your turn now.” It was possible that Nixon knew then he was dying – but it was still a magnanimous gesture.
Ironically, although in many ways Paul Daniels was undoubtedly a better magician than David Nixon, I suspect that posterity will remember Nixon with more affection.
