February 2017 Newsletter

19 April 2024

Hello Visitor

Welcome to my February, 2017 Newsletter.

Mr Swallow - Houdini

I've always thought that the reason most magicians go into magic is that they have a desire to perform but don't actually possess any skills.  As a generalisation they can't dance, can't sing, can't act and can't tell jokes.  That is why so few magic routines contain any of these elements.  Magicians justify it by saying it would merely be a distraction, taking away from the important part - the impact of the magic.  And that argument certainly has validity.

Those magicians who are gifted, or have learnt, other skills, tend to utilise them away from magic.  Andy Nyman, for example, has pursued his acting well away from magic.  I know, from his facebook page, that Paul Gordon enjoys singing: but I don't think he ever mixes it up with his close-up card routines.  Quite a few magicians have turned to comedy - but have decided gradually to drop the magic.

That is not to say that attempts to merge different disciplines have not been tried; but often with mixed success.  Both Mike Danata in this country and Darren Romeo in the US combined singing and magic together.  Quite a few performers have written plays that incorporate magic into them.  I have had a go at a couple myself but can't say that either was a critical (or indeed financial) triumph.  Paul Zenon in Linking Rings had a good go at it recently; as against his enjoyable show, I've seen a few real turkeys.

In some ways I've always felt a bit sorry for magicians who do have additional skills - in that they just haven't found an environment in which to showcase them.  What would you do as a performer if you could genuinely sing, dance, act, tell jokes and do magic?  Well this month I found my answer. You would do a show called Mr Swallow - Houdini; the only drawback being that you have to be as talented as Nick Mohammed.

This genuinely was the best show I've ever seen that seamlessly incorporated so many diverse performing arts.  Admittedly it helped having an ensemble company - Nick had two assistants and a piano player; but that took nothing away from his own part.  The plot was simple.  Mr Swallow, as played by Nick, recreates the life of Houdini, culminating in his famous water torture escape.  Along the way he learns how to pick locks, attends a séance to contact his mother and sees a doctor to determine whether he is fit enough to perform the dangerous stunt.  These scenarios provide plenty of opportunities both to perform magic, break into musical numbers carried out with great gusto by the three performers and involve absurdist, but hilarious, set pieces.

Standard magic routines are given a completely fresh look, particularly so his version of the Chop Cup, a million miles away from Paul Daniels. The quick release escape from a chained lock is brilliantly enacted.  Throw-away bits of magic, such as a silk handkerchief to a cane and production of a bunch of flowers, are done with panache.  Big illusions are also in the production.  The Sub Trunk is one such, the swift exchange of one person with another, which was first made famous by Houdini as Metamorphosis.  And the climax of the show, the escape from the Water Cell, did look genuinely dangerous.

What was also impressive was the fact that we were sitting up in the balcony, with the worse possible angle for some of the illusions.  And yet the staging was so good that you really couldn't see anything untoward.  The sudden, and unexpected, drop down of a curtain from the ceiling over the Water Cell was both dramatic and magically satisfying.

The whole production was a tour de force.  Still time to see it - you won't regret it: Soho Theatre to 18th February.

Mr Swallow PS

I loved in the blurb about the show, Nick has a dig at The Secret Life of Houdini.  He writes: "Forget William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s painstakingly researched 608-page book The Secret Life of Houdini (IT. IS. BOR-ING.)"

Graves

It was thanks to Noel Britten that I saw Nick's show.  The previous day we had spent a rather different few hours - visiting the gravestones of dead magicians at Highgate Cemetery.  Following my talk in December on David Devant, the first President of The Magic Circle, and the man considered by many to be the greatest magician of this country ever, it seemed only right that I should actually visit his grave.  Fortuitously there are two other well-known magicians also buried in the cemetery.

The first of these is Carlton, a comedy magician of the early 20th century and one of the highest paid music hall performers of his time.  The second was Colonel Stodare, the performer of one of the most famous illusions, and iconic images, in 19th century magic, known as the Sphinx illusion.

The Sphinx is an illusion that we know Charles Dickens saw because his daughter wrote to him asking how it was done.  Dickens, who was always convinced that he knew most things about everything - and quite often did - attempted an explanation in a letter.  Unfortunately, as my book goes into in some depth, he was way off track; but what he did provide was a very good description of the way in which Stodare performed the trick. 

One of the problems that magic historians face when trying to work out how tricks of the past were done, is that the information they are given is just too scant to recreate the presentation, and therein by possibly, the method.  I still find it remarkable that Dickens inadvertently provided that.

Aspects of PD

On Monday 16th January, there was a tribute evening to Paul Daniels at The Magic Circle.  Hosted by Barry Murray it looked at different aspects of Daniels that perhaps some of us might not have considered.  His abilities as a comedian and game-show host, his knowledge of large-scale illusions, his love of collecting, his early days as Ted Daniels in the Northern Men's Working Clubs and his interaction with the new generation of young magicians.  Topping it all off was an interview with Debbie McGee who emotionally confessed that she wasn't yet ready to perform any magic herself, as it just reminded her too much of Paul.

There were certainly some aspects of Daniels that I had not fully appreciated.  Colin Edmonds, a comedy script writer, had some anecdotes about the speed of Paul's ad-libbing; and quite a touching story about taking the props off-stage of a fellow performer who had just died a ghastly death on stage - so that he wouldn't have to make the 'walk of shame' to collect them himself.  Colin said that in his view Daniels, after Bob Monkhouse and Bruce Forsyth, was the best game show host he had ever known.

Colin was certain that Daniels could have been a 'straight' comedian if he had wished.  It reminded me of Pat Page - another comedy magician - saying about yet another excellent comedy magician, Billy McComb: "if he hadn't loved magic so much, he could have been a star".  Meaning that he could have flourished, and perhaps had more opportunities, if he had dropped the tricks.  This dilemma was never posed to Daniels, of course, because he did become a star with the magic.

My own view on Daniels is that he certainly had all the attributes to become a comedian; he was an excellent joke and story teller and a master of comic timing.  But he was absolutely at his best when interacting with people from the audience.  Undoubtedly he could have made a living being a comedian; but whether he could have become a household name from comedy alone is open to debate.

The evening included quite a few video clips of magicians either talking about, or paying tribute to, Daniels.  But sadly only one of him actually performing.  It was an early television appearance on the The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, the programme which gave him his initial breakthrough.  There was one trick on that which I had never seen Daniels do, so that was great to see.  Some of the jokes, though, were very '70s' and I did hear some audible gasps from one or two younger members surrounding me in the packed auditorium at The Magic Circle.

Three overseas magicians paid tribute.  Penn, from Penn & Teller, made the point, in typical Penn style, that Daniels was the best back-stage story teller that he had ever come across; and that included performers such as Steve Martin, Orson Welles and Dean Martin - so quite an accolade.  Luis de Matos, the Portuguese magician, said that Daniels had always been his favourite magician.  He was one of those lucky enough to meet and work with his hero.  Luis was responsible for producing the three DVDs, called Bravura, in which Daniels explains the workings of his entire act.  It would have been a tragedy if that hadn't been done before he died.

The final tribute was from David Copperfield.  Whereas all the other magicians on video had clearly spent time both thinking what they wanted to say, and articulating it well, it was clear from Copperfield that he hadn't given it much more than a second's thought before he stepped in front of the camera.  The clip was short; and in it he said that his favourite trick of Daniels' was the Cups & Balls.

What he meant to say was the Chop Cup - to non-magicians the distinction is fairly irrelevant: one uses one cup, the other more than one (usually three).  Balls appear and disappear and normally the finish is a production of fruit.  But to magicians there is a huge difference.  Ask any magician what was Daniels' best trick was, and the majority would probably say the Chop Cup.

How could Copperfield have made such an elementary blunder?  It is possible that nobody had told him the video was exclusively for magicians - so he had used the more generic, and better recognised, term. My own theory is that Copperfield had never actually seen Daniels perform; he hardly has the time, working a ridiculous number of shows every year.  Or if he had, it was such a long time ago, that he had forgotten what he did. 

Either way it was an embarrassing slip-up: Daniels deserved better from one of the few magicians who in terms of achievements could be considered his equal.

Health and Safety Gone Mad

I can't say I'm a 'Health and Safety has gone mad' type of person.  Normally when there is a notice, or a piece of legislation, that advises somebody to behave in a certain way, you can understand the logic of it. 

The other day I bought a cup of coffee in a takeaway cup at a food and drink outlet. It was one of those places where you had to add the milk yourself from a jug a couple of yards away. The woman was about to put the plastic cap on top of the cardboard cup.  I asked if she could leave it off - partly because I wanted to add milk, partly because I wanted to drink it straightway.  I also knew that trying to prise off one of those caps whilst holding a boiling cup can result in a scalding spillage.  Her response was: "I have to put it on - health and safety". I didn't argue. 

I would like to finish this anecdote by saying I then spilt the coffee all over myself as I took off the lid.  Of course I didn't but at least I had the satisfaction of shaking my head and muttering 'it's health and safety gone mad.'

Quote of the month

"You were his volunteer for the whole thing Chris.... you were hilarious."  John Archer with a cracking retort to hypnotist Chris Hare's question as to whether a lecture on hypnotism had taken place at The Magic Circle.