Penn & Teller are currently performing in London at the Hammersmith Apollo. I went with a few friends last night and thought the show was excellent. Contemporary, edgy, funny, thought-provoking, artistic and above all relevant - which, let’s face it, for a magic show is pretty rare. They have been working together for 30 years and I think it’s safe to say that right now they are doing their best work. I saw them in Las Vegas at the Rio last August and the show they are doing in London is sadly missing a few of the larger pieces (namely their famous bullet catch) but it doesn’t suffer too much. I was pleased to see them performing the water tank card trick that I remember seeing on TV in 1994! It’s one of the things that got me hooked on magic, Thanks to YouTube, here is when they did it on their Channel 4 series.

If you have even the vaguest interest in magic and you are anywhere near London this week, you HAVE to see this show!

A couple of pictures from the BIBA 2010 Insurance trade show held at London Excel this month. One is a picture of the amazing magic-themed stand and the second one taken of me with Elaine and Rebecca from Fortis who were working hard manning a “higher/lower” card game for the two days. Two days performing close up magic on a trade show stand is mentally and physically quite tiring… although a few days on I have forgotten that and have started thinking (perhaps delusionally) that I would be quite up for doing another one soon!

Some more great, arty photos taken by the super-talented Graham Morgan of me performing magic at a wedding.

In this photo the bride is checking the £20 note… seconds ago it was a piece of paper!

I’ve just finished 2 days at Excel London at the BIBA 2010 exhibition. BIBA is a huge exhibition attended by insurance companies and brokers from all over the country. It’s huge and every stand has something different to try and liven things up: magicians (of course), caricaturists, lookalikes, promo girls in hotpants and of course all the free pens and keyrings that your heart desires. This is the third time I have attended the exhibition and my second time working for Fortis Insurance. I worked for them last year at Manchester Central and this year they decided to go for a magic themed stand. It looked great and I’ll try and get a picture up soon. 2 days… 16 hours of magic… that’s a lot of magic tricks. I am exhausted and thus off to bed!

Just had this email from a wedding last month.

Hi Rob,

Sorry for the delay in writing but we both just wanted to say a massive thank you for the job you did at our wedding on the 3rd of April 2010. We have had so many people comment to us how amazing you were, it seems you stole the show! Your service has been faultless from extremely prompt contact all the way through to your performance.

We both agreed that on the day you were outstanding. Your magic was awesome! Despite performing for individual tables and being surrounded not one person could dispute your magic! The magic tricks were mind blowing and suited perfectly to the small audiences.

More importantly the way you conducted yourself was very much appreciated, you were discreet enough not to steal the limelight but spread yourself equally around the room so that everyone was entertained. You were very funny and everyone said what a nice person you were (especially the bridesmaids!)

We would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone, please feel free to use this as a reference or pass on my email if they want to know more!

Thanks again for helping make our day so special.

Regards Dean and Sarah Ford

I was just looking through some old blog posts and realised that I have some great photos that capture my performance contained here than I have on my the gallery page of my site. You can find them here, here, here and here

If you are looking online for a close up magician it must be an absolute nightmare. Every one you come across seems to have some amazing references on their website, has worked for numerous top companies and celebrities and if you believe their publicity, is the best magician since Paul Daniels/Derren Brown (delete according to preference).

I see “full time performers” who I know have other jobs, “international acts” who count their summer package holidays as foreign engagements and “award-winning magicians” who as far as I am aware, are referring to the fact they have a 100m swimming certificate.
When taking a look at other magicians’ websites, I have to remember to avoid any hot drinks incase I end up choking and scolding myself when I when I read some of their more outlandish claims. So how do you know who is pulling the wool over your eyes and deceiving you into thinking they will be first class at, well, deceiving you?

If you are looking online for a close up magician to hire for your event: I urge you to check up on the person you are dealing with. If they are performing and working as much as they say they are, there will be plenty of mention of them online. If you search for “Rob James” you’ll find lots of talk about someone with a similar name in Coronation Street and also my namesake who appeared in Canadian Idol a few years ago (which explained why I started getting 500+ visits to my website a day!) But, other than that, you’ll find a fair few mentions of me on external websites which hopefully should lend credence to what I have chosen to publish about myself and my act on this site. To save you a bit of time, here are a few websites that reference having seen me perform or hired me as the close up magician for their event.

“Extraordinary magician Rob James, who you may remember from the Haywood Pavilion party a couple of years back, was so good people were still telling me about what they had seen weeks after the event!”
www.countyhall.org
I have performed at several events in London for the County Hall Residents’ Association.

“Proper ‘close up’ magician Rob James wandered about, confounding small groups with his sleight of hand. I’d hired them because I wanted things to be happening all through the evening”
www.dailymail.co.uk
Author and journalist Bel Mooney has hired me for both her 60th birthday party and her daughter’s wedding, which she references in this article.

“What an absolutely fantastic night we had. Rob James and Gary Brown were amazing. They are both extremely talented magicians as well as being really nice guys. They completely amazed me and many others with their slight of hand. I will definitely be booking them both again in the very near future.”
www.langfordproductions.co.uk
Langford Productions are the most respected talent agency in the South West.

“Next, it was off to the spanish hall again for the Magical close up championships… In my opinion Rob James was the best (in the competition) by far”
www.myspace.com
This is the blog of another magician referring to my performance in a contest at the world’s biggest magic convention held annually in Blackpool.

On Wednesday night I took part in “An Evening of Deception” held at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Organised by local TV presenter Steve Knibbs the show sold out ages ago (although granted, we were in the studio - the main house was reserved for Peppa Pig!!) The show featured three magicians: myself, Andi Gladwin and Thom Peterson. Steve hosted the show and, as a keen amateur magician from Cheltenham himself also performed a trick of his own.

I used the opportunity to debut some new routines I have been working on, including restaging the 200 year old Houdin Blooming Orange Tree which is an amazing automata which is rarely (if ever) seen now. The show was great fun to do and there may be a follow up soon so everyone who likes to see magicians in Cheltenham or Magicians in Gloucestershire could be in luck!

It’s always a pleasure to work alongside other magicians at large events. The life of a close up magician is a fairly solitary one as you drive around the country on your own most of the time so working with other people is always a welcome and more enjoyable way of doing things. The industry term for this is “multiman”!

This is a photo of me with my friends Dave Bonsall and Jamie Raven after a recent event at Anstey Hall, Trumpington/Cambridge. It was a large event and we had to work hard to get round everybody over the course of the evening. Between us we managed it though.
I am always able to arrange a second or third magician if your event calls for it (usually one magician for up to 100-125 people is a good guide). I always work with charismatic, upbeat and dynamic performers that I know will do a fantastic job.

This is a great photo from one of this weekend’s weddings - I was in Bradford on Avon near Bath (and near where I grew up too!)
The photo was taken by Graham Morgan who is an excellent local photographer.