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.

After Christmas I always get a flood of enquiries for weddings, proving that it’s one of the most popular times of the year to get engaged. If you are looking for some fun entertainment for the big day then please take a look through my wedding magician and wedding magician FAQ pages!

Me working my magic at a wedding:

I have spent the last couple of days performing at the SOS Office Supplies show at the Birmingham NEC where I enjoyed meeting and showing some tricks to Duncan Bannatyne. Turns out he is a bit of a magic fan and spent quite a while at the stand.

This month has been pretty hectic and we are only 10 days in… this exhibition, a Christmas party for Fred Perry in the Paramount Tower in London, two weddings (one in Bristol, one at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park in Surrey), an after-dinner performance for a group of accountants in Cambridge, a lively Christmas party near Sandbanks in Dorset, the annual client party for Aberdeen Asset Management in London (always one of my favourite jobs to do!) and a staff event at Soho House in London.

I am looking forward to the rest of the month but also to some time off in January!

December is always a crazy time for close-up magicians. The office party is still going strong and every year about this time myself and my colleagues brave the world of balloons, streamers and party poppers to do our thing.

Last weekend I took part in the International Magic Competition at the Mermaid Theatre in London. This is a close-up magic competition that has a great heritage and generally very high standards. As a kid I would buy the videos of the competitions and watch the performances to get inspiration. A youngish Derren Brown can be seen on one of them, as can Stephen Mulhern. So, it was quite a surreal experience to be part of it for the first time. Standing backstage about to go on before 400 of your peers is to be quiet honest, absolutely terrifying. This year there were entrants from all over the world including Sweden, Korea, Russia and France and in the green room everyone seemed to be doing their best to psych each other out!
The performance went amazingly well and was well received. At the time the awards were announced I was driving on the M1 and a friend called me so I could listen live and I am pleased to say I came 3rd overall (and was the top ranked UK magician in the contest). A great result that I was very happy with.

The next Christmas party I do, if anyone looks like they are going to fire a party popper at me I am not sure that me telling them I was voted in the top 3 close-up magicians in an international contest is going to help me avoid getting covered in streamers though.

Last night I was in Harrogate for at the annual conference for Best Western hotels. 130 of the chain’s management team. Photographer Ed Hackett was on hand and took some excellent photos of me performing close up magic round the tables.

Following on from the picture of me and Paul Daniels I don’t want my blog to become a “pictures of me and celebrities” type thing as I always find it a bit tragic when a magician has lots of pictures of them on their website with their arms roun micro celebs from Big Brother and X Factor who they have bumped into at events. Last night though I was at at an event for Islington Council and the guest speaker was Chris Packham who I know from the Really Wild Show (he has probably done other stuff but that’s what I remember him from doing) - last year I met Michaela Strachan at an event at London Zoo so now I only need Terry Nutkins and I will have collected the set! Thanks to Mickey from Mediamixer for the photos from the event.

Just a quick post to let you know what I’ve been up to. I think the wedding season is wrapping up now (although I am getting loads of enquiries for next Summer). Looking at the diary for the rest of the year I am back to client events, awards dinners and that sort of thing until December and Christmas party season.

Last week I spent five enjoyable nights working at a series of client evenings for the kitchen firm Gaggenau at the very elegant One Marylebone in central London. A fun series of events where I was working alongside my friends Charles, Alison and Mike AKA the top silhouette artists in the UK. I have known them all for quite a few years so always good to see them.

A couple of days later I saw Charles again but this time in Reus (near Barcelona) where we were both in attendance at a friend of mine’s wedding. There were a few other magicians there too but most noticeably sat on our table was the legend that is Paul Daniels! In recent years I have been in a lift with David Blaine (not for one of his endurance stunts, I just happened to be in the same hotel as him!), backstage with David Copperfield and have dined with Derren Brown but nothing is quite as surreal as sitting chatting to the man who I grew up watching every Saturday night before I had even started learning magic. At 71 he’s still performing all the time and is very friendly and chatty. Later that evening he performed his excellent cabaret act - which is the same act that made him famous in the 1970s. But by far the best bit for me was earlier that day when he did the voices of the Wizbit characters for us!

I had a pretty hectic week last week including working at a series of events at Exeter university for a Summer School for town planners http://www.planningsummerschool.org/

Fun events, the first one had 17 tables of people, the second one had around 20 and as the only close up magician working I had to work pretty hard to get round everyone!
This morning I had a nice email from Sarah the organiser:

Hi Rob

Back in the office today after our stint down in Exeter.

Firstly, just a big thank you for the two dates you did for us.  All of the delegates thought you were great and were still talking about you the next day.   

Thanks again and if we get any more requests for magicians I’ll certainly be giving you a call.

Best wishes

Sarah

Yesterday got home and caught up on a bit of television -thought the new David Blaine special “What is Magic” was REALLY good and a return to form and Derren Brown’s Lottery special was quite interesting but from what I have read online and in the papers, and what people are telling me at events - I don’t think anyone bought into his explanation!