A couple of pictures that perfectly capture a reaction to magic! Taken at a wedding at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire. This chap has just discovered that a 50p that he just saw disappear has appeared underneath the face of his watch. Pics courtesy of Russell Lewis

One of the questions I get asked a lot is: “do you ever do magic for famous people?” – the answer is basically “no”. Well, that’s not strictly true. Every now and again I bump into a celebrity. I am not sure if it is just the type of events that I get booked for but whereas my peers either seem to bump into the extreme ends of the spectrum from very naff (your Kinga from Big Brother or Ricky from Eastenders types) to very cool (Dynamo seems regularly to work for ultra cool hip hop legends and rockstars) I pretty much always tend to see people known for reading the news or appearing on factual TV shows. With that I present my celebrity gallery – Moira Stuart, Carol Vorderman, Chris Packham, Duncan Bannatyne and Tony Robinson!





Last pic courtesy of Simon Kemp.

These photos from a lovely wedding at Orchardleigh House in Frome recently. Pictures courtesy of the excellent photographer Simon Kemp.

I have lost count of the number of weddings I have attended in the context of being hired a wedding close up magician. My weekends over the years have basically been one very, very long wedding reception. Last weekend was a little different though. It was August bank holiday weekend and I was performing at a few weddings but I was also one of the best men at the wedding of another magician. To top it off a lot of the guests were professional magicians and he also hired his own wedding magician. Confused? The groom was my friend Andi who is a magician and web coder in Gloucester and the magician entertaining the guests was the amazing and very funny Chad Long who is from Florida. Magic fact: Chad was once voted first place in a magic competition where one of the runners up was Derren Brown. A fair result and I still prefer Chad!

One of the things that always gets the biggest reactions at events is when I hand back someone their watch before they even realise that I have taken it. People always say the same thing: “I never thought anyone could take my watch without me realising!”

Recently I have been taking tentative steps into the world of tie-stealing. It takes a lot (and I mean a LOT) more nerve than stealing a watch but is very, very funny. The first picture below shows a gentleman’s reaction to discovering his timepiece had been pilfered and the second show me wearing the tie of the chap next to me just before he realises it’s been taken. He turned to me and complimented me on my tie, saying that he had one very similar!

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