Idols

This was always going to be a good month. It started with the wedding gig I performed with my partner, then A chance to see Paul Daniels LIVE, and a week later mentalism with Chris Cox. THEN I get tickets to see Penn and Teller perform for FREE when they record "Fool Us". An expensive but magic filled month.
Everyone says to never meet your idols. They're wrong. The whole day was inspirational. A morning walk through the V&A followed by the science museum before bumbling around Covent Garden. The gig itself took place in an upside down inflatable purple cow on the South Bank and I managed to get me and fellow magic geek front row seats. Paul Daniels performed what can only be described as a compendium of greatest hits. I wont go into them all here but I must single out the chop cup. Paul Daniels chop cup routine is considered one of the finest in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-8VnTK4G8

In one performances I THINK I MAY be able to spot ONE load. MAYBE. I don't watch other magcians to see if I cna duduce methods, I watch them to see true art and what hard work can do for your skills. However I little piece of me was thinking thus "he's not a youngster any more, that was 26 years ago, he's 73 now, don' get your hopes up" Yes he's 26 years older BUT e's had 27 years more practise! I was right on top of him and I couldn't see a SINGLE move (and I was looking)

Aside from technical skills his presentation wasn't at all dated. He thoroughly up to date and yet retained classical elegance. The Lovely Debbie Mcgee was, well, lovely. She looked stunning, carried herself off with grace and bantered with Paul and the audience in an easy happy manor. Both true professionals.

Chris Cox was a lot more different than I thought. I still enjoyed it immensely but considering how impressed I was with the interview he gave at the Magic News Wire I was expecting something more cerebral. He was friendly and fun however my friends picked up on one problem. He played the same joke magicians often play of pretending to have messed up a reveal only to have a fresh different reveal (eg Card In Hand). The problem is he played this so often that when something DID go wrong no-one knew how to react. People reacted with good humour but the impression my friends got at the end of the night was that he kept on making mistakes when he only made the one. It's just his performance style got everything muddled in their memories. However the man's show was well tailored to his audience. everyone seemed to really love him as a character and and respond very well to his brand of mentalsim. I suppose thats th ultimate magic trick. to give people what they are looking for, even if they don't know what it is they want. I know I've certainly had to adjust me performance away slightly from what want to perform. I still perform that way in private mind and hope one day to be in a setting where it would be appropriate to do it in public :)