Jay Fortune


 

Jay Fortune is a full-time professional entertainer specialising in magic. He has a degree in design and illustration. Jay hosts the world's most listened to radio show dedicated to magic and magicians. He has written and consulted on magic programmes for BBC, Channel 4 and Sky One.

Performer:

Jay has performed his unique brand of entertainment at various venues all over the UK. Adult audiences have been left laughing, baffled and slightly disturbed after witnessing his Magick and Mayhem show. Jay has also entertained audiences of thousands at roadshows. Family crowds have been enthralled watching his hilarious fun show ‘You’re only jealous because you don’t hear the voices!’, ‘The Magic, Music and Mayhem Show’ and also ‘The Manic Magic Show’. Intimate groups have been amazed seeing Jay’s unique, comical and highly skilled magic performed at close quarters in their own hands.

Celebrities of stage and screen and even royalty have been roped into assisting Jay on stage at parties, fund-raisers, magic shows and gala events.

Jay has starred in pantomime, and performed as various characters on the stage and as hoax sketches on the street to an unsuspecting public.

Radio:

Being a bright lad, Jay was destined for a very profitable future. Getting a job in radio shattered all hope of that!

July 2005 saw Jay launch his most ambitious project to date: Radio Magic. Broadcast world-wide via the internet every Monday, Radio Magic has seen Jay interview stars of magic such as Paul Daniels, as well as producers, writers and creators inside the magic and media industry. Radio Magic continues to go from strength to strength with more and more listeners tuning in every week. Radio Magic has become the world’s number one radio magic show dedicated to magicians world-wide.

Prior to this, Jay has hosted the Kool Breakfast Show for 18 months featuring the latest music, topical chat, news, features and competitions. Broadcast to an area encompassing half a million people across London, Jay also performed his unique and comical style of magic over the radio, including a straitjacket escape which received wide coverage in both local newspapers and radio industry press! Jay was also responsible for writing the Kool Kolumn circulated to over 90,000 homes.

Jay has also hosted his own breakfast show on Paradise FM. He has presented Drive-Time on both Paradise FM and Kool AM.

TV:

Jay’s television career has gone from being a nobody to being a nobody on a chatshow! He has hosted a live chat show on Showcase TV, and has been a guest on a spoof topical debate for SKY NEWS.

Jay has also been involved in other TV magic programmes, among them, as consultant for BBC’s highly acclaimed Magic series (BBC2) and has also been requested to submit ideas for Objective Productions’ Undercover Magic (SKY ONE).

Others:

Jay has taught magic both personally and on video/DVD. He has written and published his own magic book. As a qualified artist, Jay has a degree in design and illustration. Limiting his market to the magic fraternity, he has produced works for many major magic publications. He has designed company logo’s, advertising and package illustrations. He has teamed up with some of the top creators in magic and illustrated their life’s works.

Jay has written his own magic newspaper column in the press. He has devised, written and published a spoof comical newspaper, ‘The Cobweb’.

Jay has more recently teamed up with top psychologist and philosopher Walter Llewellyn McKone D.O. offering advances in business techniques through the use of magic and The Bond Principle.

Top Trick
Immortal by Robert E. Neale. It’s a card trick but uses the deck as a way of finding out how long the spectator has left to live. I have altered the handling and presentation making it highly comical (and ultimately more sick) than it already is! It also has meaning to it as the spectator actually cares about their card as opposed to most tricks which have all the personal interest of a can of Spam.

Top Book
Would have to be Simon Lovell’s Magic of Showbusiness as this is the Bible as far as making money from magic is concerned. A little outdated now but most of the advice holds true. There are endless books teaching technique and new tricks but very, very few of how to turn that skill into hard cash.

Top Magician
Tough one. Probably Eugene Burger comes out just ahead of the others (Daniels, Neale, Maven, Wonder, Annemann) as his works have made me think more about my magic than any other author. Also, if you’re lucky enough to meet him then he doesn’t let you down: he’s a really top banana (no doubt the first time Eugene has been called a Top Banana!)

Top Magic Quote
"The Biggest Secret to Magic is Perseverance" – Simon Lovell. Personal correspondence 2003. Also "'Showbusiness' is two words and the latter is far more important than the former if you want to succeed at it!" – John Conway. UK Ents. Manager

Top Magic Moment
I had the four of clubs missing from a borrowed deck and asked a spectator to name any card. He chose the four of clubs. He took the deck from the table and his chosen card had vanished, leaving just 51 cards. The easiest thing to make vanish is something that isn’t there (that’s another quote from Steve Beam!)

 

www.magickandmayhem.co.uk

 

© MagicWeek 2006

 

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