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The Family Festival of Magic 2018
Great Yarmouth
21st. 22nd August 2018
Reviewed by Steve Majes
A second year for “The Family Festival of Magic” was a feature in Great Yarmouth
on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd August, two lovely days of sunshine filled
with magic, ventriloquism, juggling, escapology and fun! The Family Festival of
Magic, is a free to attend outdoor festival from 11am to 4pm with ticketed
theatre shows at 4pm and a gala show on the final evening at 7.30pm. I was a
performer during this event and here are the highlights of what you may have
missed.
A crowd had already gathered around the outdoor stage as I arrived on the
Tuesday morning, already being thoroughly entertained by Jake Ace. Jake is a
great all-round family entertainer and had taken time out from his residency at
Potters Holiday Resort to appear at the festival. Many performers had generously
given their time to play a part in this event and the crowd were in for a treat
as Max Fulham a talented young ventriloquist was coming on stage next. Max had
just finished appearing with Joe Pasquale and had some fantastic reviews, it was
lovely chatting with him as he is a very grounded, down to earth young man as
well as being an amazingly talented performer, one to watch out for!
Both daytimes were filled with a variety of stage, street and close up
performers including Daniel Dee (compere and ventriloquist) presenting a
hilarious superhero themed vent mask and vent mic routine, Magic Bill (family
magician) had the audience in stitches with a variety of magic skills, Potty
Paul (compere, ventriloquist and magician) always fun to watch as you never know
what will happen, Nick Chapman (balloon twister and close up magician), Robert
Rathbone (close up magician), Kenzie (close up magician), Jeff Drayton (balloon
twister and personality), Bryan Clarke (Punch and Judy comedy entertainer),
Graham Bull (magician and mentalist), Oliver Garwood (stilt walker, escapologist
and magician), The Great Banana (character performer and magician) and myself
Steve Majes (magician, escapologist and balloon twister). On the side lines were
The Two Jokers with their lovely partners presenting juggling workshops and
Martin Peirce selling magic supplies to the visiting and upcoming magicians.
The afternoon shows at 4pm were staged theatre shows, on the Tuesday we had
myself presenting a segment from my family cabaret show, Phil Perry a gentleman
in magic presenting some classics and amazing the audience with rising cards,
Nick Chapman magically entertained with balloon twisting and a very
sophisticated performance of the floating table, The Great Banana presented some
fun and surprising magic, he is a character you can’t miss! The Two Jokers
captivated the audience with a multitude of audience participation along with
their comedy antics and topping the bill was Max Fulham with a segment form his
ventriloquist cabaret show. A great finish to a fantastic show.
One of the reported highlights of the daytime on Wednesday was an escapology
stunt myself and Oliver Garwood had arranged “The Escape Race”, after each of us
had been chained and padlocked with one hundred ft of steel chain by members of
the crowd, the challenge was to escape in the fastest time and then to pick
three padlocks to release a super soaker water gun, the winner would then get
the chance to soak his fellow escape artist. Oliver got the soaking but the race
was very close coming down to picking the very last lock.
Wednesdays 4pm show was in the capable hands of Sean Haydon, Sean had recently
returned from lecturing at the SAM Convention in Orlando. Presenting a great
multiple card location, Sean went into a very funny routine with two younger
members of the audience and finished by levitating a young lady volunteer. This
was a fast flowing show that gave a great finish to the daytime entertainment
and lead well in what was to be a one of a kind gala show.
The Gala Show, It is rare that you would ever get the chance to see such a line
up of fine performers in one show, so is it any wonder that the show sold out!
Olly Day was the perfect compere to open the show and introduced a cast of
international performers, Steve Zebs was first to wow the audience with a fast
paced magic sequence producing fun items from an empty box, followed by some
very entertaining audience participation with a young man and a magic kettle and
finishing on a lovely levitation with a paper ball into a paper rose, as a
performer myself watching Steve’s techniques and extra touches really made this
the perfect finish to his performance. Potty Paul Henri (ventriloquist) was next
on stage with his entertaining companion George T Monkee, I have seen Paul many
times and he never fails to have a audience of young or old laughing away with
the antics from his very funny monkey. Finishing the first half of the show was
Chris North and Belinda presenting highlights from their theatre show “A
Cavalcade of Wonders”. A combination of classic magic flowed through Chris and
Belinda’s hands with the mutilated parasol, a very stylish floating table from
Belinda, a fast paced totem pole escape and a metal plate double wrist chopper
from Chris and a brave member of the audience. The finale was a real family
affair as their young son Tomos joined them on stage tugging at the heart
strings and producing multiple items along with Chris and Belinda in a colourful
finish to the first half.
The second half of the gala was compered by Potty Paul Henri, his first job was
introducing one of his best friends Oliver Tabor. Wow just wow, Oliver was
fantastic! I have known Oliver for many years and he has grown into a very
stylish performer without ageing a single day. His casual style captivated the
audience with surprising effects happening on every beat, he presented a lovely
bubble routine combining some imaginative floating ball sequences and his
interaction with a young helper from the audience had that always enjoyable
audience gasp at its conclusion, I’ll not spoil that here! Finishing on one of
the best dancing handkerchief routines I’ve seen for a long long while, Oliver’s
performance was a joy to watch. Olly Day as always had the audience folding over
in laughter as his cheeky charm swept over the crowd, Olly is just a fantastic
comedy performer with impeccable timing and this longer set from him was so much
fun. It was brilliant to see him work his magic on a slightly reluctant lady
from the audience, within a few minutes it was like they had been a double act
for years. If you have never seen Olly Day, you must! The finale of the whole
gala was “Amethyst”, just off one cruise and back on to another it was great
luck and perfect timing that Danny and Steph were available to top the bill.
Their energy focused everyone with a fast paced fire cage production of Steph,
Danny then presented a puzzling display of confusion transforming a pocket
puzzle into a staged mystery. Along this journey we saw knots walking Pavel
style, records colour changing to Mr Bojangles and Steph vanishing at the peril
of being spiked only to reappear seconds later. A fast escape transposition
followed by a snowstorm was the ending to a most wonderful show.
A huge thank you to Kyle Sarocen and Stephen Bolam for creating a wonderful
festival and also to the people behind the scenes that kept the show rolling.
And also an apology to the odd performer I may have forgot to mention, there
were so many and you know you were there!
Plans are already in motion for 2019!
© Steve Majes MMC, Secretary of The Anglian Magic Society, September 2018.