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A visit to Showzam
Blackpool
February 2002
Words and Pictures by Geoffrey Newton
SHOWZAM is Blackpool’s February Festival, now in its 5th year and presenting 10
days of top entertainment at various venues throughout the town. I caught up
with it on Wednesday 15th February 2012 so could only see a snippet due to time
constraints and limited to a section of the Winter Gardens known as Olympia.
On entering this vast area the first person to catch my eye was Jon Marshall and
his recreations of Jon Gresham’s seafront and fairground sideshows of the
1950’s. It was a real experience to see these in action and the effect they had
on the public. This year he brought The Headless Lady and The Monster Show.
Jon’s latest recreation was Dr. Phantasma’s Ten in One Show. ) To lure the
audiences in Jon set up ‘pitching’ on a stage in front of the tent telling what
was about to happen. Once inside, to the accompaniment of a lady accordionist
various stages round the tent were illuminated as individual performers
presented their speciality. There was fire eating, sword swallowing (two at a
time!) the rubber man, not forgetting a live tarantula walking over a scantily
clad young lady!
Not heard enough yet? Then read on. The rubber man passed his whole body through
an orifice only the size of an unstrung tennis racquet and then did it again
through a smaller one. Dr. Diabalo walked on a bed of nails, there was a girl
without a middle and the boxed Miss Elastina had more blades pushed through her
than I have ever seen in an illusion before. There were a couple of spoof ones
as well just for good measure. First, the Man Eating Fish. It’s all in the
wording here and reminded me of Ali Bongo’s depiction of a Man Eating Tiger at
Ballyhoo Corner seen on one of the Paul Daniels TV shows. There was also a girl
with a six foot bat – clearly loaned by a giant cricketer!
My next visit was to Magique Fantastique presented by ‘Romany Diva of Magic’.
Now many of you will know Romany for her burlesque act with the birdcages or
recent appearance on the Penn and Teller show. This was completely different.
Each performance is with an audience of only 21 in very intimate surroundings as
the mystery unfolds about how the character lost her legs and now sits for ever
as a torso on a mahogany table. The modus operandi of achieving this is of
course not new but what I can only describe as a close up magic show with larger
props so all could see, had very interesting story lines and packed with
interest. I feel this act will go far and Romany’s versatility gives her appeal
to a much wider clientele.
Throughout the day The Insect Circus had many different activities on their
centre stage location and I spotted Paul Debek presenting a snippet of his
excellent magic from the Star of Wonder show in which he was featuring at The
Grand theatre in Blackpool.
Following his success last year Andrew Van Buren returned with a new production
Temple of Illusions with more than ever packed into a 60 minute show. He is a
very talented performer both with magical and circus skills and clearly now at
the top of his profession. It really was fast moving and faultless. If you
missed it he is appearing at Great Yarmouth on the after banquet show during the
British Ring Convention (26th – 30th September) and there will also be tribute
to the Van Buren family as a special feature on the Friday afternoon.
There were slot machines taking the old pennies, pinball collections and a
fortune teller.
It was well worth a visit and good to see such a variety of live entertainment.
© Geoffrey Newton, February 2012