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Tim Stracey MMC
9th April 1969 - 24th January 2020
Remembered by Kieron Lefever, Mark Bennett
and Emily Stracey
I
first met Tim Stracey at Illusions Magic Bar 11 years ago. The first thing that
I learnt about Tim on meeting him is that he had caught the magic bug hard. Even
though he came into magic in his 30s he was a natural performer. Over the years
Tim and I became friends working together at Smoke and Mirrors and doing our
individual shows at Byzantium. They were very experimental but always fun. I saw
Tim go through some tough times but he was always upbeat and positive even when
he was sick. I used to visit him and we used to talk magic and theory of
performance and laugh so much.
After taking a break at the start of his
treatment, I was so proud when Tim started performing again with as much vigour
and energy as before. He didn’t stop until right up to the end and one of the
proudest moments of my career was to compere what would sadly turn out to be his
last show. He received multiple standing ovations and the message of the show
was that magic is real. The thing about Tim is that when he performed magic he
truly believed in what he was doing and he was able to bring that to the people
he performed for. Tim was a great friend and a truly exceptional magician. I
will miss him dearly.
Kieron Lefever
Tim Stracey not only was a cracking magician, but also a person who thought of
others first, passionate about every performance. Tim helped me launch the House
Magicians Comedy Magic Show back 2012. Back then he was not the same magician we
all came to love, he was this full blown mentalist magician who on occasions
would believe he actually guessed the correct coloured dice or that the
spectators cat had recently passed, we of course had to remind Tim that a trick
and the Facebook post was actually the real reason. But this showed how much he
wanted his spectators to feel that sense of wonder and keep them on the edge of
their seat. I urged Tim to add humour to his show as that was actually who he
was, a warm and naturally funny magician, and I also like Kieron was privileged
to share the stage with him for many years.
Tim went from my show to become the resident
magician at Krowd Keepers in Bath and you can see from his TripAdvisor reviews
that everyone loved him. I will miss his friendship but I will never forget the
memories we made.
Mark Bennett
What else can I possibly add to this? Tim was magic. Through and through. To all
of his family and especially to his small daughters Jasmine and Charlotte and to
my children too. He was so proud recently that he was teaching them some magic
basics and giving them the same passion that drove him right to the very end to
keep rewriting his shows and to give our friends the best evenings as he spent
December performing every weekend.
I remember being invited to his show on our second date and thinking “This is
possibly the strangest second date I’ve been on!” but he blew my mind that night
and a very special promise passed between us that he would never tell me any
secrets because I just did not want anyone to take that magic away from our
life.
Tim is loved by everyone who knew him and his work in mental health in recent
years was extremely important to him. He posted many videos in recent times
about his journey through, a particularly nasty cancer, and would be proud that
I now ask a predominately male (but also female) audience to be very vigilant
about their health and to seek advice from professionals if anything seems
wrong.
He was so proud to get his membership to The Magic Circle and it will be a day I
will remember with him forever. Thank you to all that made it happen for him.
Our thoughts are with all of his family now.
“Magic Is Real”
Emily Stracey
15th February 2020