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Peterborough Society of Magicians
29th Annual Sale, Exchange & Lecture Day
Millfield Hall, Peterborough
Sunday 11th June 2017
Reviewed by Walt Lees
Peterborough's SEAL of Approval
Over the best part of three decades, the Peterborough Society of Magicians
Annual Sale, Exchange and Lecture (SEAL for short) Day has evolved. It used to
be primarily about buying, selling and swapping, with a couple of lectures
thrown in for good measure. But after twenty-nine years, most attendees seem to
be there for the lectures and very little happens in the way of horse trading.
Perhaps, eBay has a lot to answer for here. Today's wizards would sooner offload
their unwanted items on line, than get up at first light, lug them to a faraway
town, sit all day behind a table haggling with possible buyers and time wasters,
and still have to cart any unsold stuff back home afterwards.
Consequently, the few sellers who do turn up, tend to be mainly professional
dealers, for whom dragging their merchandise around the country in the early
hours is part of the job description. While it is always a pleasure to see them
and their wares, it is the amateur trader, with his or her secondhand goodies,
who provides the happiest hunting ground for the bargain seeker. It is among
their piles of seen-better-days paraphernalia that are encountered the forgotten
gems of yesteryear, or the occasional collectors item.
But most of the people who come do not appear to be particularly interested in
this aspect. Many prefer to kill the time between lectures by chatting in the
refreshment area, rather than browsing.
So what of the lectures? There were three and any one of them, alone, would have
been worth the admission price. All were top class and completely different.
First off the mark was Quentin Reynolds with a mixed bag containing something
for everyone. He began by performing all the routines without explaining
anything; then in the second part, he took us through the workings and, more
importantly, the thinking which underpinned them. It was here that his
professionalism and experience shone through. This was real-world working magic
straight from the repertoire of a successful performer. It was obvious that
everything had been presented hundreds of times to the paying public.
Most impressive were his miniature Linking Rings, which contained several
subtleties that left the audience with the belief that they had handled every
ring; his adaptation of the sucker T & R Tissue, with an added kicker at the
finish; the Dissolving Knots which many associate with Slydini, although Quentin
s handling owed much to Charlie Edwards and Dai Vernon. The slow-motion visible
untying knot at the finish brought tremendous applause. We also saw a puppet
routine for children, with a chicken and a fox; a handling of Supreme's Popsy
Pegs, which included Eric Sharp's addition to enable the apparatus to work while
out of the performer s hands; and a Linking Safety Pins using the Slydini
gimmick rather than the better-known Andrus one.
Paul Gordon (second up) was really supposed to be doing a workshop, but owing to
the large number in the room, decided that a lecture would be more appropriate.
His energy and zest for card magic quickly infected everyone. That he had
forgotten to bring a close-up mat and had to work on a bare tabletop did nothing
to detract from the performance.
The audience were treated to some of his best-known routines, plus a few that he
has not featured so often for magical gatherings. Notable among these was a
signed card in wallet, where he openly thrusts the card into the wallet in full
view of the audience without them realising. There was also a very nice four ace
production, where the aces appear one at a time sandwiched between two other
cards. Even so, the strongest applause came for old favourites like his
estimation ace cutting and Ten Card Poker. But few are left in any doubt that,
good as the tricks are, the real secret is Paul himself, his love of his subject
and the enthusiasm with which he puts it across.
The final lecturer, following the raffle, was Andi Gladwin, whose style is much
quieter and more matter-of-fact than Paul s but no less incisive, in its own
way. His opening effect, a stand-up mechanical version of the classic Arthur
Finley and/or Dai Vernon Matching the Cards brought audible gasps at the
cleanness and unexpectedness of the final transformation. This was followed by a
very neat version of the classic Oswald Williams and/or Oswald Rae vanish and
reappearance of the magicians watch, money and wedding ring, with the Tommy
Wonder approach of the articles disappearing from an envelope. Other highlights
were an effective but simple discovery of three cards at high speed, a couple of
novel card sleights and an elimination game involving six spectators, in which
the winner turned out to have been predicted in advance.
The final effect (and what an effect!) was a magic square formed by random
number cards, with a devastating kicker when everything is turned upside down
and the numbers shown to produce a different but equally magic square. It is a
show-stopper. And those who believe the cliché that there is nothing new in
magic, should take note that this effect required a special computer program to
be written in order to crunch through the thousands of possible numbers and
generate a suitable batch. So a few decades ago, it would have been, if not
impossible, thoroughly impractical to produce. Anyway, it brought the day to a
fitting close.
Congratulations to President John Learoyd and his team for organising yet
another excellent Annual Peterborough Day which definitely deserves more of your
support.
©
Walt Lees, July 2017
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