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Neptune Magic Society Juniors' Christmas Show
Magicbox, Newcastle
Reviewed by Ajay Vora
I
was asked by Danny and Stephanie (from Amethyst) to come as a guest for the
junior magician’s Christmas show on the 8th December 2019. I had already
attended their one day convention in August when I had seen very enthusiastic
young magicians, most of whom had recently joined, and very nervous and
hesitant, being new to magic. Danny had now asked me to come and judge their
progress at their Christmas show.
What a difference! I arrived at the venue – MagicBox in Newcastle. This is the
first time I had been there and was pleasantly surprised by the very large two
floor shop with a huge display of all sorts from close-up magic to large
illusions. As I entered, I got a very warm welcome from the staff. There were
many young performers, all keen to show close-up magic, dressed for the part,
mingling amongst the large audience who had come to support them prior to the
stage show.
MagicBox had set up the stage area, sound system, lighting, headset microphones,
and seating, to give the youngsters a great stage area to perform from. The
evening was in 2 halves of an hour each with a short interval. There were 20
performers (from 8 years age upwards) a lot of them with only a few months
experience. Just think of that: 20 young performers doing a stage show with just
a few months experience. And they were fantastic!
They were tremendously enthusiastic, really enjoying the experience and
performing a whole variety of magic, from cards, ropes, mentalism, escapology,
comedy, levitation, fire, from children’s magic to large illusions. Danny
introduced each one and explained that scripting had been done mainly by the
performers and many had also picked the magic that they wanted to do.
All of them came on very confidently! Some had a silent role helped by Danny who
went through the script. The audience were truly captivated and joined in with
the spirit of the evening, cheering on the kids. A lot of the parents had helped
with the costumes, makeup, as well as the fund raising items (Raffle, etc). Two
performers had just joined weeks earlier and went through a complicated comedy
baking routine with a final dove pan production of a cake, having put their own
script and gags in! The evening went by very quickly and by the end I could see
that we had a few stars of the future!
The individual performers were:
Alex (the Neptune Magic President) who did a mentalism act involving the spirits
and referred back to the time of Houdini and the spirit mediums.
Brynn who performed a colouring book routine.
Taylor who performed a Christmas themed Hippdy-Hoppody rabbit routine, and had
the audience in stitches as he interacted with the audience, with appropriate
very funny comedy (including comedy stares) to their unscripted responses.
Owen who did a Multum in Parvo milk trick using different sizes glasses and a
jug filled in turn from a very small glass.
Matthew with a voodoo presentation and ambitious card routine.
Ben who performed the Professor’s Nightmare routine
Trevor the Elf (Austin) who was Elf and Safety who rushed on and interrupted the
show for Elf reasons as Danny had a very dirty handkerchief and proceeded to
change it magically to a clean one.
Naveen who did a brilliant magic square routine where a number card was picked
by an audience member, and proceeded to lead us to believe the trick had gone
wrong but solved it with a kicker ending.
Liam who performed a very funny “Vanishing Bandana” routine.
Taylor. N and Lucy performed the Gene Anderson newspaper tear and the gypsy
thread balloon. They finished with a spectacular fire illusion where Lucy went
into a pyramid and Taylor (with the help of Danny) inserted large flaming rods
into the illusion, with Lucy reappearing, again unharmed!
Alex who performed a Santa Sack escape.
King Jaques amused us with a rope and the golden snitch effect. The snitch
magically comes off after being tied up with the rope.
Sam, Joshua, Ben and Austin did the Dante’s Lazy Magician routine but as a lazy
elf.
Taylor did a comical evaporated milk jug routine wandering around the audience
picking on a volunteer to pour the milk over!
Jaques, Sam and Joshua - did a spectacular floating carpet levitation.
Abbie and Gabrielle - made us laugh with magic baking, with the theme of a
Christmas magic “Bake Off” making a real Christmas cake.
The show was completed with a guest appearance from Joe Mein (an older junior-
but still a long standing member)- with his own act featuring vanishing a
spectators ring, which reappeared in a Christmas present.
The credit to the tremendous success of the juniors must go to Danny and
Stephanie who fly back from wherever they are in the world to the monthly
meetings. Not only do they teach them the magic but also encourage the kids to
develop their own personalities, by encouraging ideas and scripts from the kids
themselves. They transmit their enthusiasm not only to the kids but the parents
as well. This time they had come overnight from Cromer, and started the
rehearsal all day with Danny managing to get 15 minutes sleep on the stage floor
prior to the audience coming in! Credit also to MagicBox who provide the venue
for meetings and this show, and who help in all aspects of promoting these young
kids.
I am sure we will be seeing more of these young stars in the future.
© Ajay Vora, December 2019