Since I’m a London magician, I guess you expect this blog to be all about magic. Full disclosure: it won’t be – not all of it at least. You see, even as magicians go, I’m an oddball. (And that takes doing, believe me!) Unlike for most, my story doesn’t start and end with magic. Actually I’ve spent lots of time in landscapes other than magic. As Tolkien said,
“Not all who wander are lost.”
(I hope he was right because boy do I know how to wander!) The path began like this. Magic found me at the age of seven when I unwrapped a Fisher Price magic set for Christmas. I instantly morphed into a “boy wonder magician” (or so I thought!); all those arcane secrets empowered me to do impossible things. After that, my teenage adventures in theatre and visual arts led me to study these in University.
But clearly these fields weren’t impractical enough for earning a solid living. My hobby of singing was about to get promoted to become my post-grad training as an opera singer. Magic performances helped fund my music studies in London and Bologna, Italy over five years … and the magic kept growing until … at one point I had to decide which career it was going to be… magic won.
What’s so exciting now is that my various interests shape my magic performances. It’s how Ella Fitzgerald sang:
T’ain’t What You Do (It’s the way that you do it)
There are the obvious crossovers you’d spot; like how I blend singing into the magical performances in a few of my after dinner magic acts.
But outside influences are usually much more subtle; like maybe it’s something that happens in a novel that I think would make a great segment in one of my shows. Or a scene in a film that inspires a presentation for when working as a close-up magician. The audience is never aware of these things, but I think the inspirations make the act richer and more interesting. Good magicians’ performances are about much more than ‘tricks’.
So this magic blog will be a meandering path through a menagerie of wonderful things. A blog about magic shows and magicians as well as various kinds of performances, exhibitions, and other things I think are inspired or magical. Oh and surprises too.
Say hello and thanks for coming along with me. Hopefully see you again a bit further down the trail… as we wander.
I remember back in 1990 when you made that “haunted” house in your parents basement, It was amazing you are so very creative Christoper
Thanks for the note Mike. I loved doing those haunted houses! So much fun (to spook people senseless).
Fabulous, Christopher! I remember the chats we used to have in the Atlantic House dining room about magic and all thing magical. Lovely to hear where you are now. Keep going on your path my friend.
Hello dear Ramya! Thank you for the message. That takes me right back. And we even transformed that dining room into a magic theatre once for a charity fundraiser. Those were the days.
What a wonderful blending of your talents! Love this new blog.
“But clearly these fields weren’t impractical enough for earning a solid living,…”
Too funny, and so familiar. Love this ‘page 1’ of your story!