Well, after being locked out of the blog for a while, it’s time to let you know about the comings and goings of the next month, it being Fringe time and all.

This year, again, I’ll be performing on the High Street as one of the Alcove buskers outside St Giles’ Cathedral. I’ve been working in a new show this week, so it will be good to be doing something different (and not having to drag my table up on the bus every day!). Pop along to see a Scottish magician in the Fringe!

Added to this, I’m performing only two indoor shows at the Zoo (the same venue I’ve been at for the last five years or so). Called Obsession – a life in magic it’s pure sleight of hand conjuring while I explain how an obsessive kid can get, well, obsessed by something like magic. You can buy tickets here.

There are loads of other good magic shows on the Fringe this year, and I’ll be mentioning some of these in the coming days.

See you soon,

The Edinburgh Magician in Scotland

Normal service will return shortly…

The Magic Castle is a private club for magicians that was founded in the early 60s by the Larsen brothers. For many years it was the home of Genii magazine, and perhaps more importantly, the home of Dai Vernon – the father of modern close up magic. It’s the magic epicentre of the world, and to be booked to perform there is a goal for most professional magicians. Only the best get to go, and the standards are high.

So, what was an Edinburgh magician doing in LA? I was there as part of Scottish Week, where the cream of Scotland’s magic elite, and John Archer, took over the Castle for seven days to make one heck of an impression on the locals. I was on for the Late Close Up slot, which is the more rowdy crowd – luckily they can’t really hold a torch to an average Edinburgh magic audience, so I had nothing to worry about.

I got to meet many people with whom I had only communicated through email, which was good and even more about whom I had only read. I spent an afternoon with Tony Giorgio, who is a bit of a legend amongst magicians over there – he was a card and dice hustler in the 40s and 50s and wrote about his experiences in Genii for many years. He’s getting on now, but still had that spark in his eye when he spoke, and did not hold back with his critiques – some moves I did got an approving nod and others got a sly smile, a shake of the head and a raspy ‘that wouldn’t get the money’. Happily I got more of the former.

Now I’m back home in Edinburgh it’s time to settle back into the life of the Scottish magician – wedding season is kicking off soon and more and more couples are looking for a wedding magician to perform walkaround magic at their reception. Wedding magic may be the bread and butter work for Scottish magicians, but I still enjoy meeting new people – which is just as well, really.

This month I seem to be all over Scotland performing magic, from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, and then I get my annual ‘run away’ weekend at the Blackpool magic convention – two days of too many magicians in one room. I see it as a shopping and social exercise, and I rarely get to any of the lectures.

Lunchtime awaits – hopefully it won’t be five months before my next post…

After the usual trip to Spain to visit the in-laws (which is always fun) we are now back in Edinburgh doing the magic thing. The Fringe, which some would say is my raison-d’être, started yesterday in its unofficial capacity, and tomorrow officially.

This year I’m doing only one show, on the 21st, and the rest of the time I’m doing street magic shows on the High Street. This means I get time to spend watching the world on this frighteningly crowded road instead of manically flyering as I’ve done for the last fifteen years and more. And it’s very interesting.

There are the usual groups of young actors lying in the middle of the road hoping that someone will take a flyer and come to the show. This doesn’t work. There are other young actors rushing up to people shouting the name of their show hoping that someone will take a flyer and come to the show. This doesn’t work, either. There are the obligatory men in nuns’ habits, scantily clad leggy actresses who wish there were not half naked in Scotland and people in bad makeup. There are the flyer teams for the big names who can’t be bothered to do the work themselves, with no ticket price on the flyers. And there are the jugglers.

I’m really enjoying being one of the Street Performers again. I started out doing shows on the Mound in 92, and once you have been there, you never become a real person again. It’s why my visits to Covent Garden were always so strange; for many years I was not one of the performers, but there was a strange history. To a certain extent this has been the situation for the last decade or so – since I spent so much time on the Mile flyering, I got to see my friends who only come to town once a year. But it wasn’t the same. This year, however, there’s the good feeling that I am once again one of the great unwashed (at least for a month) and it’s a good feeling…

It’s raining now, and I’m performing magic at a wedding in North Berwick this evening so in Street terms, it’s a day off. I need the sleep.

The Edinburgh Fringe magician. Step on up to the rope.

Tammy at DUSA always brings in interesting acts and last night was no exception. I was chatting to Edele and Keavey from B*Witched (who are lovely, and had no objection to a tall magician invading their dressing room to grab some pre gig chocolate), but left before Danyl Johnston arrived. On a plus side, I finally got my Polaroid photo on the office wall, along with Make Sparks, who were suitably impressed with some after gig wind down magic in Tammy’s office.

Ian (back from some magic in Dundee)

I think what was most interesting about it was how a two hour conversation about the skill and dedication required to excel in this job turned into a depiction of a bitter hack living on benefits. Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it. Such is life…

Ian, apparantly hack du jour.

Peter was most interested about the various skill levels involved, and the teaching aspect (at least from my point of view). We talked about Gordon Bruce and Roy Walton (Gordon was another interviewee) and the current problems with performing shows for real people.

I’m told it should be in this Sunday’s issue, so anyone reading this in Scotland may like to pick up a copy of the Scotland on Sunday and look for the Spectrum magazine. I know I will

The Edinburgh Magician (in the Scotland on Sunday magazine).

Secondly, I get to see some of the more spectacular venues in Scotland. Earleir this year I was performing magic at the wedding of Nick and Amanda at Dalhousie Castle which is a stunning building just south of Edinburgh (which made the commute that much more relaxing!). The whole venue is a self contained wonder, and the staff were efficient in a way you normally associate with romantic comedy films.

My main reason for wanting to go back is that they also run falconary sessions. Nuff said…

The Edinburgh magician. Dreaming of flying hawks in Scotland.

The Lab was Southside maestro Lance Buckland’s idea to make the Edinburgh Fringe more accessable to ‘experimental’ shows. Based in a very small room in the new Southside ‘over the road’  it had twenty seats, basic tech and cost fifty pounds to be in the Fringe Programme (as opposed to the three hundred odd for a full show). It  was now possible for performers to try out a show without taking a second mortgage, a full ten years before the main onslaught of the various Free Fringes.

The idea of Science Made Easy was simple – Stuart and I would explain all of science in a humerous and entertaining way with the aid of many hats and a whiteboard. I still have the script somewhere, and some of it is still quite amusing. We rehearsed a bit, but I spent far too much time concentrating on my magic show, which was, after all, my bread and butter.

Disaster struck three days before the start of the Fringe. Lance had come up to Edinburgh to oversee the get in and discuss the box office computers with me (I built the machines for him from spares I had lying around the flat). After a very pleasant day I bade him farewell and he drove back down to Oxford. In the small hours of the morning he turned a corner to find a flatbed lorry being pushed up a hill, rolled his car and two days later he was gone.

I remember Mitch’s phone call the next morning – ‘have you heard about Lance?’ he asked. ‘He had a car crash last night and is in a really bad way. They don’t think he’s going to make it’. I was stunned, shocked and all kinds of other grief, standing my the war memorial clock at the Haymarket. All Fringe preparations ground to a halt.

The first show of Science Made Easy was easily the most uncomfortable performance I’ve ever done. Neither Stuart or I could remember the lines, and the general feeling of misery that filled my mind did little to help the seven people who had come along to watch us die on stage. After the show I really wanted to run after them and offer them the five pounds back.

The next morning Stuart and I had a serious chat. The show could not go on as it was, and neither of us had the time to work on it. What to do? That afternoon I was in the courtyard of the Southside and noticed that British Comedy Legend Lenny Henry was sitting on a bench while his daughter, who was waiting for a show, played nearby with some other children.

I approached gingerly and asked ‘Excuse me, can I ask your advice about something?’. He put down his notebook and looked up at me as I explained the situation – we had a bad show and no time to make it better. It was an insult to the audience, and should be cancel the run?

He was blunt – do the show. Make time to rehearse. And stop whining.

‘I’m not whining’, I said, ‘I’ve lost my voice’. He shrugged. We cancelled the show.

The Edinburgh magician, chilling in a Sunny Scotland

I arrived and had to hide in the car park until they were all in the restaurant before I could take my stuff up to the Hogan suite (more on that later), get ready and come back down for the close up magic session. I approached the table, said hello to Derek and quickly lost the one apprehension I had – you see, Derek had no idea that I was going to be there, and if he didn’t like magic then there was the potential for this to be really quite awkward. Luckily, he loves magic and I did a fun fifteen minute set at his table. Starters arrived, and I returned to the lobby for a few minutes.

Once the tables were cleared again I went through for the second table, and had another blast. This was one of those really fun gigs where everyone is in a good mood and appreciates the magic. This makes my job so much more rewarding, and then it was time to set up in the suite.

I got back to the third floor and the Hogan suite, which is one of the three Presidential suites in the hotel. The first bedroom was bigger than my first flat, add the living space and you are bigger than my second flat, add the second bedroom and you are approaching the size of my first house…

I set up my table, and after a while everyone came up and took their seats for the parlour magic show. Since everyone now knew what to expect (or at least who I was) there was a really good atmosphere in the room and I performed a half hour stand up show with the usual amount of audience participation and a whole lot of laughter.

All too soon it was time to hit the road back home to Edinburgh again. It was one of those gigs where I would happily have stayed all night doing more close up and parlour magic for the group, because they were that much fun

The Edinburgh Magician.