Features / Interviews
Making magic in Bristol
Bristol has a wealth of magical history. It’s home to one of the largest magical societies in the UK, was a launchpad for Derren Brown and is headquarters of the magical version of Amazon. We even have not one but two magic bars.
With world famous street magicians like Dynamo, David Blaine and Bristol University’s own Derren Brown, magic is having a moment far removed from the Paul Daniels “You’ll like this, not a lot, but you’ll like it” era.
“Magic is cooler now than it has ever been,” says Paul Preager secretary of the Bristol Society of Magic. “These magicians have related magic to a much younger audience.”
Professional magician Grant Maidment agrees: “David Blaine – although he is known for his street magic blew my mind when I saw his close-up magic.”
While YouTube may be awash with teenagers trying to emulate these stars and filming themselves practising bedroom magic, the society is the place to if you are serious about being a magician.
Meeting twice a month in Fishponds the society is one of the largest in the country. It has 80 magicians aged from 70 to 17 and “focuses on something different each month – mind reading, card and coin tricks and sleight of hand,” says Paul.
is needed now More than ever
Grant Maidment and Paul Preager are professional magicians and members of the Bristol Society of Magic
But the tricks of the trade are under threat.
“We are worried about YouTube bedroom magicians,” says Paul. “The kids are videoing themselves and are revealing everything – they don’t value the secret and they don’t want to meet other magicians.”
And the secrets and history of magic is what magicians have always treasured.
“Conjuring became popular hobby in the early 1920s and people who were hobby magicians wanted somewhere to meet,” says Paul.
The Bristol Society of Magic has a long and venerable history. It began in 1921 when its founder Ray White issued invitations to his fellow Bristolian magicians. 18 turned up for the inaugural meeting on 8th February 1921 and magical history was made.
The club attracted more and more members and its guest magicians included the magician Ching Wu (real name Alfred Banks), who came across in full regalia from a performance at the Bristol Hippodrome and “treated us to a fine display of magic”.
Since 1961 the society has organised a ‘Day of Magic’ which is now the UK’s largest one day convention of magic. Every May some 500 magicians come from across the south west and Wales for the event – to watch demonstrations, lectures and see new tricks are launched.
“I was told there was nothing new in magic when I was a kid but over the last decade there have been so many new tricks invented and there is a market for magic tricks,” says Paul.
“There used to be magic shops across Bristol but now they are huge online business,” he adds.
And they don’t get much bigger than Bedminster-based “Magic by Post”.
Back catalogues of Magic by Post have a ‘cult following’
Simon Mulcahy helps his father run ‘Magic by Post’, which started out in the 1970s.
While the business is primarily online now, over the course of 40 odd years it has sent out more than a million catalogues full of jokes and magic tricks. Back copies of the magazines have attracted a “cult following” says Simon.
The popularity of magic tends to follow the personalities which are on the small and large screens. After a time in the doldrums when the popularity of Paul Daniels waned the business has picked up again.
“It’s more popular than ever, with magicians like Dynamo, David Blaine and whenever a new Harry Potter film came out interest in magic grows,” says Simon.
The father and son duo don’t just sell on other people magic though – they’ve invented some of their own.
“We have a library of magic books and manuscripts going back to the 1800s,” says Simon. “I’ve been helping my dad invent tricks since I was 13-years-old and we sell 30 or 40 tricks which we have created.”
There is also a growing circuit in Bristol and the west country for professional and semi-professional magicians to ply their trade.
Paul Preager has established a second-career on the corporate and party circuit with his card and slight of hand tricks and Grant Maidment gave up his job to become a full-time magician – a change of career which he loves.
Working the tables and perfecting your act is a tried and tested route for magicians.
Mind reading extraordinaire and Bristol University graduate Derren Brown got his big break performing on the Bristol circuit for 10 years as a close-up magician in restaurants and cafes.
While he worked the tables he perfected his particular brand of ‘mentalism’, an area of magic incorporating mind-reading and influence.
His first stage show was at the Tobacco Factory, he wrote magic books and then got his big break when his television series Mind Control was aired in December 2000.
He heralded in a new era of ‘cool’ magicians who continue to inspire the next generation of magicians to learn the craft.