Newcastle Magic Circle Entertains

Before the rumours start and get out of control… I’m not a member of the Newcastle Magic Circle. However, there have been many times that I would have loved to have been. Tonight was simply about fun and entertainment, for Members of the circle and their friends. I’ve know the guys at Magicbox for years and in my books that makes me a friend 🙂

Magic and Me

I’ve not delved too deeply into this in the past so here is the chance. You see the thing that got me into magic originally was my Dad. When he was living in the Midlands he said that he was in the Magic Circle (he also told stories). And during my early years, we would quite often create Magic Tricks and perform for me and the family.

Something about it sparked my interest and I was hooked. I started learning magic from various sources. Magic was and is fun entertainment, with the added bafflement of a puzzle.

My birthday parties for a few years had Tony’s Magic at our house. These photos were from one of them I’;m not sure of my age, but I can tell you it was 4:55pm!

A few years after this I held my own Magic Show in a neighbours house, in front of about 20 people. Performing magic tricks that my Dad had created. One of them involved shooting an air rifle across the living room to reveal a chosen celebrity. Another trick I’ve not seen for many many years until tonight at the Newcastle Magic Circle show. My version was very low tech and not as polished as the updated version, either way the principle was the same and it was a real baffler!

Newcastle Magic Circle Entertains: The Lineup

The evening was hosted at Magicbox in Camperdown, Newcastle. Compared for the evening by Hayden Parker (Host of the Panto Podcast).

Opening the night was Tom Bolton (resident Magicboxer), sharing his view on modern magic. Starting off with a 50/50 chance of someone getting a brick dropped on their mobile phone. Following up with a routine displaying synergy between two people.

Michael Murray, “came out of retirement” and showed the power of the mind. One part of his routine involved a mixed-up Rubik’s cube being passed to a volunteer. Who twisted the cube behind their back, but when it was brought out in front it was solved!

Robert Reed, Magician Newcastle performed a routine of one-liners, that was genuinely funny, followed by a number routine. First, the date of birth was entered by a volunteer’s mobile phone calculator app, next Abigail was asked for our house number, followed by someone else’s “PIN” number. All three were multiplied together to reveal a 10 digit number. Simply adding 07 in front of this created a mobile phone number which rang and it was Robert’s Mobile! This truly truly baffled me.

Although the show wasn’t designed for children, it was open to family members. So my magically assistants came along, while I secretly hoped one of them would be inspired. It was also good to escape mobile phones (bar the selfies).

And it worked, I offered to buy a gift for each of them Imogen chose face glitter, Abigail zoned into a magic set. Which she has been practising like mad ever since. Hopefully, she continues in some form to evolve a magical interest.

Needless to say that we’ll be back in the future and are currently looking into the idea of joining the Junior Magic Circle.