Patrick Page

Patrick “Pat” Page (17 March 1929 – 11 February 2010) was a Comedy stage and Close Up magician born in Dundee, Scotland. He appeared on TV with Paul Daniels in the 1970s and worked on a variety of show business productions. In 2006 he was asked to be a consultant on the film Casino Royale, which used several scenes involving playing cards. Patrick Page also worked as an adviser for Derren Brown. Throughout his long career, he worked the club circuit, wrote books, and recorded instructional videos for magicians.

I was introduced to Patrick Page’s magic during his seminars in Germany. Most likely I attended his lecture more than any other magicians’. His approach to magic and performance was based on years of experience. Working in all different kinds of venues stage and close-up he was a master of both. I am still using some of the things he showed in my stage and close-up performances.

The fact that I am a professional magician now is partly because of him. He asked me what I did for a living and if I liked it or if I preferred doing something else. I said not particularly and he asked me what I rather that. I said magic. He looked at me, paused and said then do it for a year and see if you like it. That’s what I did years later and never looked back. Here is a short clip of him performing at a lecture one of his favorite routines.

In the next couple of posts, I will introduce you to people, the magic mentors that have inspired me to become a better performer. You’ll meet people who have offered advice, or acted by example, to help develop and direct my career as a magician.

Some of them are alive, some have passed on and some were alive before I was born. By reading classic books and magazines I have stories about their life and performances that inspired and influenced me. They are mostly magicians but also a movie director and Karate masters.

Magic Mentors – Joro

We will start with Joro (Bruno Hennig). Joro was born Oct 1928. He was working at a bank and part-time as a magician. He has published multiple articles in magic magazines and has invented effects that are still used by professionals worldwide today. The dancing cork and the card in the box. Here a clip the famous Dutch magician Fred Kaps performing one his effects on TV.

In the lecture, Joro highlighted to focus on a handful of effects and perform them over and over again and develop your own way of doing the effect. It took me a long time to put this advice into action. But today, almost 25 years later I can say that it was exactly what I needed at the time.

I believe that Joro has influenced hundreds of magicians in Germany with his style and thinking and I would highly recommend reading his books on his stage show and other effects as well as his book on the cups and balls. Unfortunately, they are only published in German.

I met Joro at 3 magic lecture at the Magic Hands magic shop in the mid-’80s. I was lucky that this shop was about 45 min car ride away from my home town. Joro, despite the fact he performed part-time, was never an amateur. He had a very interactive stage show that had been honed in hundreds of shows. The lecture came for me at a time where I consumed a lot of magic. I read books, bought effects and I was chasing alway the latest trick on the market.

References:
http://www.zauber-pedia.de/index.php?title=Joro
Kleines Becherspiel-Kompendium, Coesfeld 1999
Das Joro-Buch – Verlag: sic, 1993, 1. Auflage, 18×25, 192 Seiten

Magic Convention – How magicians improve their skills

The question I am asked the most, apart from how did you do that, is how did you learn your craft and how do you improve your skill.

Like with any other business, there are conventions. There you can attend lectures held by famous or not so famous magicians, there are shows and usually exhibits that shows the latest and the greatest trick.

Personally, I don’t go very often because of the focus on tricks and sales. I believe improvement comes from doing as many performances as you can and analyzing what went well and sometimes what went wrong.

Every now and then there is a magic convention that goes off the beaten track. Earlier this year I signed up for a convention/lectures in Madrid Spain. What drew me to it was the fact that it was limited to 15 participants. It is called Campus Magico.

They had 6 teachers and the focus was on the way magic is approached in Spain. There were lectures about the history of Spanish Magic, lessons in active theatre and mime, storytelling and others.  Each lecturer did a full day seminar with various exercises.

The location was about 30 km outside Madrid in a beautiful farmhouse. There was nothing around to distract your attention, so full focus on the lectures and exercises was guaranteed.

What I liked best is that I didn’t learn a single effect but improved on the ones I do already. Furthermore it was great to meet other performers from the UK, Germany, Spain, Canada and the US. I hope to be back next year

Season Greetings

Now I will have a few days to recuperate and spend some time with my wife and friends, I’d like to wish everyone who has supported me and my business this past year, be it corporate or private clients a great start in 2018 and 365 successful days. Without you I wouldn’t be in this wonderful position to be able to perform and do what I love for a living. Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to working with you again in 2018.

I will be developing a one man show for the forthcoming year and will be offering  it to existing clients first. If you would like to be on the list please sign up to my Newsletter on the website.

For the time being have fun with the holiday workout!

Best regards,

Stefan