At around 10:30pm a few nights ago I received a Whatsapp message from The President of The Magic Circle Scott Penrose requesting to speak to me on the phone as soon as possible. As anyone would assume when receiving a message at that hour I assumed I had done something wrong and was in the s**t. His second message received a few seconds later assured me it wasn’t anything bad, just a rather pressing matter.

A few minutes later we were on the phone and he informed me that he had just left a council meeting at The Magic Circle where he had let them know that he was promoting me to A Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star (M.I.M.C). I was absolutely flabbergasted, and genuinely did not see this coming.

The Magic Circle has three levels of degree, M.M.C, A.I.M.C, and M.I.M.C, when I first joined The Magic Circle a decade ago, I went in as an M.M.C, in 2013 I took a performance exam and was promoted to A.I.M.C, however the top level that I became a member of this week, can only be bestowed upon a magician by the current President and is completely at his discretion and his alone. M.I.M.C members are limited to 300 worldwide, other notable magicians with these initials after their name include David Copperfield, Dynamo and Derren Brown.

It is a dream come true, I never believed I would ever be bestowed this honour especially while I  am still in my 30’s. Thank you Scott!

A Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star Badge

A special episode recorded during the 2018 Edinburgh Festival, Richard revisits six previous guests who are all performing at the festival with their own shows for a catch up. Featuring Piff The Magic Dragon, Ben Hart, Ben Hanlin, Harry De Cruz, John Lenahan and Pete Firman.

TIME STAMPS:

PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON (17:21)

BEN HART (45.42)

BEN HANLIN (1:05.11)

HARRY DE CRUZ (1:27.40)

JOHN LENAHAN (1:53.06)

PETE FIRMAN (2:17.30)

Back in 2011 I was lucky enough to be invited to perform on the (at the time brand new) ITV1 show Penn & Teller: Fool Us hosted by Jonathan Ross. If you haven’t seen the show, the format is that the best magicians in the land are invited to perform their best trick for the legendary Las Vegas magicians Penn & Teller and they must attempt to fool them with it. It is actually very hard to fool a magician with a magic trick, especially Penn & Teller who between them have over 100 years of experience! I didn’t fool them back in 2011, however the exposure on prime time ITV1 did wonders for my fairly new magic career at the time.

The Fool Us TV show is now in its 4th season and is now filmed in Penn & Tellers theatre in Las Vegas. I was very lucky a few weeks ago to be invited to travel to Las Vegas to have a second attempt at fooling them on prime time television alongside my trusty sidekick Strange. This is what happened:

I am very excited to announce that I will be embarking on a 30 date UK theatre tour in the Spring of 2017 with the Champions of Magic show. It is a wonderful show with 5 magicians who are all very different. I do the last 35 minutes of the show every night. If you fancy seeing me on a stage, we are almost certainly coming to a town near you. Here are the dates and ticket info, book now as some of the shows are already almost sold out:

18th March 2017 – YEOVIL, Octagon Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/jlmzhn3

24th March 2017 – NEWBURY, Corn Exchange – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hmfteus

25th March 2017 – COLCHESTER, Mercury Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hh4uwsr

28th March 2017 – HAYES, Beck Theatre – Tickets – http://tinyurl.com/jrf65zy

29th March 2017 – BROMLEY, Churchill Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/h2nemwd

30th March 2017 – WINCHESTER, Theatre Royal – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/ylnj2v4

31st March 2017 – KETTERING, Lighthouse Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/zn49md2

1st April 2017 – HARROGATE, Royal Hall – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/gtgw8yl

2nd April 2017 – BASINGSTOKE, Haymarket – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/jar75k3

3rd April 2017 – KINGS LYNN, Corn Exchange – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/jz5uj2u

4th April 2017 – SWANSEA, Grand Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/juelt9y

5th April 2017 – HALIFAX, Victoria Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/zumozrg

6th April 2017 – CHESTERFIELD, Pomegranate – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/h4ux49r

7th April 2017 – ST ALBANS, Alban Arena – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/zup3wzt

8th April 2017 – FELIXSTOWE, Spa Pavilion – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hy9sc8g

9th April 2017 – SWINDON, Wyvern Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hk66wes

10th April 2017 – LEICESTER, Curve Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/6ka66ff

12th April 2017 – TRURO, Hall for Cornwall – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/gn3jrkf

13th April 2017 – GLENROTHES, Rothes Hall – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hballkn

14th April 2017 – DURHAM, Gala Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/h9ab9le

15th April 2017 – GRIMSBY, Audiotorium – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/zt9r48s

16th April 2017 – INVERNESS, Eden Court – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/jzdag5a

18th April 2017 – DARTFORD, Orchard Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/jgdx46y

19th April 2017 – DORKING, Dorking Halls – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/htkjnjs

22nd April 2017 – HERTFORD, Hertford Theatre – Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/hkqfqf4

One of the world’s greatest living magicians takes to my hot seat for the series finale. Derren Brown has changed mentalism in our industry forever and become a household name in the process. He has produced more television content over the last 15 years than any other British magician and also produced seven full evening stage shows full of original presentations, methods and thinking. An unexpected part of Derren’s incredible success has been the spawning of an entire generation of magicians who rip of his psychological presentations and material, what does the man himself really think of the Derren clones? His answer may surprise you.

Stuart MacLeod is one half of the double act Barry & Stuart. I would recommend you listen to Barry’s episode first (episode 70) before you listen to this one as it follows on perfectly. In this interview Stuart discusses their influences, why commercial success was never their plan, why they decided to expose all of the secrets to the tricks in one of their Edinburgh shows, his solo projects including the soon to open Band of Magicians show on the Las Vegas strip. Stuart also explains how they are able to continue as a double act today despite the fact that they live on different continents. 

Barry Jones is half of the double act Barry & Stuart, they are without question two of the most creative and innovative magicians in the world today and over the last 15 years they have produced an incredible body of original work. In this interview Barry discusses their journey from rural Scotland to the bright lights of London where they made their own TV series for Channel 4 in their early twenties called Magick, he also talks about their time as featured performers on the BBC1 show ‘The Magicians’ including the night The Slicer illusion they were performing went wrong on Live TV. I also ask Barry about their Live shows, their upcoming appearance on ITV1’s ‘The Next Great Magician’ featuring the incredible ‘Barry’s Belly’ trick and how he and Stuart have kept their double act going strong despite Stuart moving to America.

It is always great to hear an enthusiastic young magician talk about the magic world and how they view its past, present and future. This week Harry De Cruz takes to my hot seat, he is the youngest magician to ever do so. Harry is only 22 however for the last 4 years he has worked in the very heart of team DYNAMO and has been at Steven Frayne’s side throughout the TV shows, national arena tours and publicity stunts, Harry has also recently been working alongside Paul Kieve and has some big plans for his own performing future. This episode also features the first ever pair of magicians to gate crash a podcast recording, Alan Hudson and Tom Elderfield add in their 2 cents.

The lovely Debbie McGee takes to my hot seat this week to discuss her incredible life and career as both a ballet dancer and also as one half of the most famous magic double act in the UK over the last 30 years. Debbie talks about her marriage to Paul Daniels, the TV shows, the West End run, the live shows, the Louis Theroux and ‘Wife Swap’ documentaries, as well as sitting on Mrs Merton’s sofa when she asked that very famous question. Debbie also talks about her future plans and your host points out an amazing potential new avenue that Debbie could go down in the world of magic at the end of the interview.