About The Show
The Premise
When Richard Thomas from Resonance FM and I first started talking about the way a show about magic might work, we spoke about magic and illusion as an art. We wanted the show to be a voyage of discovery into that art from the point of view of a young-ish magician (we couldn’t find one of those so I’m doing it).
Where did magic begin? Who were the first magicians? Why do we inexplicably associate certain props (like magic wands and rabbits in hats) with magicians? These were just some of the questions raised by Richard. Questions that even as a professional magician I couldn’t really answer. And so began the research for the show and the quest to find as many knowledgeable folk as possible to answer those and many more queries.
Smoke & Mirrors was born… (Cue dramatic music like one of the themes from Lord of the Rings).
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How It All Began
Funny how things turn out.
I was at the Resonance FM studio about two months ago, performing on a pilot show for a new series. A couple of friends (James and Naomi from You & Me) were hosting their show ‘A Cosy Night In’ on the radio for the first time, having already run numerous live performance nights just off Leicester Square. They asked me to perform some magic on the air, but rather than doing mindreading and stuff that works on the radio, they wanted me to do stuff that only the studio audience could see. It was quirky but if you’ve ever been to ‘A Cosy Night In’, you’ll know that it was perfect.
As part of the show, I performed a card effect where a card was chosen and signed, returned to the deck and lost and then the deck placed into my mouth. My hands were manacled behind my back and I had to find the card using just my mouth. Like I said, weird quirky. Click here to see the video of the final moments of the card magic bit.
Anyway, it all went beautifully, I found the card and escaped to cheers and exclamations. However, I left the keys to the padlocks that were restraining me in the studio after the show. Obviously, I’d escaped so I didn’t have to get on the tube (the London subway sytem) in chains, but still had to get them back.
I went back to the studio the next day and got chatting to a gentleman called Richard Thomas. Turns out that Richard is the station manager at Resonance. We chatted about the show from the night before and the guests. He said that there had been a magician on the show.
‘That was me’ says I.
‘Oh right, you’re the magician… I’ve wanted to get a show about magic on the station for a while.’
At this point, in my head at least, I felt a bit like the child at the front of the class with his hand in the air, waving at the teacher to pick him.
And pick me he very kindly did. We talked through how it might work and the sorts of things we wanted to cover in the show and eventually found a spot where the show might nestle amongst theatre and music on Resonance FM.
So there you are, the story of this lovely little ten part series. And all thanks to Naomi, James and that little set of keys!
