(Ed: Mark Waddington had promised to review the first half of the evening. Unfortunately at the time of going to print, I have not received the review, so this is just a review of the second half, given by Colin Gough.) I (Colin Gough reporting) have been given the envious job of writing the report on the stage acts. Before I do this I would like to give a special mention to our compere, Stevie B. He compered both the close up and stage parts of the show, and they ran like a well-oiled machine, not one blip. Well done, Stevie. I must ask, however, are you competing with me for the worst jokes of the year? First to perform was Keith Pickles. He had an array of six tricks, which only he could give justice to. He performed them in his impish, boy lost, giggling, the tricks gone wrong, what am I going to do next, style. In fact, if you were not familiar with his penultimate trick, you could be forgiven for thinking that he had completely made a clanger. A nice act to start the second half. Melvyn Shalks followed and dedicated his first trick to George Powell, a member of Leeds Magical Association, who died earlier this year. George was famous for his Dippy Duck routine. Melvyn did his version with a plastic toilet "Duck" cleaning container. He then went into a routine, which I understand from Colin Fox was born 50 years ago. I now know where the saying "practice, practice, practice" comes from. I am still trying to work out the magical content of the effects, but cannot do so as I am still laughing. Ray Roberts was our last performer and finished the evening with four well rehearsed routines. One thing you can bank on Ray to do is a good, professional, job and he did not let the audience down. For me I have always liked the thumb tie trick and Ray's routine was as good as I have seen. Bradford Magic Circle can be proud of all the performers and I know that everybody from the Leeds Magic Association enjoyed the evening. I think it can be summed up by what one member said, "One of the best evening's we've had down here for ages". |
