The Billet Article - The Magic of Memories

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 429 - Dec 2007, Authored by Melvyn Shalks

The Magic of Memories

My memories of faux pas`, mishaps and downright annoying occurrences should prepare me for future problems. Believe me they do not.

A very annoying one was when Damian was on Children in Need on TV. He had been doing his bubble act for several months and we thought we ironed out the problems.

I had made him a bubble machine from an old Philips fan heater; bits of unexpanded polystyrene and an easy `get into` wooden casing.

We had gone to the auditions and the act had been accepted. The producer had said that their electricians would need to check the equipment for electrical safety. There had been a fatal accident on the Noel Edmonds show the week before and everybody was jittery. It was only a formality, one that proved you can’t be too careful. The bubble machine was rejected as ` inefficiently earthed`. I had thought that in a secure wooden casing it would have been safe. They said they would hire a bubble machine for him.

I worked through the night stripping down our machine and meticulously earthing everything.

On arrival at the studios we were handed a monstrosity of a machine, which would not fit into his display. I asked them to recheck our prop. This time it passed with flying colours. It could have cost him his TV debut.

During live transmission, his silk to cane had a delayed opening. It was only when we watched the video at home that it became obvious that the cane was out of shot for just a split second at the drastic moment, so saving the day.

A rushed addition to the act on the Young Magician of the Year show was a multiple cascade platform. What we had completely missed was that the plastic bubbles used (fishing floats) made a rat a tat sound as they descended. Bubbles would have been silent of course. We had ignored attention to detail.

The competition was in two parts. One was early in the day as a kind of rehearsal. The actual show with all the bigwigs was in the afternoon.

As the sound plot was somewhat complicated I asked if I could do it myself. The morning was great but I was not allowed to reset straight after the show. Before the next performance I tried to reset in an almost complete blackout. And I was a refused a sound check. Guess what, the sound failed but Damian carried on to huge applause.

And finally we had to be at the theatre in Wimbledon, for eight in the morning for `fire inspection`. Being a mere male I headed for Wembley and eventually arrived too late. We were excused.

What do they say? It never rains but it pours.

Other events included me cutting my finger on the head chopper during a gala presentation. It was very graphic but oh so gruesome.

Forgetting to have a shave before an afternoon performance in the Sooty Show. I had to cake the greasepaint on… and handing out the keyring by mistake in the Chinese Rings.

Who’d be a pro?

Till next time, prepare well

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