The Billet Article - Keith Pickles 60th Birthday Party

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 446 - May 2009, Authored by Steven Gore

Keith Pickles 60th Birthday Party

Saturday 25th March was the venue of “Wilsden’s got talent” or was it Keith’s 60th? Anyway there was quite a lot there, both magicians and Keith’s friends and family.

After the buffet, was the entertainment. No expense was spared to get a top line up. Or, knowing Keith, no money was ‘spared with’ to get entertainment. Stevie B was the compere and opened with a trick involving counting 6 cards in a repetitive manner, bet you can’t guess what it was!

Next on was me. I opened with a trick I created for Mark Waddington called “Fire & Ice” where a freely selected card has a corner torn off by a volunteer. The card vanishes in a “flash” of paper and is found instantly incased in a block of ice! The ice was then broken into and the torn corner, which is held by the volunteer the whole time, matches! I then did some mental magic, including a revenge piece where Keith picks 1 film title from 50 in a clear bag and matches my prediction of “The Three Stooges”! (Also in my prediction envelope was one for a silver Robin Reliant worth £4000, anyone remember that one!) I then performed “99” by Jay Sankey and revealed song thought of by a volunteer. I finished with the linking ring routine “you only link twice” with Stevie.

After us was the comedy sketch with Steve Naylor and Paul Sunderland. Remember CUSP from the dinner! Stevie B filled in with a tossed out deck effect which went down well. The entertainment concluded with Michael Jordan performing his act for the Young Magician of the Year Competition, which he is in the finals of. It consists of Fire eating, his version of zone zero, gypsy thread, pavel’s walking knot, razer blade swallowing and finishes with his snow poem and of course snow. A very polished act, and I’m sure he’ll do well in the competition. Good luck Michael.

The evening went on with a “guess the year” competition and more music. A good evening all in all.

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