As at 2002, Paul is age 48 and resides in
Hertfordshire, U.K. he says about himself:-
"I had the usual childhood interest in magic,which then faded. It
was rekindled in my late 30's while in Japan. I was
teaching English to a small group of students - one of whom was a Korean magician!! He showed me various
magic tricks, but I was most interested in all forms of card magic. While in Japan (where I lived for
3 years and married there), I actively hunted down any book of magic written in English (you only
needed the fingers of one hand!). Whenever I went outside of Japan, I was able to stock up - and when I
came back to England (at the end of 1995), I was able to go wild on books and videos.
We stayed at
first with my father in Watford. I went to this place Davenports that I had heard about and bought a
magazine that I had never heard of called "Abracadabra"! I was curious to see if there was a
magic club near to me. I was staggered to learn that not only was there a club IN Watford (WAM - The Watford
Association of Magicians), but that they were about to celebrate their 50th year!!
They were having a
special Gala day to mark the event, I went along and was hooked! I have been a member ever since.
Although I enjoyed (and still do enjoy) the WAM club events, I came to
realize that most of
magic held no appeal for me! This hit me when I saw an advertisement in a magazine stating that they
catered for "all" types of magic - there then followed a long list of magic "types" that as I
read I mentally crossed off as not being of interest to me: balloon modeling, escapology, rope magic, dove magic,
cigarette magic, face painting, children's magic........etc.
Card magic held a fascination for me as did the few effects that I had
read about with magic squares, dice and ESP feats. After reading a book by Simon Lovell, I
realized
that it was OK to say "I don't like
coin magic". The turning point for me really came when I entered my
first club competition. Having been bored to tears watching endless performances of professor's nightmare,
linking rings, miser's dream -
which all did nothing for me, I thought that I would try something
different. I constructed a story about a stranger that I met on a train journey and illustrated it with some card
and dice effects. It seemed to go down quite well and I was asked to repeat it next week - "as it was
something very different from what we usually see!!!" Aha! This was what I was after! One of the club
members actually said, "You seem to have stumbled into bizarre magick, almost by the back door". I had
arrived,
My main interests now involve tarot and playing card story-telling
routines, mentalism, effects with pendulums, runes, dice.
I am not a major magic(k)al performer (yet) , mainly performing for family,
friends and colleagues. I did perform at my brother -in -law's wedding in Japan in front of about 100 Japanese guests.
Someone provided the translation and some guys with video
cameras captured the close up onto large screens around the dining area.
At Xmas 2001, I put on a 1 hour show for about 40 of my work colleagues. This
was very well received.
I belong to WAM and the Shadow Digest. I have attended most of "The
Gatherings" in Edinburgh, all of The Top Secret magic days in Milton Keynes and all of the Mindmagic days
in London. I subscribe to The Altar Flame, Syzergy and Abracadabra. I like to invent stories based
upon tarot card effects. I still don't like coin magic! I remain an avid
collector and reader of books".
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