As the latest series of Britain’s Got Talent draws to a close, Canadian magician is another contestant proving that you don’t need to win it for the show to kickstart your career. Kevin Cooper spoke to him ahead of a UK tour that includes his first date in Nottingham
It was a card trick his dad showed him when he was eight years old that set Darcy Oake on his journey into the world of magic and illusion.
Over here, we’d never heard of the Canadian until he appeared on last year’s Britain’s Got Talent but by that time he was already an international magic champion. At 16, he beat seasoned professionals at various events and ended up winning the coveted People’s Choice Gold Medal in Seattle.
Since then he has performed throughout Europe; from Paris to London, and across North America, from the heart of Times Square in New York City to the Las Vegas Strip. Read more..
He’s the master magician, she’s the iconic glamorous assistant, and together they’ve been entertaining audiences for decades with astonishing illusions and baffling magic tricks. On 13th June, the peerless Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee bring their Intimate Magic Tour to Camberley Theatre.
Your 2013 tour was your ‘First Farewell Tour’. This isn’t quite the Second Farewell then…
Paul: I just like to come up with tour titles that make people go, ‘what?’ This one was almost called the Debbie McGee Shoe Fund Tour. The last tour we carried lots of big equipment, but then I also enjoyed doing a show that more or less came out of my pocket. This one is somewhere in between, where the audience can be more involved.
Do you still enjoy the touring life?
Debbie: Paul adores being busy. He’s happiest when he hasn’t got enough time to do anything. He just loves entertaining whether it’s in the queue for the supermarket or post office. But this year we’re not doing a tour that’s intense –
Paul: We are! We’re doing one in a tent!
Debbie: We’d normally go out and do about fifty dates, but this time we’re taking it a bit easier and we’ll do about five a month and take August off.
Paul: So I can play on me boat.
We’ve seen magic performed all kinds of ways, from your brand of classic showbiz, the modern mentalism of Derren Brown to the street illusions of Dynamo. Is there anywhere left for magic to go?
Paul: Well when you consider it’s the oldest art form and it’s been going for thousands of years since the Egyptians, I don’t think it will fade away. For me the only place that magic really exists is live. If you are live you can see that it’s really there, happening before your very eyes, and that’s the basis for this Intimate tour.
Are you ever dumbfounded by other magician’s or are you impervious to trickery?
Paul: I’m like a taxi driver: I’ve got the knowledge. But I’ve been studying this stuff for sixty odd years. I’m kind of a guru now (laughs.) And you’re a huge collector and historian of magic, aren’t you?
Paul: Yes I’m a historian more than a collector now. I’m on EBay a lot these days…
You used to do a neat trade in debunking paranormal claims about the supernatural. How is it that in 2015 so called mystics and mediums still draw audiences under ‘light entertainment’?
Paul: it works because we’ve got people who have religion and faiths, and the moment you open yourself to believing in gods or a spirit world, then you’re open to being abused by religious leaders, psychics and fortune tellers. If you’ve not been educated how they do it you’re as gullible as anybody.
It was sad to see the magic television work dry up in the 90s but Debbie, you really flourished afterwards with acting, writing, your own magic act and a radio show on BBC Berkshire?
Debbie: Paul and I just get on with living. When one door closes we open another one. I’d been a successful dancer before I’d worked with Paul and always been a career woman, so with not having all those months sitting in a TV studio it gave me more time to do other things.
You’ve had such success with Debbie as your magician’s assistant, Paul, ever thought about taking a magician’s apprentice? It would make a great TV show…
Paul: That idea’s come at us a few times. And last week I had someone discuss that very idea but in a sitcom situation. I’d be open to it but I already have an ‘apprentice’, my son Martin who’s very funny and always working.
Which country are you biggest in outside of the UK?
Debbie: We get mobbed in Ireland like pop stars! We still find it amazing that we get recognised, but also that there’s a whole generation that bring their children to our shows. It’s really lovely.
Paul: Within the world of magic, and this is a fact: you can work as a magician every night of the year and never meet a normal person. There’s that many magic clubs, conventions and get-togethers around the world. So when Dynamo calls me the ‘Godfather of Magic’, I don’t know what it is. But I guess that where Dynamo or Copperfield do about one show a year, we’ve done hundreds!
Debbie: In the last year alone, Paul has won two huge awards. In Italy he won the Golden Grolla which is usually given to movie stars and the mayor of Grenada in Spain created a special ceremony and award just for him, a solid silver wand. Just a couple of years ago, we both received a lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Academy of Magical Arts, the first non-Americans to do so.
It must be wonderful to still be so warmly appreciated.
Debbie: It is humbling, but as Paul always says he ‘gets paid for playing with his toys’. Without any of that he would be doing what he’s doing.
Finally Paul… how much do you like, let’s say… war?
The name is Billy Kidd, only she’s not a kid or even an outlaw. She’s one of the very few women who perform magic tricks instead of acting as the male magician’s lovely assistant.
Born in Edmonton, now based outside of London, Ms. Kidd is so good at her craft she has been featured on the Discovery and Syfy channels, and entertains throughout Europe, Asia and Japan. She found her inspiration several years ago watching a street magician in Edmonton.
As much as she enjoyed the magic, it was the crowd’s reaction that resonated with Ms. Kidd.
“It was such a high,” she says. “It’s why you have to credit [American street performer] David Blaine. He was the first guy who turned the focus and television cameras on people reacting to his magic.” (Article by Allan Maki, photo by Tom Sparey)
“Cyber illusionist” Marco Tempest has been using technology to pull off magic tricks on YouTube and at live events for years. But at the Code Conference today in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Tempest explained that he has to follow technological progress closely — lest it put him out of a job.
“Science will make real what once was considered magic, which is why magicians must stay ahead of the reality curve,” Tempest said. “Magic is about making possible today what science will make a reality tomorrow.” Read more:
