Mark Bennett Past and Present part 1

Hi All

This is Mark Bennett Co-Owner and creator of Illusions Magic Bar

Well this is my first blog, I've never done this before so please forgive my spelling and grammar.

Having been here since the start, I thought I would start to write about my experience being a Bar Magician, and how this bar began.

I started being a magician back in 1992 -  now believe me, magic was quite different then (more about that later!).

Magic was instilled into me by a fellow college guy called Simon Virtue also known as Dan Masters. The trick he showed me was what I know now as "Out of this World". This trick blew me away and I pestered him to tell me how it was done. "I promise I won't tell anyone". Oh my god, how many times have I heard that line since. Simon was very adamant that he will not show me unless I was truly interested in Magic. The deal was if I went away and learnt 2-3 magic tricks myself he would show me.

The game was on! Where to start? This was 1992 remember, no internet. So I went down to the trusty WH Smith and asked the desk if they had books on Magic, and low and behold they had a few books in the GAMES / CARDS section although the scarcity of the literature made me think I was trying to crack a secret society or something (little did I know!) I looked at the books and noticed this little black book on the side it said "The Royal Road to Card Magic" By Jean Hugard and Fredrick Braue. And what ran through my head was wait that trick might be in here! Genius! Well I handed over my £4.99 and then went to the Board Game shop in Southampton (for the life of me I had no idea what the place was called) but I went in and asked for a nice deck of cards, the assistant gave me a pack of cards with a Gold edge! Wow I thought £10.95!  Well I was set and watch out Simon I'm coming back with your trick!

So I sat down and opened the book.

'Preface' well lets see what they have to offer.

On reading a few pages I have actually lived by then words written and I have tried in my years to pass great knowledge onto other magicians who are starting out.

"We reiterate that there is a vast difference between doing and performing card tricks. Since your primary purpose in performing sleight of hand with cards is to entertain those who watch, it is not enough that you should achieve technical perfection alone." 


 from The Royal Road to Card Magic


So that was it Entertainment. that's the key!

Well, I'm off now and will hopefully add to this blog soon.

Mark