Hurray for Hollywood

Yes folks, we are in California enjoying the sunshine and driving around absorbing the wonderful house designs, wide open streets, the advertising and salesmanship that leaps out at you from every direction.

America is fun. We love it. As I write this, however, I am well aware that I have to do a show tonight and my brain has been spinning whilst working out what to do. I did have most of it worked out of course but the most important part of any show happens in the first few seconds, and many of the audience will not be aware of my style of working, so I have to work on those moments in my head, figuring out the right words and the right rhythm that will get them on my side straight away.

The second most important part of the show is the 'closer', the final effect, and there I have do have a completely different kind of problem. For 45 years I have closed my show with a really good mystery that I developed all those years ago, a vanished piece of paper money turns up inside a walnut that was inside an egg that was inside a lemon. The walnut, egg and lemon routine has always been a real baffler and wraps the show up nicely.

A couple of weeks ago, on the David Letterman show, a magician called Steve Cohen did a trick whereby a ring finished up inside a walnut that was inside an egg that was inside a lemon. As a long time TV magic performer, I have to say that I think it could have been done better for the cameras, and I don't mean to sound bitchy, I mean that as an honest comment.

He bought the routine from another guy and it turns out I had that guy on stage one time when I was working over here, but he can't remember me doing the trick. Well, maybe. Sometimes we all suffer from selective memory lapses.

I watched it last night (thank you YouTube) and although the method is different, to an audience the EFFECT is all they know about and tonight I may well suffer from 'he ripped this off Cohen'. So I will have to come up with a solution to that in my presentation.

Hey ho. May I say in these words a BIG thank you to Pete Biro, who picked us up from the airport when he didn't have to, and to his wife Linda, who with Pete entertained us in their home and fed us royally last night. Aren't friends wonderful?

Ending on a sad note, we lost a good friend this week when Bobby, our friend Pippa's husband passed away after years of suffering from various cancers. He was one of the good guys.

Take care of yourselves.

Paul