Ask someone to name their favourite musicians and you might be there for some time. Ask them to name their favourite Magicians, and you’ll be done in no time. There really is only a small amount of famous conjurors people could list before they run out and start counting Harry Potter, Gandalf or Yoda as Magicians. If this happens, you must immediately strike them in the face.
Some of the best Magicians in the world aren’t famous, and make a modest living performing magic, or creating magic for other magicians. But some are, and my favourite Magicians are a mixture of both. All of these Magicians have influenced the magic you can see in my zoom magic show.
Penn and Teller
Responsible for making magic cool again before David Blaine made magic cool again, Penn and Teller and are a double act who made magic punk rock. Intelligent, cynical, often political, and always hilarious, their presentations are just as compelling as the magic itself.
Penn Jillette, tall and loud, is the voice of the act. Brash and outspoken he serves as host and is the way in for the audience. Raymond Teller, small and quiet, is the brains of the act and remains mute for every performance, giving him great theatrical power.
Paul Daniels
Anyone in the UK born before 1985 will have strong memories of Paul Daniels as he dominated our televisions for over 15 years. A small Northern funny man magician who somehow managed to win the hearts of the nation, Daniels knew how to make magic interesting. Part of his success was that his television show shone the spotlight on others performers, as a kind of variety television show as well as including his own performances.
Paul spent his earlier years grafting in the hardest working mens clubs in Britain, where he became the most unshakeable performer imaginable. He only ended up on Television when he realised that worse acts than him were getting paid much more due to appearances on TV. He hired someone to get him on television and the guy did such a good job that many appearances in a short space of time made him famous!
Derren Brown
Derren has created such an impact on the British public for his brand of psychological magic, that people will often describe any kind of psychological manipulation as “Derren Brown shit”.
One of the things Derren succeeded at massively was making magic relevant as a skill set. He could seemingly use his powers to know what people were thinking, win at bets, chat people up, and just generally get whatever the hell he wants.
Derren has been embraced by the nation for over twenty years now, and has moved from performing tricks to a very unique types of social experiments. His stage shows tour extensively and are some of the best magic shows the world has ever seen.
Rob Zabrecky
Former musician Rob Zabrecky plays the part of an unhinged goth magician onstage. Weird, vulnerable, and surprising, his act is impactful and very funny. His character is so compelling that I really don’t care so much what he does, I just want to see how he does it. He draws all over his face with a sharpie, brings on his dead grandfathers ashes, if you imagine a serial killer doing a few tricks for you before he finishes you, that’s Rob.
Rob isn’t famous but is very well respected in the magic community and goes down incredibly with audiences all over the world.
Piff the Magic Dragon
Imagine Jack Dee dressed as a dragon performing magic. Piff made his name on Penn and Tellers “Fool Us” show, he didn’t fool them but was by far the most entertaining act of that series, and probably of the entire show. He then went on to be a finalist on Americas Got Talent and now has his own show in Las Vegas.
Like all my favourite Magicians, Piff is a character you want to watch whether he is performing magic or not. Very funny, very strong magic.
David Blaine
Magic isn’t always seen as art, but David Blaine is nothing if not an artist. He appeared at the turn of the millennium, and instead of performing in a studio, took basic but powerful magic tricks onto the streets. This is something we are quite used to seeing now, but at the time this was quite unheard of. People on the streets didn’t know what to do with what they saw – was this real?
Since the early days Blaine has released many one hour specials and also many big stunts. In 2019 he brought his stage show to London and it was unlike any stage show I had ever seen. Really very good.
