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MAGIC CAREER IN BRIEF
Background
Kevin was a relative latecomer to Magic, not finding any serious interest until he was aged 32. Once bitten however, Magic quickly became something of an obsession and soon replaced his earlier love of chess, at which he used to play for his county, as his main pastime.
Just five years later, he gave up his job as a Systems Engineer to pursue a Magic career. He has never regretted this, though still retains a vested interest in computers, and his only regret is that he didn’t do it sooner.
Some years and two children later, his interest and love for Magic remains as high as ever. He now has an ever growing reputation and has performed all over the World including Europe, USA and the Far East.
Performances
He now works very successfully as a close-up magician where he has enjoys many engagements which include a six month residency on the Orient Express, Trade stands for the likes of Hewlett Packard, Houses of Parliament and many large sporting events such as pro-celebrity golfing events at the Belfry.
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His magic has been used for some high profile promotion work. In 2002 for example, he featured on the Liberal Democrats Party conference video where he depicted the current labour government as a street con-man filmed on location in London’s Elephant and Castle market. An abridged version of this went out on all major TV channels as a Party Political broadcast. |
Kevin also frequently works in the guise of a Gambler in a wide variety of situations which includes corporate casinos, wild west shows and racecourse hospitality. This includes dazzling demonstrations at a card table as well as a very successful gambling booth where many of the famous sleight-of-hand street scams such as ‘The shells and pea game’ and ‘Three card monte’ are demonstrated. Here, real money is liberally passed out leaving everyone to be entertained and amused by the ways that he unfailingly win it back.
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Not many magicians have performed on an Oil Rig in the middle of the North Sea! As a Systems Engineer involved with a project on the BP Miller Oil and Gas Platform, it was necessary to undergo full training which includes such tasks as an escape from a simulated helicopter crash with the cabin turning upside down under water and jumping off a 20m platform into a wave pool in the dark and forming teams in the water to right a capsized life raft. The cost of training at a facility in Aberdeen is expensive but ALL offshore workers (including Entertainers!) have to go through it in order to gain an offshore license.Rather than wasting the opportunity, Kevin took advantage of his off-shore license by returning as a magician. |
The most recent addition is his work as a ‘Psychic Entertainer’ and, whilst he makes no claim to having any genuine special powers, his performances give his audiences something very real to think about. In 2003, he won an award for the best speaker in a series of talks on ‘Non-verbal Communication’ (a tongue-in-cheek Mind Reading act) presented to the British Federation of Enterprise Agencies.
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In 2003, Kevin performed a mixture of magic and mentalism on a tour of residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.Riyadh alone has around 30,000 British ex-pats, all of whom live on secure compounds which a central social club. Given that there is no equivalent of public pubs, clubs or bars or any establishments offering any form of entertainment, it is not difficult to image how well quality entertainment goes down! |
Magic Competitions
Within Magic, he has won a number of prestigious awards for close-up magic including several times winner the ‘Roy Johnson Shield’, Wolverhampton Circle Close-up, several times winner of the ‘British Magical Society Close-up trophy’, where he also holds a blue ribbon, ‘North of England Close-up Magician’, ‘All winners Close-up trophy’ and appeared in both the 1998 and 2006 ‘British Close-up Championships’.
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2004 – Won the Rovi Shield at the IBM Convention together with second place in the MacMillan’s International Competition, London against some very stiff competition from around the World including Sweden, Hong Kong, USA, Hungary and Germany.2005 – Third place in the Jubilaumskongress European Close-Up Magic Championships held by invitation in Austria.2006 – Participated in FISM World Magical Championships, Stockholm.
2007 – Magical judge for the ‘European Close-up Magic Championships’ |
Lectures
Lectured at a number of prominent magical societies throughout the UK including The Magic Circle – London, Blackpool Magicians Club, British Magical Society, Leicester Magic Circle, Nottingham Guild of Magicians, Sheffield Circle of Magicians, Leeds Magical Association, Coventry Magic Circle, Hull Magicians Circle, Leamington and Warwick Society of Magicians, Order of the Magi, Wolverhampton Circle of Magicians and, in a number of cases, has been asked back the following year. He has also performed and lectured at a number of magic events including the Peterborough Day of Magic, Leeds Day of Magic, 2001 British Close-up Symposium, MindMagic 2001, 2005 Northern Day of Magic, 2005 Bristol Day of Magic and performed in the 2003 Blackpool Command Performance where he received an associated award.
Internationally, Kevin has lectured for the Siam Magic Circle (Bangkok) and in 2005 lectured an/or performed at many International Magic Conventions including Austrian, SAM European, Italian, Swiss National Conventions, FFFF (USA). He also performed a series of lectures for the ‘Accademia Italiana Arte Magica’ which is a magic production school for serious students of magic in Italy. |
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