Posted by Ian on 2011-03-31
in Newsletter
THE REUNION
I was listening to The Reunion (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zd8fy), a Radio 4 programme that brings together the participants in significant events that took place over the past few years ago. This particular one was on the founding of Comic Relief, and included the likes of Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis, Griff Rhys Jones and Helen Fielding reminiscing. At the end of the programme, each of them was asked to name their most memorable moment over the thirty years.
Lenny Henry went first: “watching Paul Daniels not making a magic trick work was perhaps one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me in my entire life live on television. Griff and myself sitting there whilst Paul Daniels did a trick involving Eddie the Eagle – and milk coming out of his elbow. They told us that it would be this magnificent trick that would be brilliant: and it really wasn’t.”
I remember the screening well – mainly because Lenny Henry was doubled up with laughter when the camera returned to him, as Paul Daniels attempted to bring the trick to its finale; and the fact that Lenny made several call-backs to the mishap during the course of the programme (“if you don’t behave yourselves, we’ll bring back Paul Daniels”).
Magicians know the trick as The Human Pump – and is one Daniels had previously performed to great success on The Royal Variety Show. Unfortunately on this occasion a vital piece of apparatus malfunctioned (Daniels apparently alleges that someone interfered with it), so that instead of the intended climax of milk pouring out of Eddie the Eagles’ elbow, there were just a couple of drops.
WHAT DOES LENNY HENRY REALLY THINK?
It was an interesting choice for Lenny Henry to have made – you might have thought he would have gone for a moment during one of his visits to a famine-stricken area in Africa. Also, as he had just presented The Magicians on BBC 1 (which wasn’t received kindly by the critics), you would have thought he might have been more sympathetic to the problems magicians can face in live performing.
I was also surprised that he had a dig at Paul Daniels for a less obvious reason. Back in December last year, on the Radio 4 Arts Programme Front Row, Lenny Henry was being interviewed about his forthcoming Stand-Up tour and The Magicians programme he was about to present (which went out in January). He had this to say about the latter:
“Everybody secretly has a thing about magic. I love magic, you know. When Paul Daniels did the ball and the cup trick on the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Club and was funny and did this amazing feat of dexterity, my jaw was on the floor – it was a seminal thing for me. And when I got to work with him at the New Cresta Club in Solihull for two weeks I watched him every single night and I did not know how the tricks were done. And I was in huge awe of his verbal dexterity. Paul Daniels was a brilliant comedian... I had huge respect for him.”
HOLIDAY CAMP SHOWS
I can’t say that I’m a natural ‘family holiday camp’ act. I’ve done a few in my time but never with any great confidence that my style fits naturally into that format. My chances of getting booked at such venues, however, would seem to be relatively limited this year: as one of the principal holiday camps, Haven, have a new show called Magic Show - Magic Exposed.
“In this fun interactive show we will try to uncover some of the myths and mysteries behind magic. It's a Magic show for all the family run by the FunStars!” (www.haven.com/experience/entertainment/evening-entertainment.aspx ) The Funstars aren’t magicians but the Haven equivalent of red or blue coats.
A magician saw a preview of the show and described the format as such: “How the show works is they do a magic trick, then go around the audience and ask the people how they think it is done. They then write all the answers what people give on a blackboard and then tell you which one is correct.”
I guess a live show along these lines was inevitable – after all the television-type shows of a similar format. It all began in the US with The Masked Magician, where tricks were straight forwardly performed, and then straight forwardly explained, by the eponymous magician.
The UK had a stab at it but with a slightly different concept. Called Secrets of Magic, personalities and a studio audience had to guess how they thought a trick was done (they were given four options): the method was then revealed to show who was correct (it was actually slightly more complicated than this, because half the time the supposed method revealed wasn’t actually the real method).
The latest is Penn & Teller: Fool Us – where the American duo try to work out how tricks performed by various magicians are done. This was shown as a pilot in January but has now been commissioned as a series.
Clearly television feels it has a winning formula and where TV goes, live performances inevitably follow. What Haven are doing, however, rather puts the lie to those who argue that any magic on television is good for live performers: with a show specifically put together to expose magic tricks, you can’t really see Haven also booking bona fide magicians.
VARIETY
Another type of show which I’m unlikely to be booked for is a Variety show, mainly because there isn’t any of that left anymore. There was a fascinating two part programme about the rise and fall of Variety, presented by Michael Grade recently on television; and it produced in me a certain nostalgia for the times when you could be performing twice a night for 365 days a year with the same ten minute act that never altered. Even if it would have sent you nuts by the end!
One of the contributors was Peter Pritchard, who managed the likes of Bob Monkhouse and the ventriloquist Ray Alan. Peter started off life working as an ‘office boy’ for the great Lew Grade, the mogul in chief of television variety for many years and well-known cigar smoker. My friend Geoffrey Durham told me a funny story relating to Peter and Lord Grade.
Peter felt he had earnt a pay rise and thought up a line of argument that he could use to negotiate with his boss. Having made his demand, Lord Grade, as expected, asked him why he deserved an increase. “I couldn’t help but notice that the cigars you send me out each day to buy cost more than you are paying me.”
“Well, when you give me as much satisfaction as those cigars...”
MAGIC OF DISNEYLAND
I’ve just returned from a few days in Disneyland Paris, a great adventure for kids of all ages. I won’t make you envious by saying what a good time we had. But I couldn’t help but notice one piece of brilliant Disney-speak that they employ.
As is inevitable in a park of that size, one or two of the rides were closed for repairs or renewals. Rather than apologising for the inconvenience of you, the guest (as Disney like to call us!), missing out on an anticipated ride, they simply turn a negative into a positive: “This area is being refurbished for your future enjoyment.”
I was listening to The Reunion (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zd8fy), a Radio 4 programme that brings together the participants in significant events that took place over the past few years ago. This particular one was on the founding of Comic Relief, and included the likes of Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis, Griff Rhys Jones and Helen Fielding reminiscing. At the end of the programme, each of them was asked to name their most memorable moment over the thirty years.
Lenny Henry went first: “watching Paul Daniels not making a magic trick work was perhaps one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me in my entire life live on television. Griff and myself sitting there whilst Paul Daniels did a trick involving Eddie the Eagle – and milk coming out of his elbow. They told us that it would be this magnificent trick that would be brilliant: and it really wasn’t.”
I remember the screening well – mainly because Lenny Henry was doubled up with laughter when the camera returned to him, as Paul Daniels attempted to bring the trick to its finale; and the fact that Lenny made several call-backs to the mishap during the course of the programme (“if you don’t behave yourselves, we’ll bring back Paul Daniels”).
Magicians know the trick as The Human Pump – and is one Daniels had previously performed to great success on The Royal Variety Show. Unfortunately on this occasion a vital piece of apparatus malfunctioned (Daniels apparently alleges that someone interfered with it), so that instead of the intended climax of milk pouring out of Eddie the Eagles’ elbow, there were just a couple of drops.
WHAT DOES LENNY HENRY REALLY THINK?
It was an interesting choice for Lenny Henry to have made – you might have thought he would have gone for a moment during one of his visits to a famine-stricken area in Africa. Also, as he had just presented The Magicians on BBC 1 (which wasn’t received kindly by the critics), you would have thought he might have been more sympathetic to the problems magicians can face in live performing.
I was also surprised that he had a dig at Paul Daniels for a less obvious reason. Back in December last year, on the Radio 4 Arts Programme Front Row, Lenny Henry was being interviewed about his forthcoming Stand-Up tour and The Magicians programme he was about to present (which went out in January). He had this to say about the latter:
“Everybody secretly has a thing about magic. I love magic, you know. When Paul Daniels did the ball and the cup trick on the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Club and was funny and did this amazing feat of dexterity, my jaw was on the floor – it was a seminal thing for me. And when I got to work with him at the New Cresta Club in Solihull for two weeks I watched him every single night and I did not know how the tricks were done. And I was in huge awe of his verbal dexterity. Paul Daniels was a brilliant comedian... I had huge respect for him.”
HOLIDAY CAMP SHOWS
I can’t say that I’m a natural ‘family holiday camp’ act. I’ve done a few in my time but never with any great confidence that my style fits naturally into that format. My chances of getting booked at such venues, however, would seem to be relatively limited this year: as one of the principal holiday camps, Haven, have a new show called Magic Show - Magic Exposed.
“In this fun interactive show we will try to uncover some of the myths and mysteries behind magic. It's a Magic show for all the family run by the FunStars!” (www.haven.com/experience/entertainment/evening-entertainment.aspx ) The Funstars aren’t magicians but the Haven equivalent of red or blue coats.
A magician saw a preview of the show and described the format as such: “How the show works is they do a magic trick, then go around the audience and ask the people how they think it is done. They then write all the answers what people give on a blackboard and then tell you which one is correct.”
I guess a live show along these lines was inevitable – after all the television-type shows of a similar format. It all began in the US with The Masked Magician, where tricks were straight forwardly performed, and then straight forwardly explained, by the eponymous magician.
The UK had a stab at it but with a slightly different concept. Called Secrets of Magic, personalities and a studio audience had to guess how they thought a trick was done (they were given four options): the method was then revealed to show who was correct (it was actually slightly more complicated than this, because half the time the supposed method revealed wasn’t actually the real method).
The latest is Penn & Teller: Fool Us – where the American duo try to work out how tricks performed by various magicians are done. This was shown as a pilot in January but has now been commissioned as a series.
Clearly television feels it has a winning formula and where TV goes, live performances inevitably follow. What Haven are doing, however, rather puts the lie to those who argue that any magic on television is good for live performers: with a show specifically put together to expose magic tricks, you can’t really see Haven also booking bona fide magicians.
VARIETY
Another type of show which I’m unlikely to be booked for is a Variety show, mainly because there isn’t any of that left anymore. There was a fascinating two part programme about the rise and fall of Variety, presented by Michael Grade recently on television; and it produced in me a certain nostalgia for the times when you could be performing twice a night for 365 days a year with the same ten minute act that never altered. Even if it would have sent you nuts by the end!
One of the contributors was Peter Pritchard, who managed the likes of Bob Monkhouse and the ventriloquist Ray Alan. Peter started off life working as an ‘office boy’ for the great Lew Grade, the mogul in chief of television variety for many years and well-known cigar smoker. My friend Geoffrey Durham told me a funny story relating to Peter and Lord Grade.
Peter felt he had earnt a pay rise and thought up a line of argument that he could use to negotiate with his boss. Having made his demand, Lord Grade, as expected, asked him why he deserved an increase. “I couldn’t help but notice that the cigars you send me out each day to buy cost more than you are paying me.”
“Well, when you give me as much satisfaction as those cigars...”
MAGIC OF DISNEYLAND
I’ve just returned from a few days in Disneyland Paris, a great adventure for kids of all ages. I won’t make you envious by saying what a good time we had. But I couldn’t help but notice one piece of brilliant Disney-speak that they employ.
As is inevitable in a park of that size, one or two of the rides were closed for repairs or renewals. Rather than apologising for the inconvenience of you, the guest (as Disney like to call us!), missing out on an anticipated ride, they simply turn a negative into a positive: “This area is being refurbished for your future enjoyment.”
