The theatre was standing room only at The Magic Circle’s HQ in London to watch some of the leading close-up magicians in the country compete with each other. Always a popular event the two audiences enjoyed a high standard of performance throughout. Congratulations go to Pete Wardell whose assured performance of coins to glass and his acclaimed cups and balls routine won him 1st place in this year’s competition. (Pete has now 100% record in winning competitions he has entered).
John van der Put came in second place whose act featured a clever and entertaining “card in laptop screen” along with his signature VDP card transformation. Paul Brown came third with a beautiful set piece featuring a theme of alchemy that resulted in him being awarded the Ali Bongo Originality Prize as well. Many favourable comments were made afterwards about the quality of all the competitors.
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Paul Brown’s act sounds interesting … but that may be due to the fact that I’m not really that familiar with close up magic … or the fact that they dont tell what it was he did whereas they give a little bit more away from the other 2 in this little newsflash. Ali Bongo prize .. the name ali bongo has been on this blog before I think .. I still start to grinn due to that name … It makes me see weird dancing people and bongo sounds and such …
whereas .. Ali and Bongo somehow don’t seem a match .. but that’s coming from a Dutch person, not familiar with all slightly more exotic names.
Too bad that there are no vids here … alchemy act .. hm .. maybe we could have copied the act coming Monday at the lab .. *grinning*
Congratulations to Pete, John and Paul!…a clip would have been nice indeed….
How excellent that I read about my old friend Pete Wardell\’s win on Derren\’s website. Nice to see another old street performer do well!
Some of us still remember Derren hanging around Covent Garden briefly back in the day…