Thursday was the opening night of Blackpool Magician’s Club new headquarters. My girlfriend Ria and I headed over early to catch up with all of our magician friends. Club members Russ Brown, Juan Tirado and Rick Green were in a hilarious mood. Escapologist Danny Hunt and Annette were also there as they were performing in the show. It is often the way when all the ‘younger’ magicians get together that it gets silly. All good fun!The show featured Clive Web & Danny Adams (who almost set fire to the ceiling!! Very funny though) Neville King with his off the wall vent routine. Danny Hunt & Annette performing some cool illusions (Danny has a lot of flight cases… you ask him)

The theatre club was officially opened by the Honorary Life President Ken Dodd. At around 9pm I ended up wandering the surrounding streets trying to find Doddy as he couldn’t find the club (it is a little hidden away.)Ken Dodd is a big supporter of the Blackpool Magician’s club and was on good form. He did a spot in the show and cut the ribbon with Press on hand. His comedy spot of course would have gone on all night but the club only being licensed until midnight had to battle to get him to finish before dawn.

On Friday myself and Ria were managing a winter ball for a business club in Preston. This was through our event management company Inspired Events. www.inspiredeventsuk.com

As with these kind of events they often get really hectic but it all went really well. We had a great Sax player performing during dinner. Comedian Steve Royle (my pal who compeered the Magic of the Music Hall show several weeks ago) after dinner, juggling and generally causing mayhem. A top comedian! http://www.ashleyboroda.com/boroda_sroyle.html

Then onto Steve Charles Singer (Craig Charle’s brother) http://www.stevecharlesmusic.com/home.htm who really got the dance floor buzzing. The black tie event was rounded off with our DJ.

Our company has only been running about 18 months and each event seems to build on the last. I think the standard of acts we use is always reflected in the fact that I am a performer myself and have an understanding of what makes a good show. (I hope so…)

So finally I have chance to add this new blog after a crazy week. It seemed to be non stop! Monday started with the normal thousand emails and calls and then I headed straight to an afternoon of rehearsals with a new dancer for Tuesday night’s show. I spent several hours swinging Stacey around and sticking her in boxes (errrm that sounds a bit dodgy…?) But it all went well and Stacey picked it all up great.

I have known Stacey for several years as she comes from my old dance college and she was supposed to work for me a while back but then she was contracted away. We even bumped into each other on a cruise ship in 2005 but only now has it been possible for her to work with me.

The show on Tuesday went well and Stacey worked well. It is always strange for a dancer to do magic at first as they often get bogged down with the technical side of the show and forget about the performance but apart from a few nerves Stacey was great.

OntoWednesday and my first gig was a Children in Need event for the Alliance & Leicester at Aintree Racecourse. It was a lively gig and the event organisers seemed very hectic. Pudsey Bear made his appearance and was nearly dragged to the floor by some over excited children. I always feel sorry for the poor individual who gets roped into wearing the costumes. I’ve done it in Panto shows in the past and it s always the case that the character gets attacked and everyone else thinks its funny (It is… but not when it’s you who’s being mobbed!)

After the event finished I had to dash from Liverpool straight over to Huddersfield to a ladies event for Audi. The traffic was a nightmare which increases the stress of getting there on time but as I have done quite a few events for Audi, I know the organisers and so knew it would be fine.

The event was a ladies night and clients promotional evening for Audi and along with myself performing close up magic there were all sorts of demonstrations going on all around the show hall along with a guest appearance from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’s’ Lilia Kopylova & Darren Bennett who did a short dance workshop with the guests. http://www.darrenandlilia.com/
  

I spoke to Lilia after the event and showed her some magic. I felt a bit awkward as I am rubbish when it comes to celebrities and never know anyone. It’s a good job that Lilia’s name was on the posters as I wouldn’t have known her name. She seemed really sweet.