Paper fold

Magic Mike: Hi Paul as a Table hopper in the Manchester area I perform the usual sleights of our craft with the usual props.... cards, coins, rope, silks rubber bands, etc (which one would expect of a Magician) I Also perform a trick which goes down a storm with joe public a trick which you know only to well ..."Heaven & Hell" with a sheet of A4 paper (at least I think that’s what its called)? the one from a book you put out a while back I think it was called Adult magic? not sure about the title. My questions are...

1. Do you know where this originated from?
2. Can you point me in the right direction (book, DVD) of similar routines with paper but not origami related.

Paul Daniels: Heaven and Hell is VERY old... Victorian at LEAST.

To find similar stuff you need to go to magic auctions and old book shops. There you need to find books literally titled 'Paper Magic' and so on. Sometimes you find such stuff in Victorian books on How to Entertain in the Evening and such titles.

Start Digging!

Terry Screen: Mike . .

I think you might find the link to this PDF very interesting . .

Hope that's of some help . .

Paul Daniels: Cool.

Faking It

Tobias: How did you feel about the edition of this programme in which you appeared? Did your opinions change between when you were filmed for it and when you saw the finished product?

On an entirely unrelated note, I recall a magician (sadly, his name escapes me) appearing on one of your shows whose specialty was card manipulation with jumbo playing cards. Unfortunately, his technique was very sensitive on angles and the way his performance was shot made the method obvious. How did you (and he) feel about broadcasting that? Presumably, it might have been possible to cut it entirely and for you, or someone else, to have done a filler, but it was shown anyway.

Nigel Shelton: Paul: you may be interested to learn that Kevin McMahon kindly agreed to be one of our special guests a few days after the “Faking It” show was aired. It was very interesting to learn of his experience of the “Faking It” programme. I will be fascinated to know what you thought of this programme from your perspective, as a judge in the final stages of the show.

Paul Daniels: So.. what did I think of it? You have to remember that I left 'the clubs' a long time ago and moved into a smoother more professional world of theatre. You can't help getting used to a better lifestyle so going back into the upstairs back room of a pub has not been my idea of where I wanted to be.

Looking at the 'contestants' made me re-realise (I have known this in the back of my mind for a long time) how easy it is for someone to get up there and do magic tricks. I was also reminded how difficult it is to get magicians to improve their stagecraft and themselves (it is much easier to teach an actor to do a good magic act because they come from a world of knowledge about stagecraft first and magic second). ALL tricks are good, it is always the presenter that is the most important part of magic and Kevin had a good personality, so he entertained me.

I didn't watch the show ('cos I'd seen it live!) plus I know that editors will frequently cast a completely different story onto the real thing.

Tobias: That was what I suspected, [regarding when you wrote: “I didn't watch the show ('cos I'd seen it live!) plus I know that editors will frequently cast a completely different story onto the real thing”] hence why I was interested in your view, but of course you've been doing all this long enough to know the score!

Staying around

JohnDoe: With just a couple of days left for people to post questions I thought I would ask if you would be returning to the site at all? Have you had a look round the other subjects and conversations on the forum?

I know you keep a web diary (which I follow) it would be nice to see you popping onto the boards every now and then.

Paul Daniels: Time is my problem. I am still fighting the background organisation of the pauldanielsmagicshop.com but it is coming along. I do have a family life as well as the working life, the charities and all that jazz. This may sound terrible, but it is not meant in any nasty way, but having been there/done that, the boards in the main hold very little interest for me and, understandably, the boards are generally filled with beginners asking about Scotch and Soda.

I do drop into boards but I don't stay long. I am still learning, but books give me my lessons.

Floating Lightbulb

Paul Anthony: Paul, I purchased Floating Lightbulb a while ago, and when I started practising with it, I thought hmmm...Harry Blackstone must have worked with this really hard to perfect it. When Harry presented it, it was amazing! The prop seems as if it would be difficult to make it convincingly realistic...Do you have any advice....or is it the kind of thing that only Harry would ever be able to "pull off"?

Paul Daniels: I loved Harry Blackstone, the best illusionist I ever saw, because on stage not only did he have presence, but LOVE AND WARMTH. These are big weapons.

Did he work hard at the bulb? Too damn right AND he worked hard at every venue setting it up!

Can you pull it off? Of course you can but the lighting is VITAL and never do it against black. Never do Harry's routine because you haven't paid Gay for the rights.

Good luckv

Paul Anthony: I bought the prop from your web site....!

Paul Daniels: I laughed when I saw your reply.... I wrote, 'Never do Harry's ROUTINE!!!! Don't confuse a prop with a routine.

For example, created my Chop Cup routine and it is different to all those that went before in content and STYLE…Understand now???

Paul Anthony: Yep!