Magic Clubs

Graham Nichols: Do magic clubs produce better magicians or clones in your opinion?

Paul Daniels: Sadly, clones. Well, you asked! It all depends what you want to be or where you want to go. Magic Clubs are great if you want this to be a fun hobby or even semi-pro but it takes a helluva lot of self control to not become, as you said, cloned.

Zombie Ball

Paul Anthony: Hi Paul, I've recently purchased a Zombie Ball. Do you have any recommendations concerning perfecting it's use and handling?

Paul Daniels: Remember that the ball is supposed to be floating of its own free will. Do not let yourself be seen to be pushing it around. Let your fingers move the ball FIRST and then let your arms straighten slightly to FOLLOW the ball. Ball first; you follow!

The Successor to Nixon and Daniels

BlackShadow: Hi Paul, it's great that you can be with us on Magic Bunny.

Let me start by saying I grew up with your shows and I will never forget the Bunko Booth and all those other wonderful moments.

To my mind we haven't really had a British successor to take up this crown. Do you think the opportunity has been lost to have a magician household name once again, because of the decline of TV audiences and the spilt of the audience to many more channels. Thus even if a magician does get a slot going, he or she are going to reach far less people than was previously possible.

I feel that such a successor must be an all rounder in magic, being able to do stage, close up, mentalism, street magic etc and thus appeal to a broad number of people. The guys we have around at the moment are vey good but they seem to specialise in one kind of magic or another. Can there be another all rounder, a successor to Nixon and Daniels, in today's entertainment market or does the loss of the Sat evening big slots and the viewing mixes make this unlikely?

Paul Daniels: I don't think so... by that I mean that I do think that a name magician will come along and be known to all classes of society and to all age groups. She or he will HAVE to be able to present all the facets of magic because otherwise they will only be able to do one or two seasons and the public will be fed up with the one aspect they present.

Leeds City Varieties

Boywonder: Hi Paul, I met you last October, as part of the Good Old days on the Friday night of your performance, and loved your act. I have worked there twice, once on the Good Old Days and once as a small concert and love the venue with all my heart.

Unfortunately, venues like the City Varieties risk closure, and are falling apart, these venues need saving in my opinion. This is a 2 part question really.

1, Do you have any special memories of the City Varieties?

2, What is you opinion on saving these venues, and why?

Paul Daniels: Yup, I love old theatres... they have a special feeling of show business about them. Trends in where audiences go can be created by theatre managers who know their business, artists who from the stage recommend that people come back again, and by encouragement to make audiences bring other people next time they come. They should be saved and publicised or where are artists going to work, and if they don't work, where are they going to come from to entertain us on TV.

Perhaps TV companies should 'adopt' theatres to try out plays and comedy shows before they put them onto the screen. That's what the Marx Brothers did with their films!