Andy D:

Hi Geoffrey and thanks for giving up some of your time to be our guest.

Where did the idea for 'The Great Soprendo' come from...............and where did he go??

Geoffrey Durham: Oh, this is a long story...

In 1959 or so, I got interested in magic. I was 10. I had a truly wonderful magic book: Magic As A Hobby, by Bruce Elliott. I devoured and tried all the tricks, and learned quite a lot of stuff from other books, and did odd shows for relatives, school functions, etc. But by 1961, the passion had started to wane, and by the time I was 13, I wasn't a magician any more.

Fast forward 12 years. I was an actor in Liverpool, and there was a show being rehearsed, and someone had to do some tricks in it, and it ended up being me. I sent off to my Mum for that old Bruce Elliott book, and devoured it again. I went to Davenport's, where Patrick Page sold me a Vanishing Cane. He showed me the newspaper vanish of the cane (it's brilliant) and he suggested other tricks: the Rice Bowls (he sold me a truly terrible set of them!) and some bits of mentalism.

I decided to buy another magic book, and was lucky enough to hit on what I still believe is the best possible "first" book for anybody: Bruce Elliott's Classic Secrets Of Magic. The magic bug had bitten again. I did some tricks in the show, and enjoyed them hugely.

Fast forward six months: I was out of work as an actor, and was reading every magic book I could get my hands on. I discovered the Supreme Magic Co by accident, and read some of their stuff. Through an extraordinary little book called Stranger Than Fiction by Derek Lever, I started to work as a busker on the streets of Liverpool doing a stunt act - fire eating, bed of nails, razor blades, hammering a nail up my nose.

But at the same time, the interest in mentalism continued, and I created another act, which I did in art galleries (true!) of basic mind reading. I loved it. But not enough to stop being an actor, and when another job came in, I went off and did it. I started work in Leicester in the summer of 1975.

They had heard all about my interest in magic, and when they decided to do a Christmas Music Hall show, they asked me to do a conjuring act. Well, I didn't want to do it. I'd done the stunts, and I'd done the mentalism, and conjuring felt like a backward move. But they insisted. So I had to come up with something that would suit me and suit them - a way of doing a conjuring act that would express something about me while displaying the tricks well.

I remember waking up in the middle of the night, and suddenly having the idea: "you could be Spanish, you could wear spangly suits, you could have a manic laugh, you could take a narcissistic delight in the tricks, you could have stupid magic words, you could have a twirly moustache, you could wear Cuban heels". And I went back to sleep. I didn't realise that I'd created a career for myself in about 30 seconds.

I went on in the show, and had a huge personal success. I did the act twice more in different shows that year. I met Ken Brooke, and became an occasional pupil of his. I gave up being an actor and decided to be a magician.

There were huge ups and downs, but the Great Soprendo was a success in theatre and TV for about 14 years. And then I started to realise after about 12 years that I needed to push my career in a different direction. I was on children's TV a lot, and of course children didn't really realise that The Great Soprendo was as much a joke at magicians' expense than anything else. And children's TV was changing, and I felt that I might not be employed for much longer. Above all, the Great Soprendo was a novelty act. It wasn't me. And if you want to survive as an entertainer, you simply HAVE to be yourself.

So I spent two years planning the Great Soprendo's demise. I got lucky, and was offered the role as presenter on a new magic show. I did my last work as the Spaniard in 1989/1990, presented The Best of Magic as myself, and very, very slowly learned how to express my own personality through doing magic tricks.

I firmly believe that that is actually all you have to do as a magician: express your personality through doing tricks. But it can take a good while to learn how to do it.

Gary Scott: Hi Geoffrey,

Looks like AndyD beat me to it.

I will just say...nay..scream those immortal words......

" Craccckkkerrrjaaaaaaaaccckkkkkkk"

Now I'm showing my age

Thanks for the memories Geoffrey.

Always waited for the Great Soprendo to come on!

Best wishes

Gary Scott

Geoffrey Durham: Hi Gary

Thank you for that. It's nice to know that people remember Crackerjack, and a bit humbling to realise that for some kids I was the first magician they ever saw!

I only ever did about seven Crackerjacks, though. It feels like many more!

Geoffrey

Daleshrimpton: Hello Geoffrey.

Interesting. if you only did seven crackerjacks, there is a very good chance that I have them all on tape.
The one thing I really liked about your spots on crackerjack, was the fact that you never did " children’s magic".
your performance of the card in bottle( Harbins?) was great, and if memory serves, you did something odd with Easter eggs.
now, something else , Soprendo was very camp, and as a character magician, it is, if I may say, one of the best there’s been over the top , but not too over the top.
why do you think so many magicians don’t get character acts quite right?
and did it surprise you to get a kids' show with a line like " a little poof works wonders".
mind you, thinking about it, you were working with the Krankies. It’s no worse than a middle age woman dressing up as a schoolboy, and being spanked by her husband
(OH BOY THE GUYS FROM THE STATES ARE GOING TO BE SOOOOO CONFUSED!!)
regards..
Dale

Guest: Hello Geoffrey I also remember you on Crackerjack and was always eagerly waiting for your spot. I still remember your version of the torn and restored newspaper, which had a bit of a sucker ending and being fried. I loved it.

Geoffrey Durham: Thank you both for your memories.

I'd forgotten all those routines that you remember, Dale! But I guess the reason I veered away from children's effects was that I was doing the stuff that interested me at the time, and I always wanted the magic to be as strong as I could make it. I do recall being very aware of the power of the video recorder to reveal a method, and they were just becoming a regular feature of the British living-room at the time, so I was perhaps a little too wary of all that. Also, never having done a children's party in my life, I didn't have much of a memory bank to draw on in that direction.

As for magical characters - well, it can be a tough thing to bring off well. I'm glad you thought it worked. I'm not sure I entirely agree. If I did, I'd probably still be doing it now!

Geoffrey

MagicSamX: Mr Durham

I am sure you have been asked on countable occasions "How you first got into the magic art". This is my question for you. Thank you for taking time to speak with us.

Geoffrey Durham: Hi Magic Sam

I've given a brief run-down of my early career in the "Great Soprendo" thread, so I won't repeat that.

But I guess the single greatest influence, and the one that really got me moving, was Ken Brooke. He has become a bit of a legend in magic circles, and rightly so, but he's quite hard to explain in some ways.

He was a magic dealer, and a wonderful demonstrator, and he really cared about magic. He was opinionated and funny and skilled. Anybody who phoned him about would get a magic lesson of some kind. The first contact I had with him was to ring to ask if he sold a billet knife. "Yes", he said, "but don't buy it, because you'll never use it". He was right.

The first thing I bought from him was an egg bag. In those days he was selling pink ones, with the gaff in the corner, Max Malini style. I went back a week later to ask if I could buy another one, but a black one this time. "Why, what's the matter with the pink one?", he asked "Well, I think I could hide the pocket more easily if it was black," I said. "GET OUT!", he shouted at me.

He really cared about the magic he sold, and he minded passionately if he thought one of his tricks was being done badly.

I asked him to teach me the Multiplying Martinis. He agreed, and then proceeded to shout the rhythms of the trick at me for about 25 minutes, all the time telling me why my rhythms were wrong for the trick. I've never forgotten that magic lesson. It was the best I've ever had.

He told me not to join a magic club. "You'll be taught how to do it wrong, son," he said. I had been a full time professional for 15 years before I joined a society. I think he was right about that, too.

I think it's a shame that there are so few Ken Brookes about now. There are still one or dealers whose opinions I respect, and I only really deal with them, because I know they care. I wouldn't use one of the Internet dealers unless there was a very good reason.

Geoffrey

Graham: If you had a son who was just starting to get into magic, and were asked by him to name the six most important points that your experience has taught you, what would they be and why?

kind regards,

Graham Nichols.

Geoffrey Durham: Hi Graham

Well, I can have a go, but I'm sure my list of six would be different on any given day!

Try this for size:

1. Read, read, read. Read good books, bad books and indifferent ones. Read magazines, old and new. Try and read three magic books a day. Never stop reading. Understand that reading is a better learning tool than video, DVD, lectures and magic clubs all rolled into one. (Though you'll need to join a magic club to use their library, I suppose...)

2. Learn the difference between rehearsal and practice, and do both assiduously. You need to practise the moves for any given piece of material, but you also need to rehearse the whole thing, and learn how one piece of material blends into another. Oh, and never practise in front of a mirror!

3. Make sure your tricks can be described in ten words or less. Good tricks are easy to describe that way. "The lady floated on air". "The chosen card was stuck on the ceiling." Bad tricks go: "He had two cards glued together with a hole in them, and then he folded one card up so that it went through the hole..." and you're still not half way through.

4. Find out what tricks are currently fashionable among other magicians, and make sure you do completely different ones. When a good dealer trick is in vogue, buy and put it in a drawer for at least five years. I just did Cardtoon for the first time last week, and it went very well!

5. Be yourself. Never let your performance as a magician be characterised by fear, bravado or bluff.

6. Try not to lie.

Geoffrey

Aged Magician: Now that is what I call 'solid gold' advice!!
Please, please make this post a permanent fixture.

Graham: Mr Durham,

Many thanks for your reply. As 'Aged Magician' stated "solid gold advice".

I agree about the books. I sold my video collection a year ago, and now devour books. Books have hidden corners full of gems. Both locating them, and using them, is a bonus.

Trying not to lie is difficult for a magician!

kind regards,

Graham Nichols.