Merlin Festival, Carmarthen

The town of Camarthen is celebrating its links with Merlin by holding a festival to celebrate the Welsh Year of Legend. The festival will include Wales’ only street magic contest, featuring five magicians who have been invited to perform.

Jay is one of the five performers who have been selected to take part, together with fellow North Wales Magic Circle member Professor Llusern. The two are very much looking forward to taking part in the event, and being able to represent the NWMC.

The festival takes place on the 25th of March, and you can get all the details from the official Facebook page.

Mersey Dee Competition

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There are lots of different magic societies all over the country. The Mersey Dee Competition is an inter-society competition, held every two years.

This year’s competition was held in Liverpool, hosted by the Liverpool Magic Circle. The other societies taking part were the Chester Guild of Magicians, the Liverpool Mahatma Magic Circle, and the North Wales Magic Circle.

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Together with David Baker, Jay represented the North Wales Magic Circle in this year’s competition.

Although they didn’t win, they had a great time, and were proud to represent the NWMC.

This year’s winner was the Chester Guild of Magicians, represented by Stephen Cooil and Scott Prior.

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North Wales Magic Circle Annual Dinner & Trophy Presentation

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Jay was presented with the trophy for winning the North Wales Magic Circle Close Up Competition at the NWMC annual dinner last weekend.

The presentation was made by the NWMC president David Baker, and the president of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians Paul Ray.

As well as the awards ceremony, there was also a wonderful three course meal, followed by a cabaret show featuring amazing magic from Paul Ray, Destiny, and Graham Jolly.

The dinner is always a great chance to dress up and have a wonderful evening.

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I also thought you might like to see my nails for the evening – tiny little rabbits in top hats!

Thank you to Janet, the NWMC photographer for letting us use her images!

Trophies and Magic Conventions

It’s been almost a year since we won the Dittia Shield and the Theo Speaker Cup in the stage competition at the annual International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring Number 25 convention in Southport.

This year’s convention is in Great Yarmouth and we’ll be taking the trophies back with us, ready to be presented to the next winners.

I wanted to make sure that the trophies were handed back in the best possible condition, so I spent a morning last week cleaning and polishing them. How do you think I did?

While I was cleaning them, I had a good chance to read all the names of the previous winners, and it’s amazing to think that we’ve been added to them.

 There are some well known names on there, including Ali Bongo, president of the Magic Circle, adviser to Paul Daniels and David Nixon, and one of the inspirations for Jonathan Creek; and John Archer, the first magician to fool Penn and Teller on their television show, Fool Us

Some of the names are probably less familiar to most people, but are greats in the world of magic – Ron MacMillan, founder of the London magic shop; Walt Lees, editor of the only weekly magazine for magicians; Roy Davenport; Scott Penrose; Brian Sefton.

One name on the trophy has special meaning for me. We have a family tradition that every year we go to the pantomime on Boxing Day. In 1998, it was Cinderella, and Buttons was played by Dominic Wood. He performed magic in the pantomime,  and from that moment on I was hooked. Fourteen years later, and I’m on the same trophy that he won!

The trophies are all safely packed away in their carrying cases, ready for the drive down tomorrow. We’ll tell you all about it when we get back!