Interview: Paul Daniels
It’s a kind of magic!
Everybody’s favourite family television magician Paul Daniels is in town with a new show! Victoria Nangle delved deep into his bag of tricks to find out more about the show, Wizbit & where all the rabbits end up
How has your day been today?
“Pretty good. I was wide awake at 3am – and I am not kidding – so I got up and sorted out all the music and the cues for the Stage Manager. Then got everything into boxes and with the SM we packed the van and it has headed north for the first date of the tour.”
Your weekend and kids shows helped mould a generation. Will Wizbit ever be available on DVD?
“Everybody asks me about Wizbit. Every day messages, tweets, letters and face to face, come into the office and yet not one TV company picked up on the programme. We tried very hard last year to get it going. I do own all the rights to the little fella so I may well copy the old shows onto DVDs.”
What is your favourite trick you ever pulled off on television? I remember you fooling a nation that you’d been killed by a falling bed of nails live on TV. Did you really get into any trouble for that, or was it all good show?
“The national press did make out that I received lots of complaints whereas the truth was we blocked the switchboards for three days with concerned viewers wanting to make sure I was okay. It was a great illusion to pull off on live TV.”
What trick do you immediately go to when a cabbie/waiter/any fan approaches you and asks if you could amaze them now?
“That depends where I am, what I’m wearing, what’s in my pockets… I can do magic with just about anything. That’s not boasting… That’s a lot of reading, studying and practising.”
What wonders should be expect in your new show ‘From Legend To Leg End’?
“Most people wonder at how funny the shows are. We get great reviews on the social media sites from customers and they always refer to the comedy. The tricks, large and small however, have to be baffling or they don’t go in the show.
I am constantly updating and changing the tiny details that go into every effect. This show has illusions, mind reading, insane comedy…”
“In my lifetime everything has been either very good or very bad for me…”
How would you recommend maintaining a suppleness of joints for such excellent sleight of hand and dexterity?
“In my lifetime everything has been either very good or very bad for me, according to various ‘health’ gurus, so I eat a little bit of everything and a lot of nothing.”
What do you think of the emergence of modern illusionists and street magicians like Dynamo?
“Street entertainers have always been there, from way back in history. ‘Emergence’ is the wrong word. Anybody visiting London, for hundreds of years, would have seen buskers. I like them.”
What do you think of the Operation Yewtree revelations, as a former BBC employee of that time?
“I don’t know enough about it to be able to give an informed opinion.”
Some of our readers were especially keen to ask you a few questions, if you wouldn’t mind:
Most magicians say that your Ball and Cup routine is definitive. How long did it take to nail a routine as complex as that and make it seem effortless?
“You really only learn the nuances of any performance on the stage, no matter how hard you rehearse. That particular trick was pretty good first time out, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, but it took 18 months of performances before I was happy.”
Who would you most like to see disappear?
“I don’t know really. The oddity is that since I got rabbits as pets I find it hard to even kill a spider. Nowadays I look at bugs and flying insects and think that they have just as much right to life as I have. Perhaps that’s weird but that’s how I feel. So ‘disappear’? No, but there’s a lot of people I would like to ask ‘Why?’ about things that they have done and are doing.”
Where did all the rabbits go?
“Our rabbits, according to the local pet shops, are the most pampered and loved rabbits in the area. White, with blue eyes, they used to be in the act, but as they are not in the show on this tour, they are enjoying a luxurious retirement.”
Paul Daniels – From Legend To Leg End,
Martlets Hall, Burgess Hill,
Friday 11 October 2013,
8pm, £17.50, 01444 242888,
www.freedom-leisure.co.uk
Many thanks for the questions for Paul Daniels we received over Twitter and Facebook, most especially those from Adrian Hobart, Dan Fardell, Mike Jaimes, Roz Ryan and Stephen Saul.
Don’t forget to follow @latestvicky.
