dgmagic - UK magic blog by magician Dan Gifford

The NSPCC cabaret gig went very well - it’s good when the practice pays off! The new effect I performed for the first time got a great reaction. The effect was that a spectator signed a contract saying they wouldn’t open a canister until the end of the show and then took the canister back to their seat. I looked after the contract. In the end, the surprise was that the canister contained the signed contract! Hmmm, doesn’t sound that good when you read it back but all the bye-play and interaction with the audience was brilliant.

There’s a bit more about this gig and other recent stuff on my main site news page.

At the moment, I’m preparing a performance for the NSPCC staff Christmas party on Wednesday. I’m doing my cabaret magic act and including a new effect, Micheal Close’s Big Surprise Canister, so I’ve got to put in some good rehearsal time. It can be difficult fitting it in between admin work and other shows, but I’ve got a few hours in over the weekend and will do the same today and tomorrow.

When you are busy with engagements every few days you don’t need to rehearse so much, but all my performances have been close-up magic over the last few weeks, so my cabaret act needs a little work. It’s going well though and I’m looking forward to frying their brains on Wednesday!

Use your blog to provide content for other sites, a great idea: Tutorial: Feed your sites by blogging

I found this while searching for SEO stuff and looking at the blog of Marcus Westberg

So, this is my first post - made twice as hard by the cat trying to sit on the keyboard. I suppose I’d better explain what this blog is all about. My name is Dan Gifford and I’m a magician based in Leicester and working throughout the UK. This blog is about the strange (or maybe not so strange) world of a professional magician. You can visit my UK magician site if you like.

There is going to be a lot about magic - experiences, ideas and other websites, but also stuff about my other interests - origami, the web, films etc, etc. In fact, it’s my blog, I’ll put what I like in it!

We’re now in the middle of the Christmas season (a very busy time for magicians) and I’ve just got back from performing close-up magic at a company Christmas Party. It went really well and they were a good audience but I don’t envy the childrens party entertainer who was on after me - they were getting pretty merry! I should point out, it was an adult audience but a children’s fancy dress party theme. I hope the children’s entertainer knew what he was letting himself in for….