 | This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources .(September 2012) |
Guy Hollingworth (born 1974) is an English barrister, conjurer, author and lecturer. As a conjurer he is known for his skilful performances of card magic and for his books and lectures in which he presents original tricks and routines. [1] [2]
Hollingworth first became interested in magic at the age of 13 when he was a pupil at St Paul's School, a private school in west London. The school has a magic club called The Prestige Society, which Hollingworth joined in preference over activities such as classics or sports practice which he would otherwise have been expected to do. He was inspired by seeing footage of magician Channing Pollock, which was shown as part of the television series The Best of Magic , broadcast by Thames Television in 1989–90. Hollingworth has stated that he was also influenced during the same period by seeing Ricky Jay perform on the Channel 4 television series The Secret Cabaret . Hollingworth began his performing career with a show at the school open day. [3] He later graduated in industrial design and subsequently in law. At the same time he continued performing magic as well as developing new tricks. Such was his success that he also began to be asked to give lectures to other magicians. He currently works full-time as a barrister specialising in intellectual property law, but continues to give occasional magic performances.
Hollingworth's best known creation is his trick The Reformation, in which a signed playing card is torn into four pieces and then visibly restored one piece at a time. He is also well known for his book, Drawing Room Deceptions. Some of his card magic is presented in his commercially available videos The Reformation, The London Collection and Routines directed by filmmaker and magician Anthony Davis. He was also featured on NBC's World's Greatest Magic III TV special. In August 2008, he presented a well-received show at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival entitled "Expert at the Card Table", which was based on a 1902 book of the same title.
Derren Brown is an English entertainer, mentalist, illusionist, and writer. Brown began performing in 1992, making his television debut with Mind Control (2000). He has since starred in several more shows for stage and television, including Something Wicked This Way Comes (2006) and Svengali (2012) which won him two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment, as well as The Experiments (2011) which won him a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme at the 2012 awards. Brown made his Broadway debut with his 2019 stage show Secret. He has also written books for both magicians and the general public.
Richard Jay Potash was an American stage magician, actor and writer. In a 1993 profile for The New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive". In addition to sleight of hand, he was known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He also wrote extensively on magic and its history. His acting credits included the films The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, Heist, Boogie Nights, Tomorrow Never Dies, Heartbreakers, State and Main, House of Games and Magnolia, and the HBO series Deadwood. In 2015 he was the subject of an episode of PBS's American Masters, the only magician ever profiled in the series.
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes special effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means", natural human abilities, and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences.
Harry Lorayne was an American mnemonist, magician, and author who was called "The Yoda of Memory Training" and "The World's Foremost Memory-Training Specialist" by Time magazine. He was well known for his incredible memory demonstrations and appeared on numerous television shows including 24 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His book The Memory Book was a New York Times bestseller. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians.
Howard Thurston was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio, United States. As a child, he ran away to join the circus, where his future partner Harry Kellar also performed. Thurston was deeply impressed after he attended magician Alexander Herrmann's magic show and was determined to equal his work. He eventually became the most famous magician of his time. Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.
Jamy Ian Swiss is an American magician, author, speaker, historian of magic, essayist, book reviewer, and scientific skeptic. He is known for sleight-of-hand with playing cards.
David Devant was an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David Wighton in Holloway, London. He is regarded by magicians as a consummate exponent of suave and witty presentation of stage illusion. According to magic historian Jim Steinmeyer, Devant was “England’s greatest magician—arguably the greatest magician of the 20th Century”.
Richard Edward Turner is an American expert card mechanic who is known for his card trick performances. He was the subject of the documentary Dealt.
Luke Jermay is a British magician, mentalist, and writer.
Peter "Pete" Firman is an English magician, comedian, television presenter and actor.
Will Goldston (1878–1948) was an English stage magician in the first half of the 20th century.
The Expert at the Card Table, is an extensive book on the art of sleight of hand published in 1902 by S. W. Erdnase, a pseudonymous author whose identity has remained a mystery for over a century. As a detailed manual of card sharps, the book is considered to be one of the most influential works on magic or conjuring with cards.
Daryl Easton, known professionally as Daryl and born Daryl Martinez, was an American magician based in Las Vegas. In his marketing he used the self-proclaimed title of "The Magician's Magician". Daryl usually went by his forename only.
Jean Hugard was an Australian professional magician and author, often co-writing with Frederick Braue. Among his better known works are the books The Royal Road to Card Magic, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, and Expert Card Technique.
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.
John Mulholland was an American magician, author, publisher and intelligence agent.
Hardin Jasper Burlingame (1852–1915) was an American magician and magic historian.
Charles Bertram was a British magician known as "The Royal Conjurer" as he performed for royalty.
Professor Hoffmann (1839–1919) was the pseudonym of Angelo John Lewis, an English-born barrister and writer who has been described as "the most prolific and influential magic author and translator until modern times."
50 Greatest Magic Tricks is a one-off list show that was produced by Objective Productions for Channel 4. The programme counted down the fifty greatest magic tricks, as voted for by members of The Magic Circle. The illusion at number one was Death Saw by David Copperfield. The show was presented by British comedy duo Adam and Joe, who also wrote and narrated the programme. The show was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 6 May 2002.
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