After having been a driving instructor for 43 years, 30 of those in Cambridge. The past couple of years during the pandemic have been the worst time I have ever known. I was forced to take a lot of time off work. I have to thank my wife for working from home and supporting me through this period.
By the fortuitous occurrence of events in 2017 I got involved with the 102 year old magic club in Cambridge. I had slowly started to learn a little bit of magic and practiced on my long suffering wife, pupils (captive audience) and Masonic events.
During the pandemic I needed something else to do. I then decided to give myself another goal to achieve. I joined the World Famous Magic Circle as an Apprentice. Bearing in mind that many magicians started in The Magic Circles’ Young Magicians Club as children and me starting as a 64 year old newbie. I had a lot of catching up to do!
During this time world famous magicians worldwide had very little to do. Zoom came into play and suddenly the world opened up to magicians you only heard about were lecturing/talking to us over Zoom.
Monday evenings were The Magic Circle Apprentice Network and Tuesday evenings were The Pentacle Magic Club here in Cambridge. We spoke to people like Dynamo (Steven Frayne), Andy Nyman, Jeff McBride, Lance Burton, Martin Daniels (Paul’s son) etc.
In the mean time I’d been progressing too slowly with my magic. I asked Cambridge based, Three Times Magic Champion Matthew Le Mottée for help. He thankfully agreed, this is when my skill changed, for the better. Since I’ve been working with Matthew my magic started to improve significantly. Eventually, it was good enough to take The Magic Circle Audition for Full Membership. I am very pleased to say it was, and I passed!
My act, took a lot of time and effort to get to an acceptable standard I’ve enjoyed every moment learning with Matthew I have asked him if I can stay on a his student.
I still find a spell or two to attend my Magic Club in Cambridge and The Magic Circle in London.