This is Sam
Sam became the highlight of my Saturday afternoon.
I was booked to perform for Eddies 80th birthday at the fabulous Laura Ashley the Manor in Elstree.
If you have never been to this venue, I would urge you to take a visit either for a drink, afternoon tea (which looked amazing), lunch or dinner…why? Aside from the amazing food and drink on offer, the view of London from the many dining areas is stunning.
This party was to be a small affair, Eddie’s immediate family – 8 children and 20 adults all enjoying afternoon tea.
I first performed for the children and then for an hour or so entertained the whole room with some fun, visual and interactive magic…ending with a game where Steve managed to match chosen cards to the numbers printed on a ticket for Saturday nights lotto.
Towards the end, one of the young children came up to me with his mummy and she explained that he has started to learn magic tricks for himself, his name is Sam and he is 8 years old.
Sam is a really confident young boy and was keen to show me his latest card trick he liked to perform. He used my deck of cards and asked me to shuffle them up. Under Sam’s clear instruction I then split the cards into 4 piles and chose any card from one pile and show it to the audience. All this was said with such confidence…which for any magician is one of the most difficult things to learn. It is all very well and good learning a trick but if you cannot perform it with confidence, your audience will be lost. I on the other hand, along with everyone watching, was totally enthralled with Sam. Once selected I was asked to place it back, mix up the cards, shuffle them and hand them back to Sam, the magician.
Now, I was following so far but a few moments captured me as to what was going to happen. Was he really going to find my card after all this?
Sam went through the cards, turning them face up, almost all the way through the deck and in fact, went just passed my card. I thought perhaps it had gone wrong but kept a positive face. Sam then said “the next card I pull out will be yours, would you like to bet?” I happened to have £5 on me, so of course offered this as my wager. Low and behold, Sam then went into the pile of cards, and pulled out the very card I had chosen!!!!! That was a great magic trick!
Now, why is this story so important to me?
I started learning magic at the very same age, 8 years old. I don’t remember if I was as confident as Sam, I certainly didn’t know a card trick to the extent of that which Sam had displayed but what I did have was encouragement. When I was growing up, my family, especially mum and dad, really did encourage me to follow anything I wished. They never pushed me into a direction but let me follow my interests and dreams. I think that is so important in life, especially when so young. Later in adulthood we are steered towards certain goals for various reasons, we really do lose the ability to dream and follow our heart to an extent. To see that encouragement for Sam from his own family was really special.
I told Sam and his family about my own background and how I learned from magic sets and books and that I saw something special in Sam. I then showed Sam and his family the first magic trick I learned and gave him and the other children a set to practice themselves. If he continues along this path I am sure he will make a great magician one day.
I have suggested the family go along to The Magic Circle as a treat one day. Although the club is an exclusive club with the best magicians from around the world being members, most people to not realise that The Magic Circle is also open to public and really is a wonderful experience. Some events do have an age restriction but if you book to go, you get to see some incredible magic. The Christmas shows are coming up and you can find out more here: http://themagiccircle.co.uk/public-events
Thank you for reading this post, Sam really was a wonderful end to a perfect afternoon of magic and entertainment.