By Diana Reese
Once the impressive black doors of the HQ had swung open at 11.00am, we were ushered inside for a very welcome cup of coffee. The Firebirds were all present and correct by the time the fun began, and what fun we had! We were first treated to some brilliant close up Magic by the amazing Chris Wood. He seemed to be able to turn a piece of plain paper into a £50 note, merely by folding. Can’t help but feel that was too good to be true! Vicky bravely volunteered her signet ring which was subjected to a variety of tricks before being retrieved from Chris’ pocket, carefully wrapped in a cloth within not 1, not 2, buy 3 little wallets. How did he do that? Absolutely no idea! Jane followed in her grandmother’s footsteps by becoming a magician’s assistant. She was completely befuddled as to how many little red balls she was holding and none of us was able to spot how it was done. Many of us are bridge players and would dearly love to know how to track the aces in a pack, but Chris wasn’t telling.

Charlie then took us down to the museum where he explained that magic was originally seen as witchcraft, an opinion which is fortunately not commonly held these days. There were many artefacts and props to be discovered. Our attention was drawn, amongst other things, to the only non-human member of the Magic Circle – Sooty! Then back upstairs for a short stage performance, featuring playing cards and a rather terrifying gin trap. Definitely not one to try at home! Fortunately, no animals or humans were harmed during the course of the proceedings.

Then on to lunch in the nearby Steak & Lobster, where we were efficiently served with our meals. Conviviality was the order of the day and everyone seemed to have had a good time.


By Sarah Mosse

It all started well, lovely weather, google maps switched on and a tube to Warren Street. Then we met Flavian, Yasmine and Pauline plus a few more in the middle of Euston Road definitely going in the wrong direction! All sorted and re-directed, we arrived safely and on time.

We settled down to half an hour of close up magic by Chris who was quite amazing and had us all mesmerised. He did card tricks, had Jane playing with red squashy balls and, best of all, turned a blank piece of paper into a £50 note and back to a blank bit again.

Then down to the Museum where we met Sooty, Houdini, Lafayette, Harry Potter and learnt about Chung Ling Soo aka William Ellesworth Robinson whose catching the bullet trick went seriously wrong and he died on stage. Not a good look for a magician. We also learnt about King Charles’s entry into the magic Circle, and although his cup and ball trick did not go very well he got in anyway.

The third part was stage magic with Paul who had a real gift of the gab and did several very clever tricks involving members of the audience. The whole visit was fascinating and visually brilliant.