Paul Daniels Has Passed Away

[David Hawkins]

Magician Paul Daniels dies aged 77 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35829251

[RobFromNZ]

Seems very sudden. And sad.

[Q. Kumber]

We first met forty years ago when he performed at The Chariot Inn, Dublin. His full evening show opened at The Prince of Wales Theatre for 35 nights in 1981. He ended up doing 18 months there, and while doing eight shows a week still fitted in two seasons of his TV series, the one that ran for 15 years on prime time Saturday night viewing with an average audience of 15 million. In 1983 he did a summer season at The Opera House, Blackpool (seating 3,000) with two shows a night, six nights a week. In 1985 he did a week of sell out shows at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin and the Late Late Show, Ireland's top rated show, devoted one whole episode to him and even recorded it in advance, something that hardly ever happens.

I never met him that I didn't learn something to my advantage. His knowledge of show business and old British comedians and variety acts was encyclopaedic.

Here he is doing the trick which in his hands was a masterpiece of entertainment. Paul Daniels​ thank you for the friendship, the fun, and the magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-Bby3iWVs

[Richard Kaufman]

Sad. He went very quickly. My condolences.

[Ian Kendall]

Quentin suggested that I paste in a couple of stories that I put on my Facebook this morning...

A Paul Daniels story
This is a bit long. Indulge me.
Many years ago Michael Ammar came over to London to visit with Paul. For those of you who are not part of the obsessive guild, Mike's signature effect was throwing a deck of cards at the ceiling, and making a signed card stick up there. Some of you might have seen me do this, but I digress...

Paul and Mike are eating in a Burger King in Picadilly Circus, when a group of teenagers came up to Paul and said 'Hey, Paul. Do us a trick'.
Without missing a beat, Paul said 'I'm far to rich to do tricks now, I pay this guy to do them for me', and pointed at Mike, who picked up the thread right away and had a card selected and returned. The deck was hurled up to the high ceiling and the selected card was stuck there, as expected.

The stunned group then turned to Paul and said 'How did you do that?' (Paul told me this story, but neglected to mention Mike's reaction...)

Jump to several years later, in the early years of the 21st Century. Paul was performing in the Edinburgh Fringe, and had been asked to do a spot in the notoriously hedonistic Opening Party (that is very much missed these days). I squeezed into the packed room and watched the man destroy everyone with a deck of bridge sized cards (and there's a lesson there, if one were to look for it).

After the spot I am standing on the balcony outside the room, talking with Debbie about life in general, and Paul was next to us. A young woman came up to him, gingerly holding an empty cigarette packet, and asked for his autograph.

'I'm far too important to sign autographs these days, so I pay this man to do it for me', and pointed to me. Now, Paul didn't really know me (we had met half a dozen times or so, but he never remembered me), and he had no idea that I knew the Ammar story, but I smiled at the woman, asked her name and then wrote of the packet 'To Claire, best wishes, Paul Daniels'.

Claire looked at the writing, smiled at Paul and said thank you. Paul, grabbed it out of her hand, looked at it, and then said to me 'That's rubbish - you're fired' and signed the other side, correctly. Claire had no idea what had happened...

Little moments make great memories.

Another Paul Daniels story.

(and let's face it, you'll probably see a few of these today...)

First meeting. It was in the Magic Circle HQ in Cheynes Mews in early 1987. I was ever the cocky know-it-all kid (contrasting with the cranky know-it-all old git you all know and love...) and I was wandering around the club room, trying to ingratiate myself into a conversation.
Over there, by the doors into the theatre and across from Francis White's seat next to the bar, Paul stood with Ali Bongo and a gaggle of people who I didn't know. I had been watching the man for years; along with Poz he was directly responsible for me being there, and there he was. I walked to the group, edged my way in and listened.

He was talking about magic on television, as he often was in those days. The topic was reactions; a decade or so before Blaine put the focus on the spectator, Paul was telling us that the camera doesn't need to see the card, only the face of the helper. To illustrate this, he turned to me, and said, 'here, lad, take any card'.

I chose a card - I knew it was at random - and half a beat later Paul said 'but don't take the six of clubs'.

At that moment, as I looked down at the black six in my hand, I experienced the magic effect that I have missed for thirty years, and my face went through every shape that we, from the other side of the deck, long for. It was a wonderful moment, and Paul said, simply, 'see, you don't need to see the card, you just need to see his face'. He thanked me, took back the six and carried on with the conversation. I remained, basking in the feeling of being fooled, mixed with the frustration of being fooled.

Afterwards I managed to chat with him one on one, but instead of talking about magic, I asked him about the adventure game he had written for the 8-bit Atari computers. He didn't try to get away from me (which most would have done), until it was time for him to climb into the Testarossa that he had parked outside and return home.

There is a saying, sometimes, that you should never meet your heroes. Sometimes I agree with that, but in this case, no chance. I learned more in that ten minutes that many would get in a year, and I'm eternally grateful.

TL;DR I got fooled by the best.

[Bill Mullins]

Detailed coverage.

[Richard Kaufman]

An interview with Debbie McGee posted 30 minutes ago on the BBC with details on his final days. He did not know what was happening to him.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35835777

[MaxNY]

I have seen over a hundred hours of Paul Daniels, hard to view footage of his shows here in America. Here is my all time favorite. Not Safe for work..Rest Paul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksdUjIsvzew

[Steve Bryant]

Check out Scott Wells' themagicwordpodcast.com podcast with Paul, titled Tea Time with Paul Daniels, here:

http://themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwel ... ul-daniels

Paul has a really funny joke in there. About orgasms.

[performer]

Check out Scott Wells' themagicwordpodcast.com podcast with Paul, titled Tea Time with Paul Daniels, here:

http://themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwel ... ul-daniels

Paul has a really funny joke in there. About orgasms.

How dreadfully vulgar! I have a far more wholesome reference to Paul on my blog here:

https://marklewismagician.wordpress.com/

[IrishMagicNews]

Paul's funeral service was today and reported on by The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... offin.html

[Richard Kaufman]

If you click on the link posted by Brendan and scroll down, you'll clearly see David Berglas in one of the photos.