Autumn Wedding Fairs in the Home Counties

I’m going to be demonstrating magic at a number of Wedding Fairs around the Home Counties this autumn.  If you want to find out information on any in particular please email me at robert@robertbone.co.uk, although I will be posting more detailed information and address details closer to the time.

Please note, there is always a risk that dates and venues change, so please check with me if travelling too far!

• September 5th: Fredricks Hotel, Maidenhead, Berkshire
• September 12th: Donnington Park, Newbury, Berkshire
• October 10th: Elcot Park, Newbury, Berkshire
• October 17th: Heathrow Marriot Hotel, Windsor, Berkshire
• October 24th: Badgemore Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
• October 31st: Norton Park, Winchester, Hampshire

There is also a possibility of some more dates being added, and these may be outside the Home Counties area.

If you are unable to attend any of the Wedding Fairs but would like to discuss me performing at your wedding please call me on 07930 420257 or email robert@robertbone.co.uk.  Also see www.robertbone.co.uk for more information.

Thanks for performing wedding magic at Donnington Grove, Newbury

I have received an email from Kerri and Daniel.  They saw me earlier this year at a Wedding Fair I attended at Elcot Park (near Newbury, Berkshire).  Kerri and Daniel hadn’t considered booking me to perform magic at their wedding.  I showed them a couple of tricks to illustrate how I would entertain their guests, and explained how it is a great way to spark interaction during the potential quiet points that can occur on a Wedding day.

Kerri and Daniel later decided to book me to entertain their guests whilst they were having their photographs taken at Donnington Grove Golf & Country Club, Newbury, Berkshire.  It is a really nice venue and I hope to be back there again soon.

Hi Robert,

 

Daniel & I would just like to say a big THANK YOU for being our Magician at our wedding on Saturday 3rd July 2010 at Donnington Grove.

 

It was great to see everyone amazed & laughing with you (we have a lot of evidence in our wedding photos) & we have had such lovely comments from our friends & family about just how great you were!

 

Thanks again,

 

Kerri & Daniel

New website (and odd websites with a facelift)

It won’t be long until my website, www.robertbone.co.uk, gets replaced by the new one currently in development.  There’s still quite a long way to go though, especially as over a 1000 photos were taken on the photoshoot in June, it’s proving a tough choice to choose which get used!

The new website will also include plenty of media and interactive features, so I really need to get the new bits filmed and the audio recorded.  However, I’m hoping it’s going to be a really ground-breaking site, especially for a magician, and I just hope all my original ideas aren’t nicked by other less imaginative magicians out there.  (Yes, you know who you are!)

The old “Robert Bone, Professional Magician” has also been given a facelift and re-branded as “Rob Bone, Professional Magician”, see www.robbone.co.uk.  I’m keeping this old persona going for the short-term because the new direction may be a little bit too much of a leap forward for some bookers.  However, I’m confident that the “Demonstrator of Extra-Sensory Curiosities” will prove successful.

I have also given www.magicrob.co.uk a fresh look.  I don’t tend to market this side of my business too much, however, it is a great interactive show and I get so many requests (plus I have a mortgage to pay) so I thought I should give it a mention.  Due to limitations though I only perform for children’s parties in the Home Counties area.

Promise I will do a new video blog diary thing soon!

Feel free to contact me through robert@robertbone.co.uk if you have any questions or would like to find out more information about booking me for your next event.

By the way, it may be July but it’s a good idea to start thinking about Christmas now.  No doubt I’ll mention it again in a future blog entry!

New(ish) website goes live

My website (www.robertbone.co.uk) is currently in re-development and will hopefully be going live in a couple of weeks.  Since last year I changed from being a “Professional Magician” to a “Demonstrator or Extra-Sensory Curiosities”, and this was to seperate myself from some of the other “magicians” in the market.  The sort that either use the same gags (and usually pack of cards) they first got in the 40’s, or those with acne and their dad’s suit.

Although being a “Demonstrator of Extra-Sensory Curiosities” should be quite self-explanatory that I’m a magician that pushes a few boundaries in some areas, some people (especially those that not have booked a magician before) want to play it safe.

Although I don’t have stories that a hundred years ago a murder that happened in this very room (of the Heathrow Holiday Inn…) I’ve decided to tweak my old website and pop it at www.robbone.co.uk.  This is mainly to show people that if needed I can wear a bow-tie and make little red balls jump from one hand to another!

So if you want a more traditional magician look at www.robbone.co.uk, if you want something a little more fun, and something that will keep your guests talking long after look at www.robertbone.co.uk.

Email me at robert@robertbone.co.uk for booking enquiries and to find out more information.

Moving house and stuff

Just a quick entry to apologise about the lack of posts over the last few weeks.  I’ve been moving house (which included a week without broadband) and am still surrounded by piles of boxes containing my life.

However, it is business as usual on the magic front.  I’m still in the Reading area and therefore still have the easy links into London, the Home Counties, and anywhere else for that matter.  If you need my new postal address please give me an email, robert@robertbone.co.uk.

Also, keep an eye on www.robertbone.co.uk, which will be going through some changes over the coming weeks.

New video uploads on YouTube

I’ve recently put a new video up on my youtube channel.  I have decided to pop up a video to try and explain a few changes and plans I am slowly putting into practise.

This includes not just such things as a new website, but also a whole new style for the magical entertainment I perform.  I’m also hoping to film a promo which will not only give potential bookers a good idea of my style, and how I can entertain their guests, but also a pilot to be sent to various production companies.

I’m deliberatly keeping things vague because even I don’t know exactly what the plan is or the timescales involved, but I wanted to try and answer some questions I am regularly asked by people who follow the videos, tweets and facebook comments.

Performing Close-Up Magic at Events in May

In May I performed close-up magic at more than just two events, but it was only on the third weekend of May that I took my camera and took some snaps!

On the evening of Friday 21st May I entertained 150 guests with close-up table magic at Lord Wandsworth School, near Odiham, Hampshire.  This was a fundraising events for the Treloar Trust, which raises money for children with special needs.  The theme for the evening was Moulin Rouge.  Fortunately the entertainment included a troop of can-can dancers so I spent the evening entertaining the tables in my trusty three-piece suit!

Treloar Trust Fundraising Event

On Saturday 22nd I travelled to Ball Hill, near Newbury for Michelle’s birthday celebrations.  This was completely different to the night before, as Michelle’s party was held in her back-garden and she had about a dozen guests.  This meant I didn’t have to compete with background noise and waiting staff, and could spend longer with everyone, showing a selection of magic.

This started with some sleight of hand card magic, but as the evening went on merged into mind-reading, a little hypnosis and a journey into the slightly darker side…!

Although I say this event was opposite to the last, one thing they had in common was a European theme.  The Treloar Trust was French, but Michelle’s party was Spanish (as you can tell from the photo), which even included one guest dressed as a bottle of San Miguel beer!

Michelle's Birthday Celebrations

Update on world domination

Last week I met up with photographer Stephen Wright.  I’ve worked with Stephen before and decided to use his services again because as well as doing a lot of corporate and wedding photography, Stephen has lots of experience with bands and musicians.  This experience means he can try to pull out an emotion from the photograph.

As my new direction as a Demonstrator of Extra-Sensory Curiosities means I’m steering away from the more traditional view of magic, I wanted to get away from the traditional magician style photographs.  Hopefully in the next few days I’ll have a few that I can post here.

My new website is currently under contruction as we speak, and should be live in the coming weeks.

I’ve also got an exciting project lined up too, but as this keeps changing as ideas are constantly getting tweaked and timetables put forward.

As I said, this is an update for now.  If you haven’t already please follow me on twitter.com/RobBone and join the facebook group by searching for Robert Bone Official (not the ‘magician’ one!)

Jenny and Katy’s birthday celebrations in Acton, London, Saturday 29th May 2010

Jenny’s husband was also booked to entertain, although not magically, as he is the guitarist in the fantastic Smiths tribute band, The Citizen Smiths.  Due to time constraints I didn’t see all of their set, but I did manage to catch about half of it and I can honestly say they were pretty darn good and really captured the spirit of The Smiths, and not just tried to sound like them.  Saying that, I have spend the last few days singing “Hang the DJ” to myself!  (And complete coincidence, on Wednesday I’m having a photoshoot with photographer Stephen Wright, who took some iconic photographs of The Smiths!)

At the party I mixed with Jenny and Katy’s guests and started with some sleight of hand magic, and as the evening continued with delving into the areas that most magicians shy away from.  This included a little hypnosis and psychological suggestion, which involved one of the barman absolutely convinced that that what he saw was completely different to what everyone else saw.

Chris is also the official videographer The Citizen Smiths, but he also took some footage of me performing, and hopefully he’ll be forwarding some over so I can pop the highlights up on www.youtube.com/TheRobertBone.  I’ve also got to say a big thank you to the gang for the wonderful pressies they bought me.  I won’t say what they are yet because I’ll be using them in the next “Robert Bone Show”.

Before leaving I had some photos taken with them, and Jenny emailed some over so here they are:

Myself with Jenny and Chris

Myself with Katy, Chris and Sam

Myself with Chris and Sam

A trip to the Magic Circle in London

I‘m often asked “What is the Magic Circle?” when I’m performing, and yesterday (Monday 24th May 2010) I visited the headquarters in London so thought I’d do a little blog entry, and not just summarise it in 140 characters on my twitter.

Basically the Magic Circle is a club for magicians, enabling magicians to get together to discuss techniques and generally show off the latest card move they’ve been working on.  Members meet regularly (every Monday) at their headquarters near to Euston Station in London.  As the Magic Circle has approximately 1,500 members worldwide it isn’t expected for every member to make it each week.

The weekly meetings are not only a good place to meet up with other magicians, but also gives members access to the extensive library, as well as the opportunity to look around the museum or relax in the bar.  There is also a main lecture given by one of the members or a visiting magician, and occasionally smaller talks, discussions or auditions.

To become a member you must be proposed by two other members who have know you for a couple of years and rate you as a magician with sufficient skill and experience.  This is followed by an interview at the HQ, and if successful, you are asked back to audition.  The audition is usually before the main lecture and infront of the membership, including three judges.  The judging criteria is based on just on technical ability, but also entertainment and originality.

Anyway, yesterday’s lecture was to be given my “Professional Opportunist”, James Brown.  Because visiting involves a trip into London I went with fellow Reading magician Dan Hudson and we made a jolly day out.

Upon arriving in London we headed to Charring Cross to visit the world-famous “Davenports”, a shop selling tricks, books and DVDs for magicains.  Those who aren’t magicians may recognise it as the magic-shop in the film “Magicians”.  Here we met up withLee Smith who had spent the day working at the Chelsea Flower Show.

We went and had some food, and naturally broke out a pack of cards and showed each other a few things we were working on and recent experiences we’d had.

From there we headed to the Magic Circle, were I met up with other magicians (Richard Young, Ravi Mayar, Sam Strange to name but a few), some I haven’t seen since the hypnosis course I attended last autumn.  The James Brown lecture was good, but I was dismayed when he gave away something he had been working on.  The reason I was dismayed was because I realised it was something I had also independently been working on an had been working into my act.  Well, you know what they say about great minds!

After the lecture finished we stayed in the bar to have a chat a little more.  Some of the others headed off more curry and beer, but as it had been a long day we headed back.

Hopefully that gives a little more insight to those that ask what the Magic Circle is, and what happens when you’re there.  To find out more about me, (a member of the Magic Circle) see www.robertbone.co.uk.