The review of the musical Big Society (The Stage, January 26, page 18) mentions, among the cast recreating the bill of a music hall, a “duff magician”. It’s sad (but interesting) that so many writers for stage and screen can’t think of any comedy to work with the character of a magician besides making him (usually) inept, frequently killing their birds or rabbits in a show. (Among its numerous factual errors, 2006’s film The Prestige suggested that even competent conjurors of a century ago would readily perform tricks that would have fatal results for the livestock.)
Given the enormous range of styles practiced by actual comedy magicians, we might hope that other artistic minds might be as creative in striving to get laughs.
Bryn Hughes
Elm Grove
Wrexham
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