Matt Duggan

Archive for the ‘London Magic’ Category

Having been working at The Union Theatre – in my capacity as an actor – for the past three weeks, I’m now back to resume full magical service!

The play at The Union (entitled Oh Well Never Mind Bye) was the best experience I’ve had as an actor and I was very pleased to be part of a small and talented cast of actors, directors and writer Steven Lally.

You can read the reviews and find out more information on the acting side of what I do on MatthewDuggan.co.uk.

In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss the possibilities of entertaining your guests at your next event, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

I’ve just uploaded a new video on the site where I perform some interactive magic with you, dear viewers, while you watch.

You can see it on the video page of WorkingMagic.co.uk or on the Working Magic YouTube Channel.

Let me know what you think, either by clicking ‘Comments’ in the bar below this post or by e-mailing me at Matthew@WorkingMagic.co.uk.

Enjoy!

I’ve just got in from a delightful gig for Speedo International Ltd., the sportswear company who – it turns out – are based just 5 minutes from my front door.

There were some great reactions from the international delegation of guests, particularly the French contingent who were doubly impressed by the magic and (for my next trick) the fact that I could magically transform into a fluent French speaker. Truth be told, I lived in Paris for three years, but don’t tell them.

Many thanks to Rebecca, Nikki and Kelly for arranging the entertainment and hiring me to entertain at their post conference party.

Now of course, I’m not one to drop celebrity names into conversation (much) but I was invited to perform at a party last week which was being held for the launch of a new theatre project. The project was in collaboration with The Old Vic, a fine theatrical establishment on the South Bank of the river Thames here in the capital.

Anyway, the artistic director of The Old Vic is one Mr. Kevin Spacey, he of The Usual Suspects, The Negociator and The Life of David Gale (if you haven’t seen that last one, go and seek it out – Truly brilliant).

Anyway, it turns out that Kevin – I say, pretending we’re now friends – was at this little soiree and so I wandered over to show him and his entourage some magic. They were appreciative and Mr. Spacey seemed to like the one effect he saw (he was being whisked around to talk to people all evening).

Also at the party was Chris O’Dowd, the very funny actor who is one third of The IT Crowd, a UK TV series set in the technical department of a large company. Chris loved the magic and gave a very funny commentary to one of the effects I performed for him and his friends to the point that I virtually stopped talking and let him do the patter while I did the moves. It might be genius.

‘Til next time, when there’ll be significantly fewer glamourous name-checks…

Here it is folks!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO EPISODE TWO

Episode two of the mystical Smoke & Mirrors podcast (or Magicast as I’m calling it from now on) has arrived!

For this show, I’m joined in the studio by author, broadcaster and Member of The Magic Circle Brian Sibley. We pick up where we left off with Peter Lane last week, talking about the more recent history of magic. We look at some of the characters that have shaped modern magic including Chung Ling Soo and Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic. We also look at why London was one of the centres of magic in the world throughout the 20th Century and Brian will be talking about his collaborations with the magicians of cinema like Peter Jackson on Lord of the Rings.

As always, the lovely Julia will be here with the magic news and we’ll be telling you where you can see magic in the capital this week.

Tune in to 104.4FM here in London and online across the world at http://resonancefm.com/listen every Tuesday at 6pm GMT to hear the show live and again every Friday at 10pm GMT for the repeat.

You can now listen to the interview I did on The Hannah & Alex Show either by listening at http://hannahandalex.mypodcast.com/ or by looking up The Hannah & Alex Show on iTunes and downloading it there.

My interview is on episode 49, entitled ‘Munuh Munuh & Magic’.

Stay tuned for more podcast and general magic news!