I am pleased to announce Simon Drake as agreed to answer your questions on TMW. Simon has never answered public questions before, and rarely gives interviews, so this is an amazing opportunity and a real honour.
Here is Simon's Bio -
Simon Drake first dazzled a wide audience, with his own unique style of magic and illusion, in Kate Bush's award winning tour in 1980 for which he co-devised visuals and played seven characters. He has worked across a very wide range, from the legendary Terayama’s Tenjo Sajiki theatre in Italy and in Japan to the Royal Variety Show at the Palladium before HRH The Queen Elizabeth II. He advised Nic Roeg for the film Castaway, with the tricky task of coaching Oliver Reed in sleight of hand and was magic advisor to Harvey Keitel on ‘Fairy Tale, A True Story’. In his two series of the highly acclaimed ‘Secret Cabaret’ for Channel Four, a series which he conceived and starred in, he won an international cult following as one of the most original and shocking illusionists in the world, setting a completely new style of the presentation for magic internationally. He has performed and consulted with a host of names including: Elton John, Phil Collins, Madness, David Gilmour, Madame Tussauds, Kenneth Branagh, Meatloaf, Richard Branson, Steve Miller’s Abracadabra for BBC’s Top of the Pops, Darryl Hall, Bill Wyman, George Harrison, Julian Lennon, Ringo Starr, Dame Edna Everage, Peter Gabriel and Princess Diana. He was the first and so far the only British illusionist to go out live on coast-to-coast American TV in his special ‘Raising Hell’ in which he co-starred with Iron Maiden. The same month he performed with Carl Davis and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Simon has performed twice as a special guest with The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the London Coliseum performing as a virtuoso cameo guest with his own version of The Dancing Cane. He has headlined at festivals and tours in Canada, New Zealand, Europe and in the UK and has had residencies at many of the most prestigious international nightclubs as well as a month as special guest in the exclusive cabaret at The Casino in Monte Carlo, Paris and Dubai. Simon was the magic and effects supervisor to Cameron Mackintosh for the West End production of The Witches of Eastwick.
In 1996 he opened his own 4000 square foot venue ‘Simon Drake’s House of Magic’ in a secret central London location, specialising in light-hearted amputations and decapitations of senior executives and celebrity guests. In 2006 The House of Magic was voted 6th in the top 300 venues in the UK and is now firmly established as the finest venue in the UK for enchanting, mind-blowing, magical entertainment and unrivalled in its atmosphere and attention to detail. Recent consultations have included an acclaimed production of Dr Faustus and Simon was the brains behind making £5 million vanish while it appeared to be still there for the most recent series of the BBC prime time hit ‘Hustle’. In September 2007 Simon released his own edit on DVD of the, now cult, Secret Cabaret and his office was swamped with orders even before the official release date.
http://www.houseofmagic.co.uk
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Edd Withers
Hopefully will soon.
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