mrs pogle wrote:Hello Simon,
It’s brilliant that there’s a DVD of SC out at last – I got mine last week and have watched it over and over again. It was easily the best magic performed on TV I have ever seen and I was angry to see those idiots in recent times try to copy your style, which they couldn’t in a month of Sundays!
I always wondered why there wasn’t a third series of Secret Cabaret when the first two had been such a success, but having read your reply to Brendon, I understand a bit better now. It did seem to me that some of the routines in SC were badly lit and a few shots (such as in the egg production routine) were so far away that you couldn’t actually see what was happening, or were filmed at angles which didn’t do the routines justice, and of course that was all down to the producers and their choices. I am not a magician myself, just a fan, but I can imagine how frustrating it must have been for you to have much of your work compromised by what sounds like to me a really unsympathetic production team, and it says a lot for your professionalism and artistic integrity that you turned down a third series rather than allow that to happen again.
I was lucky enough to make it to the House of Magic four years ago and see your act ‘properly’ (ie not through the distorting filter of bad editing!) and I have to say it really blew me away. When I told you my favourite effect of yours was The Silhouette Routine, you mentioned then that you couldn’t bear to watch it as you were so frustrated that the music had been dubbed on out of time – did you manage to correct it for the DVD?
What’s been happening at the House of Magic since I experienced my evening there? And what are you doing creatively at the moment?
Dear Mrs Pogle I was very glad to hear you have enjoyed the DVD and thank you for your kind words. Yes it can be annoying being copied especially if it’s done badly. You get used to it after a while but it’s very sad how plagiarism is seen as ‘normal’ in capitalist society these days and especially so in the world of television. Yes you are right about the eggs production, a routine that took a lot of practice and was not helped by quite a few dumb shots. But the essence is still there and I am told still enjoyable. Yes it was very frustrating but I have to say not all the production team were unsympathetic by any means. Some were really lovely people actually and I also especially enjoyed my working relationship with Pat and Jim and feel we really covered some interesting ground in a relatively short time.
Yes I remember you now and our chat about the Silhouette Routine. I am not going to go into the whole story as I feel I have said enough about this subject but briefly, yes they did dub the music on a second or so late and it really hurt as it was a solo routine, entirely visual and meticulously choreographed to music. It got to the point of me offering to pay personally to re-edit but the answer was no. I wouldn’t stand for that crap nowadays I can tell you. We tried to re-synch for the DVD but the sound effects were in the way so because we didn’t have the opportunity to isolate the backing tracks in a recording studio, it wasn’t practical to do.
Anyway the DVD is out there and I really did it to satisfy the many letters and emails I was getting. It seemed a crying shame for me to have so much of my hard work and a show that everyone tells me was way before it’s time just sitting in the vaults with nothing being done about it. So with Channel 4’s help I did it all by the book license-wise and got my routines out there again. I know we are all programmed by this sad society of greed we live in, not to believe this but I didn’t put it out primarily for profit. If I just get the money back I had to pay for the re-edit etc I will be quite happy. The House of Magic and my agency do well for me and after all how much can a person, who’s idea of a perfect day is 14 hours in a workshop, spend?
So much has happened in four years here its impossible to list them all but we constantly improve the show and add a new illusion about every year. I would change it more but many people come back again and again and ask me to leave the show and not change it as they get a perverse pleasure in watching their friends faces, who are here for the first time. I added a new floor by totally revamping the attic and roof (there were pics on the site under news section but been taken off temporarily to announce the DVD. I will have them put back soon in the photo gallery). Last year I took on Dr Adam Kay as an alternative opening act to the great Earl Okin. Earl still works here but Adam has been doing many of the public nights. Check out
http://www.amateurtransplants.com
Creatively I am making automata as I said , also working on a very ambitious new section for the show which utilises just about the whole auditorium. It’s a secret what it is and I think it will be one of the best things I have ever dreamed up. I hope so.
Anyway Magic Woods-persons. I have enjoyed this stroll amongst the trees but I have to go now and get on with draining blood from innocent victims. Goodbye and good luck to you all.
Simon
‘You go Uruguay and I’ll go mine’. Groucho Marx
