I just thought I would give a quick shout out to a really cool band I saw a few months back. The White Keys are a 9-piece group of former Leeds University students who have got together to play a mix of “funk, soul and a bit of pop”. I thought they were really good and certainly worth a look if you need a decent band.

“The band formed whilst studying and playing together for three years on the Pop and Jazz degree courses at the prestigious Leeds College of Music and have recently graduated with first class degrees and exceptional marks for music performance. Although the band have only been working professionally since early 2008, they have swiftly gained an outstanding reputation and have packed as much experience into that time that may take others years.” Check them out: http://www.thewhitekeys.co.uk/


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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The other day I was thinking about performing at London’s O2 Arena for the Michael McIntyre and Eddie Izzard gigs earlier in the year, they are always great events. At one of the Michael McIntyre events I actually had a group of guys miss the second half of the show to stay and watch my magic. A compliment indeed!

Here are a few photos just to spice up the old blog post. I often think that performing at The O2, the worlds most successful entertainment venue, is a great CV point to back up my claim to being the on of the top London Magicians at the moment.



More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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Yes that’s right, the service station reviews are back after (one) request. I had a few old reviews of locations drafted but I have somehow managed to lose them so you will have to make do with this little one for now.

The attached photo sums up the overall feel of the “arcade” area for the Colsterworth service station on the Southbound A1, just south of Grantham. I thought it is absolute comic gold that there was a "Games" area with one bench and one 'claw' game. Brilliant. The food offer was similar; offering a not-so-wide selection of coffee / tea and chocolate bars, the main redeeming features of the station was that it actually sold petrol (which is quite an integral offer) and actually stocked a Mars bar - excellent for 5 hour drives. Don’t get me started on the toilets…
By the way, I welcome any suggestions for service stations to: servicestations@trmagic.com.

All-in-all not one of the best services in the UK: Scores on the doors: 2/10


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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So, BGT was back on our screens recently – dancing dogs, bad singers and lots of very weird people. I’ve often been asked why I don’t go on the programme, the answer is really simple – generally, magic does not come across well on television. You need a large budget and a strong creative team behind you to produce magic which translates into peoples homes. David Blaine did it well with his team and Derren Brown has achieved great shows with Channel 4, but there are many others which have failed. This includes magic on BGT which never gives magicians much sympathy on the show – although most magicians who appear on the show are truly terrible performers. In truth, my opinion is that a quality (magic) performer can achieve better work, more success and potentially fame (if that is what you want - which incidentally is not why I - or indeed many magicians - do magic at all) without appearing on such shows. In fact, I would go further and say that the show would significantly damage your professional reputation, which is exactly why I do not have any desire at all to go on the show.

However, on the other side of the coin are the true variety acts – the acrobats, the crazy beep-bopping dancers, the 30-piece dance troupe and of course, the odd-ball performers. This is what BGT is all about and it provides a great stage for them, and to be honest, I think it’s great entertainment.

This bring me nicely on to Stavros Flatley. These guys were a massive hit on the show last year and when I was performing at a ‘multi-man’ magic show with fellow close up magicians Alan Hudson, Brendan Patricks and Dave Willmott, Stavros Flatley were also booked to perform. They put on a great show and they are really nice blokes, living their dream – they freely admit they never thought it would still be going strong a year later. Well played. As Stavros says, an act which is “3 & ½ minutes long couldn't be any more perfect”!



More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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Keeping the theme of describing my sporting events, I was over at Wembley for the England v Mexico game the other month. I think it is fair to say that it wasn’t the best game in the world, but the atmosphere was great It was the last England home game before the World Cup in South Africa so it had the vibe of a big leaving party for the England players. There was even time for a world record as everyone donned red or white t-shirts to form the worlds largest St Georges flag (pictured), all very patriotic. The result was a rather flattering 3-1 to England by the way.

EDITORIAL UPDATE - Yes, we all now know that England were knocked out by ze Germans and we were rubbish, goal-line technology anyone? Who will win the World Cup tonight? I'm going for Spain 3-2.


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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Not content with being the leading London Magician in the UK(!), I was recently whisked out to Dubai again for the Gitex Trade Show / Conference on behalf of Etisaliat. The Gitex conference is the largest technology exhibition in the Middle East and is a major event for all the technology type companies in the Middle East and UAE. Etisalat is a UAE-based telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa (you can always rely on Wikipedia). At the event I performed to 250 Etisalat VIPs and also performed a phone themed trick, on stage, which involved the company chairman calling one of his colleagues from another country live, with a real-time ‘international magician’ card prediction. The trick was fantastic even if I say so myself. I really do love performing as a magician in Dubai; the people are always great, the service in the venues and hotels is just exceptional and the buildings and general ‘offer’ in Dubai is mind-boggling, although it is all a bit artificial, as long as you take it at face value, you can’t do anything other than love the place.


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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Coalitions hey? Who would have thought it? I actually studied Politics at university (no I didn’t go to Hogwarts as many amusing people sometimes suggest) so me and my old university pals organised an election party on the night of the general election. Very cool I know. Attached is a photo utilising the BBC election party pack, inclusive of face masks (L-R Cameron / Brown / Clegg) – brilliant. On a geeky serious note, given it was 60-odd years since the last coalition, it will be interesting to see how the government fares and copes with the deficit which seems rather huge according to this link…

EDITORIAL UPDATE: Since originally writing this blog, the government has already lost one of its top names, David Laws, thanks to another expenses scandal. Crazy. David Cameron is now the Prime Minister now in case you didn't hear, photo below (from the Conservatives website) so you can recognise him in the street, usually spotted with a 'hoodie'.




More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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In other news, have you seen the attached shoe? I was in a top London pub the other day and there was a poster advertising “Have you seen this shoe? – Lost on Saturday 27th June around midday on the Victoria line or South West trains between Canonbury and Clapham Junction… I am desperate to find this beautiful shoe… did you hand it in somewhere?”

I have to say that the area where the said shoe may be lost does seem rather significant given that Canonbury is over in North East London and Clapham Junction is in South West London. You never know, one of my many, many readers may have found the beautiful shoe? Ladies is this shoe really beautiful? I’m not so sure, but any ideas feel free to contact the person on the poster!


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
http://www.trmagic.com/tom_rose_blog.php

I’m Back – with Harry Potter at his World-wide Premiere!

So, its been a long, long time since my last post. This is not for a lack of things to say, but more a lack of time up up-load the draft blog posts. In the next few weeks you are all in for a huge treat – a veritable delude of blog posts from the top London magician that you all know and love.

First port of call is a quick review of my attendance with the king of magic himself, Harry Potter, at the world premiere of the latest Harry Potter film in Leicester Square (this actually seem like years ago now!). A client invited me to the premiere and it was a fantastic experience to walk down the red carpet with all the actors, celebs and VIPs. I was sat directly behind Gordon Ramsey and family and found it quite annoying that they all left halfway through – that said, the film wasn’t that good so maybe no surprise there? It was amusing to pose for the paparazzi on the red carpet, all very cool!


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
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So, here comes some new blog posts. I have had a request to make them slightly more about random things I get up to, and slightly less about the gigs I go to, and so here goes. Maybe I could mix things up with some sort of Podcast (I think the kids on the street call them poddycasts?)

Talking of gigs though, I was performing at a couple of weddings a few weeks ago in the very nice golf resorts of De Vere Belton Woods and Donnington Valley Hotel & Golf club. These venues are very pretty if you are having drinks etc on the pleasant terrace, but since my newfound interest in playing golf it is definitely the very nice looking golf course that is the best view.

The majority of the people reading this, all three of you, probably don’t play golf, but I really recommend you pick it up. As long as you stay away from the ‘stuffy exclusive’ clubs of yesteryear they are all very welcoming and very open to new, rather rubbish players such as myself. One thing I can recommend is some decent lessons to get you started. I had some tuition recently from Kevin Harrison at A1 Golf who is a top bloke a really good teacher.

One of these days I am going to arrive at these nice venues really early and get a round of golf in before performing. Golf-tastic!


More soon...Tom Rose / London Magician Blog:
http://www.trmagic.com/tom_rose_blog.php