Christmas this year started early. At the end of November there was a magic convention where the who's who of magic met up to discuss all things 'Harry Potter'. On the left is a photo of a group of us discussing the finer points of magic (L-R: Noel Qualter, Dave Bonsall, Tom Rose, Rob James, John Archer).

In other magic Christmas party news, I was again performing magic down at The O2 in London for the Steve Coogan show (the people I spoke to said the show was good, but the press reviews were not so good for Steve, as this review in The Telegraph shows). I was then down at The O2 again for a very fun staff Christmas party for a modeling agency which was nice!

The first week of December was finished with corporate magic gigs; management consultants, city traders and solicitors over three nights was an interesting contrast to the models and comedy punters before. Each of the three corporate jobs had an interesting fact though, the first, for Accenture, was good as I was working with two other magicians I had arranged for the 500 guests, Don Moses and Noel Qualter (see photo right) and I also saw an old friend from my university days, Jen, nice to see you again.

At the city traders and brokers event over at exclusive private members club Maya in Mayfair I was performing with a group of ladies called "The Fuel Girls". These ladies performed a kind of burlesque fire dance which was pretty impressive in the small club. Hot stuff indeed. Photo of the Fuel Girls is shown on the left. Interestingly the girls all had a 'hardcore' stage persona but were really nice when I caught up with them in the green room after. Interestingly they were flying off to Verbier in Geneva the next day for a gig over there which reminded me of the wedding I did out in Verbier a year back.

The end of the week was completed with a gig for a solicitors firm specialising in marine law, I wonder if all the Somali pirates are keeping them busy with litigation at the moment? The magic gig was in central London overlooking Tower Bridge and The Tower of London. Did you know... "In 1952, a number 78 double-decker bus was on the bridge when it opened. Back then, the lights would change to red, the gateman would ring bells to encourage the pedestrians to move off the bridge quickly and close the gates, and the head watchman would order the bridge to lift when it was clear. On this day in December, there was a relief watchman, and something went wrong. Albert Gunton, the driver, saw that the road ahead appeared to be sinking. In fact, his bus was perched on the end of an opening bascule, which was giving the illusion of a sinking road ahead. He realised that he would not be able to stop in time to prevent going into the water, and making a split second decision, decided he would go for it. He accelerated and jumped the three feet gap, landing on the north bascule, which had not started to rise. None of his dozen passengers were seriously hurt, and he received £10 for his bravery". The wonders of Wikipedia...


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