London Magic

Mar 22, 2009
22
0
London, UK
Hi Everyone,

For those of you in the UK you'll have started to notice the occasional ray of sunshine appearing through the grey skies. In the hope that this indicates summer is round the corner I'm starting to think of some good places to do a bit of street magic in London. Do any of you who live in London have much experience of performing magic around the city?

I used to do a lot of magic when I was at University in Cambridge since it was such a good setting (in the summer anyway), but since settling into my career in London I've not found much time- this is something I'm going to change this year!!

So the purpose of this thread is just to share a few thoughts on some specific places in London that would be good to do some street magic, and then possibly get a few people to meet up to cover more ground at a big event in the summer or something (e.g. free festival on Hyde Park)

Any ideas?

Ben
 
Sep 1, 2007
51
0
You could try along Southbank -specifically from the london eye towards Charing cross bridge, round by trafalgar Square, Hyde park, Regents Park.

Be sure to spend some time in Covent Garden and hang out with the guys at Magic Cave and maybe catch Sergio doing his street show on James Street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMjkkjzFX54
 
Mar 22, 2009
22
0
London, UK
Yeah I think that Southbank would be a good bet, good mix of tourists and locals.

Regents park would be good too- good atmosphere there, especially on a Sunday.

Personally I wouldn't like to spend too much time around Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park etc since I imagine there wouldnt be too many Londoners around there and I'd like to have a mix of tourists and locals.

I think Camden locks would be a good place to spend a bit of time- plenty of people hanging around there who I guess would be pretty accepting of some magic.

Firmz, have you performed much around London?

B
 
Sep 20, 2008
1,112
3
Hello there!

A few good spots are Picadilly Circus (The high street) Oxford street And of course, the infamous Covent Garden.

In Covent garden you'll find a LOT of street performers. there are numerous street magicians too, though they tend to do parlour magic and not street magic. Im not too sure if you need a permit to perform there, as it is a haven for Street performers, they may not like it if you intrude on their soon-to-be audiences.

Cheers.

Edit: oh and as someone pointed out already, Camden's a good place. Also, 'Shaun' From that youtube video (Street Performer in Covent garden) seemed like a right Pr*ck when i spoke to him. Lacked interest. Treated me like a pest. Didnt even ask for my name despite my over excitement to meet another magician.

Thumbs down to him.
 
Mar 22, 2009
22
0
London, UK
Covent Garden probably wouldn't be ideal since most of the people who go there want something to see rather than something to interact with; that's my impression anyway. So it's better to be doing something big, in front of a big crowd, there rather than something more intimate.

I think Southbank and Camden would be top of my list at the moment with some ventures into Trafalgar Square/Leicester Sq/Piccadilly Circus. There are lots of people mulling around outside the National Gallery so they would seem like perfect targets!

Anyone interested in hitting the streets at some point when the sun is out?

B
 
Sep 20, 2008
1,112
3
Sure. Do you flourish btw? it'd be good to meet up with S&S. (Sean and Scott watters)

If not, im cool with just performing.
 
Oct 2, 2008
336
0
UK
Jinai.deviantart.com
Sounds like a good thread, i live in Bham and have planned to go London to see some peoples, last time i went me and a friend tried doing street magic but we got no luck at all, when do you plan to go? Maybe we could link up?
 
Mar 22, 2009
22
0
London, UK
Nah I'm not really a flourisher, well apart from a few flourishy revelations- I have more of a simple hits hard philosophy when it comes to performing..... well simple tricks from the spectator's point of view anyway. I come from the Guy Hollingworth/Darwin Ortiz schools of thought on card tricks so my tricks are hardly simple from the magician's point of view :)
 
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