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 The theatre was standing room only at The Magic Circle's HQ in London to watch some of the leading close-up magicians in the country compete with each other. Always a popular event the two audiences enjoyed a high standard of performance throughout. Congratulations go to Pete Wardell whose assured performance of coins to glass and his acclaimed cups and balls routine won him 1st place in this year's competition. (Pete has now 100% record in winning competitions he has entered). John van der Put came in second place whose act featured a clever and entertaining "card in laptop screen" along with his signature VDP card transformation. Paul Brown came third with a beautiful set piece featuring a theme of alchemy that resulted in him being awarded the Ali Bongo Originality Prize as well. Many favourable comments were made afterwards about the quality of all the competitors.
The other finalists were Brett Sherwood whose act featured a classical cups and balls routine, Tim Shoesmith who featured a multiple card selection routine, Tim Sutton who charmingly presented some strong card magic, Steve Dela who arguably demonstrated the most skillfull manipulations of the evening and Steve Ablett whose amusing act was themed around Sherlock Holmes. |