Andy Clockwise is The Magic Circle Children’s Entertainer of the Year 2023.. The competition, in front of a sold-out theatre audience at The Magic Circle’s headquarters in London involved six finalists – Professor Strange, Tony Baloney, Magic Kurtis, Flip, Mr Belldini and Andy Clockwise. The judging was decided by combining votes from children in the audience – who put gold coins, which featured a photo of their favourite performer, into boxes – with marks awarded by the judges (Terry Herbert, Russ Brown and Paul Longhurst).
Andy Clockwise was awarded first place plus £1000, Mr Belldini was second and received £500 and Tony Baloney was third, receiving £250. Andy, who has been a children’s entertainer for 27 years and is a favourite with children of celebrities and performs regularly on P&O Cruise ships, said :“What an incredible line-up of talent and what a show. The atmosphere in the theatre from the families was incredible and I’m overjoyed to have won. I’m so pleased that The Magic Circle recognises this branch of our art as well as close-up magic and stage magic. Children’s entertainers are so important and are quite often a child’s first experience of magic and live entertainment at birthday parties. Being presented the award from a legend in children’s entertainment, Terry Herbert MIMC, makes this win even more special.”
This is only the second time that The Magic Circle has held this competition, the last being 2019. This year’s competition was organised by members of the Children’s Entertainer of the Year competition committee, Dave Allen, Kevin Doig, Gordon Drayson and Jezzo. Plans are to run this competition every two years.

Photo (left to right) Marvin Berglas, President of The Magic Circle, Andy Clockwise, Terry Herbert presenting Andy with the “Terry Herbert Award”. Photo credit Gordon Drayson.