Youngsters conjure up top prizes

A 13-year-old boy who lives in Spain and an 11-year-old girl from West Yorkshire were the big winners at this year’s annual Young Magicians Club Junior Day awards held at The Magic Circle’s London headquarters.
Harry Merlin Piper won the Stage Magician of the Year award with a mixture of card manipulation and ventriloquism. His dummy “speaks” four languages – English, French, Spanish and Catalan. Harry, whose father Rodney James Piper runs a magic dinner show in Salou and is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle, was born in Spain.
Eva Wild won the Close-up competition She had some inventive ways of winning chocolate from her spectators. Eva also won the award for originality.
In all there were seven awards which were handed out by Marvin Berglas, the president of The Magic Circle and the Young Magicians Club. He said: “It is so heartwarming to see the exceptional confidence and talents of our young magicians. The standard just gets better and better.”
Edward Hilsum, the co-chair of the Young Magicians Club said:”It’s amazing, considering our club is for 10 to 18-year- olds how young and talented the award winners are.”
The Junior Day was on Sunday and on Monday night members of The Magic Circle packed the theatre at their headquarters to see many of the winners perform.

The Young Magicians Club Stage Magician of the Year		The Young Magicians Club Close-Up Magician of the Year
1st – Harry Merlin Piper (13, Salou)		1st – Eva Wild (11, West Yorkshire)
2nd – Rafferty Coope (14, Winchester)		2nd – Christopher Doxey (14, Hampshire)
3rd – Arabella Crawford (13, London)		3rd – Ryland Petty (10, West Midlands)