| Paul Daniels
Then in 1964 - Friends of Mr and Mrs Daniels don't say “how do you do” when they meet, but rather “how’s tricks”, and mean it quite literally.
The Daniels’ life is one long whirl of magic moments, cards, sleight of hand, vanishing tricks, the lot.
Now Mr Daniels from South Bank, has added a trophy to his mantel shelf which gives him particular pleasure. It is the premier award offered by the International Brotherhood of Magicians for the delicate art of “micro” which he won at a recent convention in
Eastbourne. Mr Daniels, who is an audit clerk with Eston Urban District Council, has been interested in the magic art since he was 15. But his hobbie proved a problem when he married his wife Jackie. She found her husband was out of the house more than he was in, so fed up with being on her own, and following the well known saying -if you can’t beat them, join them, she took up the art herself. That was two years ago. Now Jackie, who married at 17, and is now the mother of two small children, has won Middlesbrough’s Magic Circle’s most coveted internal trophy. Judged on six separate performances given during the year, she won three, and came second twice.
Then later in 1988 - London’s Royal Crescent is styled on the famous Nash Terrace writes Peter Cook, and the impressive three- storey white apartment overlooking the large well maintained communal garden, hardly reflected the image of the small weary man in a fawn cardigan, who opened the door.
He thrust out a hand. “Hi, I’m what's left of Paul Daniels.” he said with a smile.
It had been another hectic day for one of the hottest properties in show business, but the Middlesbrough-born magician was still delighted to see a visitor from his home town.
He makes two cups of instant coffee and insists we dunk our ginger biscuits. Right now he is battling with a major problem. He is in the midst of preparing for his stamina sapping summer season at the Opera House
Blackpool, where he presents two 2-hour shows back-to-back (“I must be out of my brains”), and he has to decide either to follow this in the autumn with a one man show on Broadway or opt for 30 TV shows in California.
“In recent months I have been back and forth to America four times, and to think I used to consider it a big deal to go on a bus from Middlesbrough to Redcar.” he laughs.
We were sitting in a first floor lounge that doubles as an office/workshop where the very latest in video and computer equipment vies for shelf space with over 8000 books on magic, and the man who once lived in a
pre-fab in Middlesbrough Road East, South Bank, claims to have read them all.
It was one such volume that he came across on a wet miserable holiday that was to change his life.
“And after reading it from cover to cover, I can safely say that all I wanted to do thereafter was to become a professional magician. I was hooked, and have been ever since.”
He bought his first magic trick from Mac’s Magic Shop in Seaton Carew and began putting an act together working the local clubs until National Service in Hong Kong with the Green
Howards, interrupted matters.
On his return to civvy street, he joined his parents running a mobile shop and later he branched out and bought his own shop. But working all day, and then performing in the clubs at night was taking its toll.
“There was no let up,and trying to combine the two was almost killing me. I had to make a choice.”
Fortunately the decision was taken out of his hands when in 1969 he landed a long and lucrative summer season in
Newquay. He sold his grocery business and turned professional.
A TV debut on “Opportunity Knocks” followed by European and African tours added to his experience and then came the big breakthrough when a TV producer saw his act and gave him his own spot on the “Wheeltappers” show. One night in Bradford he was heckled by a drunk. But by now he had learned to be quick on his feet. He selected the man’s suit for his retort. “I like it, not a lot, but I like it.” With those ten words, a household catchphrase was born.
Eventually he persuaded the BBC to give him his own series and with The Paul Daniels Magic Show in1979 which proved an instant hit he went on to win the a Golden Rose at the 1985 Montreux Television Festival. Three years later he married Debbie McGee, a former ballerina and an assistant on his shows.
Family is all important to Paul Daniels, and after his first marriage collapsed it was a case of closing family ranks and developing the Daniels empire. His father Hughie Daniels - a former process worker at ICI Wilton - was recruited to supervise the building of the star’s props. He and Paul’s mother Nancy, and brother Trevor, who used to be an organist at the Malleable Club on Teesside, all moved into Paul’s Buckinghamshire mansion. His cousin, Bob Lloyd, looks after the London home.
“It occurred to me that a lot of people were becoming very reliant on Paul Daniels ” he says seriously.”So it became necessary for my name to be marketed like any other commercial product”
Just how successfully this has been achieved is witnessed by the ever increasing number of Paul Daniels books, videos, films, even children's bath soap, that are now on the market.
What sort of income does all this add up to? He shrugs “I’ve no idea, I leave all that to my business manager, who is also my best friend.
Does he enjoy being rich? He grins. “I've been hard up, and this is better.”
This talented illusionist is now on the move, pacing the floor, flicking coins over the back of his fingers. His summer season at Blackpool is foremost in his mind. It is going to be his most spectacular yet - one illusion has taken 14 months to perfect - and his recent diet has trimmed him down in preparation.
Squeezed between rehearsals and shows are meetings with agents or engagements at trade shows or with companies such as IMB and Barclays Bank who contract him to help with their presentations. When he does relax it is either at a computer devising new
programmes, or with a camera - he is an authority on photography and has written books on the subject.
In quieter moments he still reflects on his early days in the North east.
“I see myself on my first delivery bike with its two panniers front and back, pedalling down Middlesbrough Road South Bank, and on a Sunday, climbing up Eston Nab - I have a lot of happy memories.”
Now in 2000 - Paul Daniels at 61, has now called it a day. There will be no more TV series or stamina sapping tours for Middlesbrough’s famous magician. In a world of high-tech virtual reality, his form of magic, which over the past two decades has entertained millions, is now totally outdated. But far from retiring, he and Debbie , who is twenty years his junior, are to go into business running a touring ballet company.
Paul has three sons from his first wife Jackie. The middle son Martin has involved himself in his father’s shows and has often toured with him. Gary, the youngest, is a computer expert, working in the North East.
But Paul’s eldest son, Paul
jnr, has turned out, much to his father’s anguish and frustration, to be the bete noir of the family.
In a recent national newspaper article, the magician admitted to having no idea where his son was, or what he was doing. He was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for fraud, and in the past had been fined and given a suspended sentence for driving while disqualified, after a second drink driving offence. Later he was to embarrass the Daniels family by getting drunk and selling stories about his father to the newspapers. When he was 20 he stole his father’s Ferrari, which many interpret as the action of someone crying out for attention, a child perhaps who couldn’t cope with having a famous father.
Paul Daniels did see his his son in prison after a lapse of ten years and on his release took him in when he turned up roaring drunk. They had another blazing row and that was the last he saw of his eldest son.
An obvious disciplinarian, who made it the hard way, (he slept in his car between shows in those early days), Paul Daniels was influenced by national service which he says taught self discipline and young men to do as they are told. He favours retention but with the training focused on public service, training young people to deal with every type of emergency from pothole and cliff rescues, to treating heart attack victims. “In other words, train our young people not to kill, but to save lives.
This article originally appeared in the June 2000 issue of Now
& Then Magazine |
