At the meeting held on Sunday 6th July we were lucky enough to have Roy Davenport with us to demonstrate some of the Davenport dealer stock. Roy brought loads of stock with him too, including a lot of books and DVDs, and there was plenty of activity at the dealer tables with people snapping up various tricks and effects. One popular item was Roy Walton's Rainbow Cascade where 4 cards turn over one at a time by magic means, and then end up with various different coloured backs. Since buying it I've tried it out in anger and it certainly gets really good reactions.
Roy started the evening by briefly outlining the history and heritage of the Davenport family which goes back more than one hundred years. I particularly liked the tale of Roy's grandfather asking for a commercial sample of zinc stearate (fanning powder) which he claimed was going to be used as a coating for an industrial process. The huge sample barrel of the stuff which turned up, kept them in fanning powder for decades. Also, the memory of Roy's mum Betty and Pat Page, who was working for them at the time, lugging large bags of the old pennies from the bank into a taxi just before decimalisation as Betty thought that they might come in useful later. They are still on sale at Davenports for 20p each.
Roy then went on to demonstrate some of his favourite tricks which were on sale during the evening. Part of his presentation included a plug for the newly revamped (colour!) Abra magazine (still the only regular weekly magic magazine) - and everyone was given a free copy to take home with them.
As Roy's dealer dem was just over an hour long, there was also time, after a short interval, for him to treat us to some thimble magic techniques; and some of his thinking about stage presentation. This was a fascinating insight into how to gain audience approval at the very beginning of your act - how to enter the stage and how to leave at the end of your show and so on. Roy apparently also conducts workshops about this subject - something we could perhaps book for another meeting sometime if there's enough interest. The evening concluded with a very smooth performance of the Great Wong's Linking Rings routine.
Roy also mentioned that he is hoping to set up a Davenport's museum sometime in the near future, where there would be magic shows open to the public presented on a daily basis. Should be interesting - we'll have to keep an eye on that one!
In the end it was a fantastic evening with something for everyone and a lot of people went home with new effects to work on. As he packed up his things, Roy commented that he doesn't usually like presenting dealer dems, but added that if all of them were received as enthusiastically as at Southend, he'd be absolutely delighted. A nice piece of feedback for our club - so well done everyone for making him feel so welcome!
