On Friday 22nd October the club held its annual presentation dinner and for the third time we visited the Essex Barn at the Chichester Hotel in Wickford for a fabulous 3 course meal. Part of the evening of course involved the formal presentation of the trophies to their winners for this year, and it was as always a great pleasure to award them as follows for 2010/11:
Senior Stage Competition winner: Mick Geraghty
Senior Close up Competition winner: Adrian Fox
Junior Stage Competition winner: Oliver Ward
Junior Close up Competition winner: Oliver Ward
Best non-magical supporter: Audrey Heddon (for the 11th year!)
Clubman of the Year: Robbie Wood (with an amazing first time ever 100% score)
Most Promising Newcomer: James Gilroy
Well done and hearty congratulations to all our winners. A special thank you also has to go the anonymous club member who every year donates £60 to the club, specifically for the most promising newcomer award, to be spent on magic props or convention tickets etc.
So after the meal, some close-up magic provided by some of our members and a raffle with some great prizes, it was on to the cabaret which this year featured the amazing Michael J Fitch. Rick has supplied the following review of Michael’s performance, but suffice to say both he and his audience had a wonderful time together....
‘Magic audiences can be tough to please and based on past years, the Sorcerers have been a difficult bunch to please sometimes. Michael admitted to some nerves as well, as performing his adult cabaret to magicians was not something he had done much of.
However, he had nothing to fear as the audience were captivated by his presence immediately. I had booked Michael for about 45 minutes but said if it's going well, do whatever you want. Michael held us all spellbound for over an hour. He romped through card and rope tricks, and a sprinkling of great mentalism routines, all with great skill and humour. He had every comedy performers' dream too - a volunteer whom Michael was able to extract some great humour from and use this throughout as a running gag - a mark of a great performer on top of his game.
Suffice to say, Michael was the best cabaret act we have had at a Sorcerers dinner, evidenced by our first ever standing ovation at the end of Michael's act - praise indeed. Thank you, Michael - same again next year?!!’
For those that attended, we truly hope you enjoyed the evening. If you couldn’t make it this year, do try and come next year if you can; it’s a fantastic night out.
