Hove Folk Club

Ian Saville : Friday 2nd December 2011
Report by Robb Johnson

So... how does he do it?

How does Ian Saville make all those things appear, disappear and reappear? He holds up his fist with the handkerchief stuffed into it, and tells us that the important thing is never to open your hand like this, and the hand opens, and the handkerchief's gone. and it comes back later, and sometimes it's changed colour too. Tim was still enthusing about how his £10 note was changed into 10 euros, and back again, and the bewildering way it turned up finally in a sealed envelope.

This was our festive season meeting; rather than have a singing guest, we had a magical one instead. December gigs always seem a little bit risky; as the festering season gets up steam, audiences can dwindle as the attrition rate of festering celebrations takes its toll. We'd hoped to have Ian last year, but a seasonal avalanche of snow proved too much of an obstacle that no amount of magic could manage an appearance. This year, there was no snow, but strangely, much of the audience had mysteriously disappeared. Nonetheless, a splendid night was had by those who did manage to manifest themselves upstairs at the Poet's, and regulars Mike Reinstein and Roger Stevens finished the night with some fine songs and from Roger a little round involving the months of the year and the audience bobbing up and down when their birthday months came round.

Ian performed one long set midway through the evening, that allowed him to develop and unfold his performance without interruptions and also catch the train back to London in good time. As well as taking your breath away with the anticipated prestidigitations, Ian's particular performance characteristic is the superb narrative commentary that he maintains, part art-of-misdirection and part stand-up comedian: "I performed this trick before Fidel Castro ... well, he said he was Fidel Castro ... well, what he actually said was if I was a magician, he was Fidel Castro." And where else other than an Ian Saville gig would you get Karl Marx, appearing as a very large talking portrait, singing "I'm a little teapot"? 

So... how does he do it?

Magic, of course.

Socialist magic.

Web site: www.redmagic.co.uk

MagicWeek profile: www.magicweek.co.uk/magic_profiles/magicprofile_0012_ian_saville.htm

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