Simon Drake

Last updated

Simon Drake
Born
Simon Alexander

(1957-03-01) 1 March 1957 (age 67)
Surrey, England
Occupation(s) Magician, illusionist, director, producer, writer
Years active1974–present
Website houseofmagic.co.uk

Simon Drake (born Simon Alexander; 1 March 1957) is an English magician based in London. He is best known for the television series The Secret Cabaret made for Britain's Channel 4. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in London, Drake is the son of a GP. [2] [3] Drake worked as a record plugger at Decca Records when he met Arthur Brown. Brown would become a mentor to Drake as he trained as a magician. [4]

Performing career

He first came to wider attention in Kate Bush's UK live tour in 1979 for which he co-devised visuals and played seven characters. [5] He has a wide and diverse performing history, performing at Tenjō Sajiki in Japan, to the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium before Queen Elizabeth II. He advised Nicolas Roeg for the film Castaway, coaching Oliver Reed in sleight of hand, and was magic advisor to Harvey Keitel on FairyTale: A True Story. [6]

He has performed and consulted with many performers including Elton John, Phil Collins, Madness, David Gilmour, Meat Loaf, Steve Miller, Daryl Hall, Bill Wyman, George Harrison, Julian Lennon, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Katy Perry, and Pamela Stephenson.

In August 1993 he was seen on American TV in the special Raising Hell, in which he co-starred with Iron Maiden. [7]

Drake has performed twice as a guest with The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the London Coliseum. He has appeared at festivals and tours in Canada, New Zealand, Europe and in the UK and has had residencies at many London nightclubs as well as a month in cabaret at Casino de Monte-Carlo, Paris and Dubai. He was the magic and effects supervisor to Cameron Mackintosh for the West End production of The Witches of Eastwick and Ducktastic. [8]

He was a consultant on the South London Theatre's Spring 2007 production of Dr Faustus. He was also a consultant on the production of episode 6 of the fourth series of the BBC television drama Hustle. [9] He was also a magic advisor on the Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus acting as a consultant to the director in pre-production and coaching Christopher Plummer and Andrew Garfield in the art of sleight of hand. He was called in to help Terry Gilliam with a seemingly impossible problem on his production of into the Woods which opened at the Theatre Royal Bath in Summer 2022.

House of Magic

In 1996 he opened his own 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) venue, Simon Drake's House of Magic, in a converted Victorian building at an unpublicised location in London. [10]

This performing space specialises in corporate entertainment functions, with monthly public performance nights.

Related Research Articles

Sleight of hand refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card flourishing and stealing. Because of its heavy use and practice by magicians, sleight of hand is often confused as a branch of magic; however, it is a separate genre of entertainment and many artists practice sleight of hand as an independent skill. Sleight of hand pioneers with worldwide acclaim include Dan and Dave, Ricky Jay, Derek DelGaudio, David Copperfield, Yann Frisch, Norbert Ferré, Dai Vernon, Jerry Sadowitz, Cardini, Tony Slydini, Helder Guimarães and Tom Mullica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricky Jay</span> American magician and actor (1946–2018)

Richard Jay Potash was an American stage magician, actor, and writer. In a 1993 profile for The New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive". In addition to sleight of hand, he was known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He also wrote extensively on magic and its history. His acting credits include The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, Heist, Boogie Nights, Tomorrow Never Dies, Heartbreakers, State and Main, House of Games, Magnolia, and Deadwood. In 2015, he was the subject of an episode of PBS's American Masters, the only magician ever profiled in the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Nixon (magician)</span> English magician and television presenter (1919–1978)

David Porter Nixon was an English magician and television personality. At the height of his career, Nixon was among the best-known magicians in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Lovell</span>

Simon Lovell is an English comedy magician, actor, and card sharp, who specialises in magic using playing cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street magic</span> Genre of magic performance

Street magic falls into two genres; traditional street performance and guerrilla magic.

Paul Kieve is an English professional illusionist and whose consulting work for both stage and screen has contributed to changing how magical special effects in productions are approached. He is the only illusionist ever to have won a New York Drama Desk award. He created the illusions for the 2014 Kate Bush concert Before the Dawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Hart (actor)</span> Canadian actor and magician (born 1961)

Christopher Hart is a Canadian actor and magician whose roles include Thing, the disembodied hand, in the 1991, 1993, and 1998 movies The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, and Addams Family Reunion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul W. Draper</span> American book editor, stage magician, author

Paul Draper is an anthropologist, academic, and an award-winning mentalist, magician, and film maker. As an anthropologist and communications expert specializing in the cognitive science of religious beliefs, he has lectured at Fortune 500 companies and universities. As the creator of the show Mental Mysteries, Draper blends his academic background as an anthropologist and communications expert with the arts of mentalism and magic. Draper performed live streaming shows during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Channing Pollock was an American magician and film actor.

Andrew Mark O'Connor is an English actor, comedian, magician, television presenter and executive producer.

<i>The Secret Cabaret</i> British TV series or programme

The Secret Cabaret is a magic-based television programme that ran for two series, of six episodes each, on Channel 4 in the UK during the early 1990s. Fronted by British magician Simon Drake it was praised for giving a new and shocking twist to the presentation of illusions. In addition to various magicians the show featured sideshow acts and presentations by experts on fraud and confidence tricks, all interspersed with vintage archive footage of freak shows and daredevil stunts. It was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award and achieved an average audience of 2.53 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvester the Jester</span> American magician

Daniel Sylvester Battagline, also known as Sylvester The Jester, is an American magician, best known for playing a cartoon character who comes to life. He has had hundreds of stage and television appearances, including NBC’s "World's Wildest Magic," ABC’s "Champions of Magic III", Jerry Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy Telethon and The Discovery Channel’s "More Science of Magic." He has performed in multiple Las Vegas shows including opening for The Amazing Johnathan, and appearing at Caesar’s Magical Empire. He also produces a series of magic products, and has been credited with creating the illustrations for various magic publications, such as the cover for The Amazing Johnathan's Every Trick in the Book, and the poster for John Carney's "Mr. Mysto" act. In 1996, he also created a prop for the television show, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch." He has been featured on the cover of several magic and culture-related magazines, such as the September 1998 issue of Magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Alan</span> British magician (1926-2014)

Alan Alan was a British escapologist and magician. He originated tricks that have subsequently become familiar features of the repertoire of other performers and he was honoured by The Magic Circle.

Peter "Pete" Firman is an English magician, comedian, television presenter and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Close-up magic</span> Magic performed in an intimate setting

Close-up magic is magic performed in an intimate setting usually no more than 3 meters from one's audience and is usually performed while sitting at a table.

Steve Cohen is an American magician who specializes in parlor magic. Sometimes called the "millionaires' magician", he performs regularly at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in Manhattan and at private parties in other places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic (illusion)</span> Performing art involving the use of illusion

Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.

George Schindler is an American stage magician, magic consultant, comedian, actor, ventriloquist and writer based in New York. In addition to creating noteworthy illusions and publishing many books on magic, Schindler has performed at venues around the world and is currently "lifetime dean" of the Society of American Magicians, having previous tenure in the "S.A.M. Hall of Fame" as well as president and spokesperson. From the 1950s to the 1960s, he had also been a frequent contributor to Billboard Magazine's comedy, magic and vaudeville columns.

Judy Carter is an American comedian, magician, motivational speaker and author of five books on comedy and self-improvement.

Benjamin Hart is an English magician. In 2007, he was awarded the "Young Magician of the Year" award by The Magic Circle. Hart has worked on British television and is an inventor and designer of magic tricks and stage illusions. In 2014, he starred in Killer Magic on BBC Three. Hart was a finalist on Britain's Got Talent in 2019. He is a member of The Magic Circle (organisation)

References

  1. "The Secret Cabaret information". at television production company Open Media . Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  2. Quinlan, Tim (3 October 2005), "Celebrity Interview: Simon Drake", Inside Magic, retrieved 10 March 2007
  3. "Interview with Simon Drake", Daily Mirror, 19 February 2000
  4. The God of Hellfire: The Crazy Life and Times of Arthur Brown by Polly Marshall, SAF Publishing 2005
  5. "High Band: Kate Bush Live at the Hammersmith Odeon". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2007.
  6. Simon Drake at IMDb
  7. "Raising Hell". IMDb. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
  8. Quinlan, "Celebrity Interview"
  9. "Hustle". IMDb. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
  10. "Simon Drake's House of Magic News". Simon Drake. Retrieved 22 October 2009.

Further reading