Broken Wands :: Hal Roach & Martin Breese remembered by Neville Wiltshire

Neville Wiltshire kindly sent us the following kind words.  You can read the RTÉ report of Hal Roach's passing here.

"Two recent deaths give me personal sadness. Martin Breese, whom I never met face to face, but had many long phone conversations particularly about the contribution of Jack Rees and the Boys Magic Club to the development of a whole generation of magicians in the years immediately after the Second world war. Martin has left an invaluable resource to Magical historians by digitalising the British magazines of the 20th  century.

Hal Roach (pictured left) with whom I worked many times, started out as an assistant to the Great Beynon in the 1940s. He toured the British Variety circuit with a very funny cod Magic act featuring the Passe Bottles and the Linking Rings before establishing himself as a stand up comedian.  Due to personal family circumstances he did  a lot of work for the Mentally Handicapped and he often asked me to come along.  He showed his appreciation of this when I took a group of German relatives to Jurys Cabaret. Not only did he thank me from the stage but when I asked for the bill the waiter told me that `Mr Roach had arranged for it to be placed on his account`.  

Best Wishes,

Neville"

Neville Wiltshire's Library Shows

Neville  Wiltshire will be presenting his lecture MAGIC THROUGH THE AGES and showing `FIVE OF THE WORLD`S OLDEST TRICKS` in four North Dublin libraries next Tuesday and Thursday. Aimed at the 6 to 12 age group and designed to get them interested in magic as a hobby, especially through reading, the lecture is also entertaining for teens and adults.  Tuesday July 5th sees Neville in Rush Library at 2.15pm and Malahide Library at 4.00pm.  Thursday July 7th's performances are in Swords Library at 2.15pm and Blanchardstown Library at 4.00pm

Admission is free but booking a place in advance is advisable as in the past this event has drawn large audiences.

Neville's History of Magic Show on Tour

SIM Member and noted Irish Magic Historian Neville Wiltshire will taking his popular lecture on the history of magic "Magicians Through the Ages" to a new generation of young library members during the Easter and Summer holidays.  He tells stories about famous magicians and performs classic tricks from various times past.  Aimed at readers aged 6 to 12 his first lecture of the season is in Ballyroan Library on April 28th.  Dates for other libraries are being arranged for early July around Dublin.

The now and then image accompanying this post features Neville performing a charming monkey puppet routine.  The recent pic was taken at last nights SIM meeting in an attempt to recreate the black & white photo taken some years earlier.

Magic at the Zoo

SIM members Lorcan McIvor and Neville Wiltshire (as Willy McClown) entertained patrons at Dublin Zoo as part of the McVities Family Fun Days last weekend.  This was Lorcan's first magic gig although he has been gigging for the past number of years as a balloon artist along with someone whom a few of you may remember Michael Abrahams.  It is great to see new young talented blood coming through.  From what your editor has seen, although Lorcan is only starting out, he takes this business seriously, thinks about his look and character and seems to be on the right road.  Kudos.

        

Who Broke Albert's ZIg-Zag?

As some of you know magician and historian Neville Wiltshire is just back from Australia.  While there he took a nostalgic trip down memory lane with the daughters of Dublin’s most successful magician of the last century and heard for the first time a secret kept for forty years.  Neville writes...

Last month I spent a delightful afternoon  with Barabra and Yvonne, the younger daughters of Albert LeBas and their families who now live in the suburbs of Sydney.

We talked our way through a scrapbook of photographs, programmes and press cuttings, lovingly preserved by Barbara to show Albert’s grandchildren how highly he was regarded by his peers. I also showed them a few items from his repertoire.

Albert LeBas started in Magic at age seven with school concerts. Entering the Society of Irish Magicians junior competition as `Prince Puzzlem` at 15, he quickly became in demand performing for the army and civic functions.  In his early twenties as`Ali Pasha` he had a full stage illusion act which played the Dublin Variety theatres.

In 1951, settling on the billing `LeBas the Magician ` he was the first to perform on T.V. in Ireland although T.V. didn’t come for another eleven years.  This was at a demonstration of the new media for a week at the spring show.

Over the next twenty years he established himself as one of the leading Irish entertainers.  Resident compere for Jurys Cabaret, the chosen entertainer for visiting celebrities , Gaiety Theatre pantomime and revue , Magic Circle shows and a trip to the U.S. for the IBM/SAM conventions.

When RTE opened in 1962 Albert was the presenter of the weekly variety show and a regular visitor to magazine programmes.

In 1971, just before his untimely death, Albert  LeBas presented the first Irish showing of Harbins ZIG ZAG  as the interval item on that years Irish Eurovision show.   Barbara LeBas tells this story:    "The illusion was one of those licensed to purchasers of the Harbin Book. It arrived in the LeBas house early one morning, probably brought over on the night boat from Holyhead by Trevor Lewis who worked on that route. It was assembled and set up in our front room while my father went out to work at the day job he held as manager of a major Ford dealership. On his return in the evening he inspected his purchase and discovered that one of the doors was damaged , presumably in transit . He contacted the maker Jack Hughes, who, ethical dealer that he was, rushed him a replacement."  But-- confessed  Barbara,  “I have not told anyone this for forty years, I came home from school that afternoon, played with the new illusion and I was the one damaged the door. This was my ZIG ZAG secret “.

Neville Australian Adventure

As we face in to another weekend of the white stuff Neville Wiltshire has no such worries.  Neville you see is currently on an extended visit to Australia to visit family and enjoying temperatures into the high twenties.  Neville dropped a note our way to wish us and indeed all our readers a happy Christmas from Sydney.  He also shared this rather amusing story...

Here`s a story which may give you a smile.  We were invited by a neighbour to a `Morning of Christmas Melodies` in a local RSL Club.  This is a club which makes stacks of money from slot machines and booze but provides good food and function facilities. It turned out to be a Senior Citizens affair and I was probably one of the youngest there. Having been delayed coming in by wheelchair friendly mini-buses unloading passengers who had to queue to use the lift, in the function room the stage was dressed with red and green tinsel , snowmen and reindeer and all the trimmings of a north European Christmas although the air conditioning was full on as it was 24 degrees outside and the sun was splitting the bricks. However it was difficult to read the message of goodwill displayed on the front of the stage as there were 16 (I counted them) zimmer frames parked in front of it. The entertainment was good, two musically talented performers who gave a lesson in how to work an elderly audience of about 250 at 11 o'clock in the morning .  But the icing on the cake came at the end when, after an interminable raffle, looking for winners who found it hard to hear or see the ticket numbers  a speech of thanks was made to the sponsors of the event--The local Undertakers!

Best Wishes, See you all end of Jan. Neville

Leprechauns are us!

Heartfelt thanks to Neville Wiltshire and Ger Godley who recently donated to IrishMagicNews and are officially part of our Leprechaun club.  If you, your society, organisation or business would like to join the lads you can do so by clicking on the appropriate link on the right sidebar or in person.

neville wiltshire to appear at USM

Neville Wiltshire will explain tricks, tell yarns and generally hold court at the USM meeting on the 1st July.  I have been privileged to see Neville in action a number of times and always come away with at least 3 ideas or bits that go straight into my professional repertoire.  Fore more information visit the USM website

In other Neville news he recently performed at his 21st Leixlip Festival.  There must be a record in that somewhere.  Congratulations Neville, here is to another 21 eh?