1. 25Wednesday,May7,2014RGG-EO1-S2
Your weekly guide to upcoming shows, concerts and days out in the
area mixed with interviews with showbiz stars and local performers
Magical Ben’s
proved his old
teacher wrong
THE REAL WIZARD: Ben Hart taught
magic tricks to Sir Ian McKellen
I
N ONE of the most memorable
scenes in Lord of the Rings,
Gandalf the wizard slams down
his staff and shouts at a fire
demon: “You shall not pass!”
Echoing those same words but in
a completely different context was
Ben Hart’s design technology
teacher, who told him he would not
only fail the subject but would
never amount to anything.
Fast forward a few years and
Ben is an accomplished magician
and designer of magic tricks.
So much so that he has taught
tricks to none other than Gandalf
himself – Sir Ian McKellen.
It’s no surprise then, given the
lack of encouragement from his
old teacher, that when asked who,
if he could pick anyone in the
world, he would make disappear,
that Ben’s woodwork tutor springs
to mind.
“I’m not saying I’m doing
anything big,” said Ben. “But I am
definitely doing something. And
not only did I sort of amount to
something, but that something
involves making things out of
wood.”
You see Ben doesn’t just perform
tricks and come up with new ones.
He works on advertising
campaigns with companies
wanting him to make their
products magically appear, and he
designs and makes his own props
and sets for magic shows.
And much of this he does from
his own studio – well, sort of.
“I have a shed,” Ben announces
proudly. “When I’m not touring
and performing magic I go and sit
in my freezing cold shed in
Winchester and make props and
design tricks.”
In fact he’s a self-proclaimed
“one-man magic factory” who is so
into his craft that he doesn’t even
own a TV, which can be a bit of a
problem when you regularly find
yourself at celebrity parties.
He explained: “I don’t watch TV
or read the news so I don’t know
who these people are when I go to
parties.
“I met (singer) Duffy when she
was famous; when (her song)
Mercy was doing really well.
“I was casually asking her
things like whether she had been
booked by the same small agency
that I had, and if she comes to
things like this often. I just thought
she was a really nice Welsh girl.”
Famous
It isn’t just while tucking into
vol-au-vents that Ben brushes
shoulders with famous musicians
and actors, having been booked for
private shows by some big names,
including rock band Kings of
Leon.
But perhaps his greatest claim
to fame is having been asked to
teach Ian McKellen, aka Gandalf,
magic tricks for a short film called
The Egg Trick, which was released
last year.
He taught the veteran actor
some Victorian sleight-of-hand
tricks, and while classic magic is
something which greatly interests
Ben, his own shows are modern,
unique and attention-grabbing.
His one-man show The Outsider
received rave reviews at the
Edinburgh Fringe festival last
year.
Instead of just churning out a
series of tricks one after the other,
the show has a story and according
to Ben it is “as far away from the
1970s Paul Daniels style of magic
as you can get”.
He explained: “It’s unusual for a
magic show because there is a
loose story throughout.
“All the tricks are based on
memories and experiences I’ve
had, and I tell different stories
during the show. It’s funny as a
show but I’m not a magician
standing there telling jokes.”
Anthony Owen is the show’s
executive director. His name may
mean nothing to most people, but
his work will be familiar, as he
directs Derren Brown’s shows.
While The Outsider contains
plenty of tricks and illusions
which are challenging for Ben to
pull off, none of them are quite as
tricky as one he had to perform for
a show called Killer Magic.
He recalled: “The hardest trick I
ever had to perform was one where
I was in my underwear in a
freezer.
“The idea was that it was so cold
I wouldn’t be able to use sleight of
hand because my fingers would be
frozen.
“I had to cook an egg in my pants
and turn a piece of sliced bread
into toast.”
When asked to reveal how he
managed it, rather than delivering
a magician’s stock answer that it is
a secret he is not allowed to reveal,
he simply said: “You don’t want to
know.”
I Ben Hart’s show The Outsider
comes to Chequer Mead in East
Grinstead tomorrow (Thursday) at
7.30pm. Tickets cost £13 with
concessions available at £11. For
more information or to book call
the box office on 01342 302000.