Magic moments (From The Northern Echo)

Magic moments

11:18am Monday 8th March 2010

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Magician Matthew Dowden turned his back on the law to take up a stage career. But he’s not averse to a spot of ‘theft’, he tells Steve Pratt.

Before you alert the police, I should point out that he does it for a living – as a magician.

“I love taking watches off people. I’d say that has a real effect,” says North-East-born Dowden who gave up a career in the law for magic. He thinks those losing their watches are left with a feeling of surprise rather than alarm. “It’s more of a pleasant feeling of being fooled,” he says.

Dowden is performing on home ground during this week’s South Tyneside International Magic Festival 2010. He’s been performing magic for a decade, since becoming attracted to the tricks of the trade while studying for a law degree at Northumbria University. “I got into magic as a hobby halfway through my studies and eventually decided it was more than a hobby. It became an obsession,” he recalls.

He began hanging out at Newcastle-based MagicBox – sponsor of the festival – and one of the shop owners, Graeme Shaw, invited him along to a charity gig. Just like people get bitten by the acting bug, so Dowden got hooked on magic.

“I knew straight away I could see myself doing it for the rest of my life,” he says. “I graduated and got my degree but never practised law. I began in what I think is the right way for people to start – through a huge love of magic.

“The reason you end up starting to perform for money or in public is because you’ve run out of friends and family to annoy and try tricks on.

When you meet new people it’s a case of deciding how long you can go before saying, ‘would you like to see a trick?’”

He learnt tricks from TV programmes, books and videos. He doesn’t think you ever stop learning.

“People talk about having a natural gift for things but if you love something enough you put the practice in because it’s not like practice to you. I should have been in the library studying law, but was learning magic tricks or reading magic books,” he says.

He’s more into close-up magic than illusions. He’s already performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood where he admits playing up his English accent to please the Americans. “They love it, they can’t get enough of it. They think we’re all Hugh Grant or something out of Pride And Prejudice,” he says.

Now Dowden, a former Durham Cathedral chorister, would like to move more into stage work. “I love the idea of theatre within a magic show, taking audience on journey rather than just doing trick after trick,” he says.

Festival dates

THE week-long International Magic Festival runs from today, and highlights include:

The Family Magic Extravaganza at the Customs House, South Shields, on Wednesday, with family-focused comedy and visual magic with performers from Newcastle Magic Circle.

Two gala shows at the Customs House – on Friday with a line-up including Swedish magician Lennart Green and Australian Brad Manuel and on Saturday with North-East magician John Archer introducing acts including escapologist Shahid Malik and US mentalist Joshua Quinn.

Throughout the week, magicians will tour schools, residential homes and other organisations as part of the Magic In The Community programme.

The festival ends with a two-day convention for magicians from around the world.

■ For details, visit southtyneside.info/magicfestival

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