Perth Voice Interactive

IT’S no trick—Perth is embracing magic again.

From July 5 a new Friday night magic show will be at Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den in the Brisbane Hotel.

Magic has been in and out of fashion over the past 160 years with people like David Copperfield becoming celebrities, and others becoming the butt of jokes, including fictional “illusionist” Gob Bluth who ruined magicians’ dating prospects for a decade.

Fool us

Leederville magician Matt Penny concedes that magic was once “the domain of under-loved spotty teenage boys”, but says it’s made a comeback in recent years with shows like Penn & Teller: Fool Us enjoying mainstream success, and magicians often making the finals in primetime talent shows.

“In Perth there is a small but vibrant magic community who regularly meet up and often have visiting lecturers from overseas, but if you want to actually watch a magic show you have to wait for Fringe time…The rest of the year there is nothing,” Penny said.

He believes local audiences are ripe for a weekly show. He’d had one in mind for a while, and the perfect opportunity arose when Lazy Susan’s announced its Friday night stand-up was going on hiatus until later this year.

He’s lined up three months of shows at Susan’s: Some will be classic magic displays, delving into tricks he’s learned during his 30 years in the business, and others will have guest magicians or competitive “Magic Slams”.

He’ll also perform his award-winning Fringe one-man play Find the Lady, which combines his love of theatre and magic, and a little bit of his piano playing.

Grifter

Named after the classic three-card monte con, the show is about a down-and-out grifter with a simple scam who hits the big time when he stumbles upon the talent to read minds. The show features eerie mind reading demonstrations on the audience.

It picked up the Blaz Award for 2018 for best performance by a WA writer, named in honour of Perth playwright George Blazevic.

Friday Night Magic is at Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den, upstairs at the Brisbane Hotel, from July 5 at 8pm. Tix $15 from http://www.mattpenny.com

Lazy Susan’s Tuesday stand-up, Saturday improv shows and comedy classes will go on as usual. There’s also a new monthly improv D&D show on the first Wednesday of every month.

stories by DAVID BELL

WHEN Matt Penny’s not pulling rabbits out of hats he’s pulling pints at the Blue Room Theatre.

Magic and bartending go well together: he can practice sleight of hand for patrons and on quiet nights he can ponder monologues for his shows like Find the Lady.

Penny honed his sleight of hand when he was around 20: “I started working as a waiter in London…I realised that if I was doing magic tricks at the table, then the tips would be a lot better!”

But he didn’t originally get into magic for money.

“I started doing magic tricks to get some love and attention,” he says. “My mum died when I was very young, 45 years ago.”

His father remarried shortly after, and growing up in a family with a stepmum and two older brothers he felt something missing.

Connection

“I found myself doing things like learning the piano or putting on magic shows because I missed the connection with my mother, and I was wanting some love and acceptance in a different way.”

Penny was born in 1968 in the UK, and grew up watching Tommy Cooper do his comedy magic act on TV (Cooper’s act was based on him being a hopeless magician and when he died mid-performance on live TV in 1984, the audience thought it was part of his comedy shtick. It was a heart attack).

To actually be a magician was “very different back in the day”.

“When I was maybe 20 years old, I wanted to learn some new tricks and there was no internet then – I went to Davenports.”

Davenports is the historic magic hub of London. The shop was founded in 1898 by Lewis Davenport, whose rags-to-riches tale saw him go from apprentice cooper to one of the age’s most famous conjurers. He’d ended up selling magic tricks to Houdini and Tommy Cooper.

Davenports’ family still own the store to this day.

If you weren’t buying a kit from Davenports’ descendants “the other way you’d learn tricks was almost like a barter system”.

Penny says magicians would meet up and trade tricks.

The internet’s revealed the secrets of some famous illusions, but Penny says to perfect one you still need “to have some personal interaction with someone else who knows how to do the trick”.

And just performing an illusion doesn’t make a show: It’s the story, the jokes, the stage patter or combining several tricks into a grand illusion that Penny says is “the real skill”.

POLICE are trying to trace a dark grey hatchback car that may have been used by men who attacked a family with a power tool in Yokine.

About 4pm on June 6 a man in his 30s returned to his Frape Street home to find two men inside. The men assaulted him with a power tool and other blunt objects, before binding his hands behind his back.

About 30 minutes later the victim’s parents returned home and were also assaulted, while a third offender came into the house. They stole cash and property before fleeing the scene.

The victims were taken to Royal Perth Hospital to be treated for  injuries including lacerations, bruising and swelling.

Detectives are appealing for anyone with dashcam vision from the area at this time to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or to make a report online at crimestopperswa.com.au

MORE than 1000 people attended a memorial for Perth entertainer Max Kay at His Majesty’s Theatre last Saturday (June 22).

The service included a performance by the Rockingham City Pipe Band, a eulogy from his son Gary and a video montage of some of his most memorable TV appearances down the years.

His wife Norma said the turn-out was astonishing.

“His Maj’s was his favourite theatre so it was a fitting venue,” she told the Voice.

“It was so beautiful and a bit over-whelming – it’s something I’ll never forget.”

Mr Kay, a Scottish ex-pat and former Perth councillor, died aged 82 from complications from pneumonia earlier this month.

His career as an entertainer spanned decades because he was likeable and had a down-to-earth sense of humour that transcended fashion and political correctness.

Ms Kay said they organised the public memorial after being inundated with requests to attend Mr Kay’s funeral, which they wanted to keep as small and private as possible.

She says her husband loved the arts and opened the Civic Theatre Restaurant in Inglewood in 1976. It remained in operation until 2001.

“Max loved nurturing young talent and helping them achieve their dreams. Over the years he worked with loads at the theatre in Inglewood, and was the judge on talent shows on TV as well.”

Attendees at the memorial included former premier Colin Barnett, arts minister David Templeman and former WA governor Malcolm McCusker.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

ONE of Lisa Scaffidi’s closest allies on Perth council Janet Davidson (pictured) has resigned.

The veteran councillor recently sold her city property and to be a councillor you must be an owner or occupier of a rateable property within the city’s boundaries.

In October 2015 Ms Davidson was one of the councillors who signed a letter supporting Ms Scaffidi after the Corruption and Crime Commission’s ruling of misconduct against her.

She also backed the lord mayor’s stance on the city’s old media policy that prevented councillors from speaking to the press, and keeping the councillor clothing allowance.

Commissioner Gaye McMath announced at the June 25 council meeting that Ms Davidson had resigned and said “the city wishes to recognise the valuable long term contribution that Mrs Davidson gave to the city since first being elected in 1998”.

In 2011 Ms Davidson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to local government and women.

A senior officer-holder of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association and National Council for Women, she pushed to make WA councils more gender balanced and less of a boy’s club.

Her term would have expired in October next year, and as council is suspended until well after that date, Mrs Davidson would have had to recontest an election.

The terms of Mrs Scaffidi, Jim Adamos, Jemma Green and Lily Chen also expire in October this year.

by DAVID BELL

FIVE months since ground was broken, North Perth Common was opened to a healthy crowd last Friday (June 14).

For years local traders have complained that Fitzgerald Street has no pedestrian-friendly places.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole said the location and key elements were chosen by the community.

“We asked where should we create this heart of North Perth? And what do you want to see in this space? Our community asked for the Common to be on View Street, for it to be lit up at night, to be a shady place to sit and meet, a fun space for events with public art, and a focus on people not cars,’ she says.

“Our aim with North Perth Common was to create a new heart for the North Perth town centre–a meeting place that is iconic, flexible, inclusive and fun.

“I hope this opening event is the first of many in our newest public open space.”

State Perth MP John Carey’s office is across the road, and he said it was “brilliant to see the large local community turn out for North Perth Common.

“It drowns out a few naysayers on social media who want us to do nothing for our town centres”.

The new square cost council $741,000, with the state government chipping in $250,000.

by DAVID BELL