Paul Daniels

by Paul Daniels

  That same night, straight after the evening show, I set off for Doncaster to see Lewis. The next day there were to be no pantomime shows. I had just left Tunbridge Wells when I got a call from Jackie to tell me that Sam had telephoned to say Paul had taken an overdose. I went icy cold and then very calm. As I drove, Debbie dialled Sam and the police and other services. The police phoned me back to say they had found him in a park and had seen him into a pub (where else?) but couldn’t do anything, as he hadn’t committed a crime. All that we had planned, designed and arranged, removed in one fell swoop.

  I made for London and telephoned Martin to say we weren’t coming. The scene was incongruous as I arrived in my Bentley to pick up Paul who was dirty and smelly. I had no choice and I felt so sorry for Debbie. He’s not her worry and she got lumbered. I took him back home, got him cleaned up and he went to bed.

  In the six months that he had been inside, all he had learnt was to be bad. There had been no training as to why crime was wrong. There had been little investigation into his mental health. The system isn’t working to make things better. It is not enough just to lock them up; someone should be teaching them a better way and a better understanding, even if it is against their will. They are prisoners, aren’t they? On the night that we were supposed to be celebrating a New Year and a new birth, Paul had messed it up again and he was causing stress between Debbie and myself. It says a lot about the strength of our marriage that we survived the next couple of weeks.

  For the next few days, Paul and I retraced our steps; We went back over the plans. It was very much along the lines of, ‘OK, you’re out and you’ve had your fling. You have to swallow the fact that you have spoilt your relationship with Sam, but there’s always a chance that if you get straightened up, you might see her again.’

  We got him a phone. I went to the printers and had a few thousand postcards printed with his new ‘businesses’ advertised on both sides ready for a ‘leaflet’ drop. Local newspapers were scanned for flats or houses that he could live in locally. I would finance the operation and he would pay me back from his income. A week or so later, Paul and I went out for a drink and, when he promised to be home soon, I stupidly left him there.

  He returned very late that evening and was immediately very abusive. Swearing and shouting at me in an alcoholic state, he climbed the stairs and went to bed. The following day, I awoke to find that he had packed his bag and left. I haven’t seen him since.

  What hurt even more were the occasions when he went to the press, in order to make some extra money by selling stories about me. They swallowed it the first couple of times but then the reporters started to phone me and tell me that he was so obviously lying that they wouldn’t print anything. They are not all bad, then. He still telephones the newspapers when he gets drunk and says he has a great story to tell, but it’s all old news and they ignore him now. I’m not sure if his problem is alcohol or schizophrenia, or a mixture of both, but I have had to shut him out of my head and realise that now, after all the chances he has had, it ain’t my fault. Even after all the pain, though, he will always be in my heart. He has a wonderfully close family waiting for him and it distresses me to think that he is missing all the fun that we share.

  No one can help him now, but it is heart-breaking to think how bad he has become and I fear for his future. Paul is the only person who has the power to put an end to his programme of self-destruction, but I don’t think he ever will.

  Apart from losing Dad, which is a natural part of life, and losing Paul, which needn’t have happened at all, I have very little to complain of in my long and full life. Every moment of every day is taken up with doing shows, planning shows, designing shows, chasing Debbie around the house (one day I’ll catch her) or driving north to see the family as often as possible. Whether I’m out walking down the street, driving or even in planes, there isn’t a day that goes by without someone coming up to me and asking if I am coming back on TV. I find that amazing, because I haven’t done a series now for several years.

  Television does affect people. In all the arguments I have heard about the use of ‘bad’ language and violence on the screen, there has always been the ‘far-out’ producer or the voice of the do-gooder arguing for total freedom to show anything they wished. It is true that most people will not be affected and some will totally ignore what is on the screen. It must equally be true, therefore, that some people will be affected and some will be affected very strongly. Just as I copied Errol Flynn when I was young, the young people of today will copy the heroes they are offered.

  Any entertainer should realise that responsibility and if they cannot, then the controllers of television should realise it for them.

  A couple of examples. I’ve had people writing to me to say thank you for saving their marriage: ‘We were going to get divorced and we went to your show and found out that we could still laugh together.’

  Or one that I found funny: a guy stopped me in the street one day and said, ‘Well?’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ said I.

  ‘Is it better then?’

  ‘I’m not sure I’m with you,’ I said, trying not to look totally perplexed.

  ‘It’s gone, what do you think?’ he announced, pointing to his face. He could see I was not on the same planet.

  ‘At the club last week you saw my beard and said that I looked like a mouse coming through a lavatory brush, so I shaved it off.’

  I’m just a conjurer and if I have the power to change lives, what power do the others have?

  Now that anyone in anything can show a sex scene, have you noticed how long the directors drag them out instead of getting on with the plot? In the right place, I have no objection to it at all. Apart from when it involves children, I don’t understand why we spend millions trying to stop people looking at naked people. If that’s what they want, fine. In a film or a play where it takes a minor role to the main plot, however, let’s get on with the movie.

  Probably the best reason for some sort of control was offered by the late Joyce Grenfell, a rare comedienne and character actress, who said on a chat show about sex scenes, ‘Oh them, I don’t know why we have to watch them. When Clarke Gable swung the leading lady into his arms and carried her up the stairs, the director would cut to waves crashing on the shore the next morning. We all knew what they had done, but we didn’t have to watch every sweaty moment of it.’

  A producer sitting in the front row leapt to his feet. ‘We show it because it is there. We show it because it exists. We show it because it is real.’

  Joyce Grenfell came back with, ‘diarrhoea is there, it exists and it is real, but I don’t want to pay to watch it.’

  A couple of years ago we sold Sherwood House and I thought that I would miss it. Not at all. In the two years since moving, I have not given Sherwood a single thought. Debbie went out on the house search again and found a completely different house and it’s right on the river. It is so ‘on’ the river that there is even a creek running underneath the bedrooms. Every day I look out of the wall-to-wall windows and watch the coots, moorhens, ducks and swans gliding past. This is heaven. Yes, Mervyn, I know it has taken us two years to refurbish it, just pay the bills.

  Mam is still living in Denham, surrounded by fabulous neighbours who all seem to call in and look after each other. She loves it when Trevor and his wife Rosie call in with the ‘brood’. They have two sons, Callum and Owen, and two gorgeous twins, Kelly and Nicola, who are going to be stunning when they get a little older. Trevor has two other sons, Mark and David from his first marriage. It’s a lot of children, but he has found out now what was causing them, so they won’t be having any more.

  A couple of years ago, in order to force myself to do something other than work, I took up golf more seriously. I now know that I will never be any good at it but I hear that it is like sex – you don’t have to be good at it to enjoy it. We met a professional golfer, the best I ever saw, called Peter Robinson, at Rockley Resort in Barbados, w
hen he was on honeymoon with his wife Sandie. He asked if I would like to play golf and memories of Ken’s honeymoon came flooding back. He showed me a few things but he gave Debbie lessons as well. Sadly for me, Debbie is rapidly becoming better than me. You will probably see her in those celebrity matches. If you do, have a good look at the little caddy and give me a wave.

  This year, 2000, will probably see my last theatre tour with the Magic Show. There are other things I want to do instead. Thankfully, I feel good and I am having a great life. The other day I walked past an ‘over 60s’ club.

  I have never been a ‘club’ person, so I looked at it and wondered why anyone would want to join it. Then I realised I could join it and actually stopped in the street to consider this. How could I be over 60? I don’t feel any different. Since then I have talked to much older people who tell me they don’t either, so what’s all this ageism stuff about? Once, on a game show, we had a couple fill in the application forms and I looked down it as I was about to interview them on a recording. Under ‘ambitions’ they had written one of the saddest comments that I have ever seen. It said, ‘None left’.

  I still have loads of things I’d love to do. Thanks to the actress Carmen Silvera, I got to do one of them not too long ago when I appeared in Moliere’s comedy in the West End. Me! A nearly straight actor! Now I’d like to do a musical, or another play, or be in a film. I guess the last one goes back to my early days in the cinema. I’ll blame Errol Flynn for that one.

  I am having a great career and I am surrounded by loving friends and family. I work hard and play hard. Most exciting of all is that, in the last few months, Debbie has been working towards having her own classical ballet company, which we hope will open in September this year. There wasn’t a lot of ballet in South Bank and I grew up thinking it was a bit lahdi-dah and posh. I was wrong and now I really enjoy it. Adding to Debbie’s choreography, my contribution is to have designed the set concepts and to build in the special effects that will enhance the dancing. This is going to be good. This is a whole new career.

  Now, where did I put my tights? I must practise my pirouettes.

  So here is the first trick that I ever learned.

  The Age Cards

  That is the name of the trick because a lot of magicians ask a member of the audience to think of his or her age and then find it on some cards that are handed out. Me? Over the years I have learned that not everyone wants to give away their age so instead I introduce them to a simple computer that can locate any number they think of up to 63. Try this yourself: Think of a number up to 63 and look at the cards. Select the cards that have your number on them. Well, if you were to point at those cards I could tell you immediately what your number was out of all the numbers printed on the cards.

  1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

  17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31

  33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47

  49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63

  2 3 6 7 10 11 14 15

  18 19 22 23 26 27 30 31

  34 35 38 39 42 43 46 47

  50 51 54 55 58 59 62 63

  4 5 6 7 12 13 14 15

  20 21 22 23 28 29 30 31

  36 37 38 39 44 45 46 47

  52 53 54 55 60 61 62 63

  8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

  24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

  40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

  56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63

  16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

  24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

  48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55

  56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63

  32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

  40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

  48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55

  56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63

  Even though there is only one secret to the trick, there are lots of ways that you can present it to the audience.

  So, if you haven’t already done so, think of one of the numbers on the cards. Next find out which cards the number is on by looking at all the cards …… the numbers are always in sequence so it is easy to find.

  Now look at the top left hand corner numbers on the cards that you have picked and ADD THEM TOGETHER. The total will equal the number that was in your mind at the beginning.

  So, suppose you thought of the number 5. It would only be on two of the cards. The numbers in the top left hand corner of those cards are 1 and 4. Add 1 + 4 and you have 5.

  If you have thought of the number 63 then it is on all of the cards and adding the top left hand corners of all the cards equals 63 (but then, if all the cards are named you know it is 63 anyway).

  The numbers in the top left hand corner are known as Key numbers. You will come across the word Key again in other tricks. It means that they are the important part of the trick.

  In this case the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 can be added in different ways to make up any of the numbers on the cards.

  So now you know the secret of the trick, but the entertainment has to come from YOU.

  How can you improve upon the effect?

  The first thing that you must do is to know the trick VERY WELL and I mean VERY WELL. Just because the secret is simple does not mean that it is not a good trick, the best tricks are simple BUT you have to be able to do them almost automatically.

  Spend at LEAST one evening doing it yourself, to yourself firstly, over and over so that you practice the simple additions to create any of the numbers. Then try it out on a family member who won’t give the game away if you get it wrong.

  You must not let ANYONE see that you are adding up.… Don’t use your fingers or paper and pen….. Calculate in your mind only and hang onto the totals whilst you are talking about the trick ..… I KNOW THAT THIS PART IS DIFFICULT BUT I WANT YOU TO BE A BETTER MAGICIAN. I have seen so many people, young and old, hesitate and obviously be adding up and that spoils the trick and makes it obvious.

  So how can you perform this differently. On the face of it you just give out six cards and ask the person to think of one of the numbers and tell you which cards have their number printed on them. You look at these cards and then tell them the number that is in their mind. OK. Not bad, BUT it could be better.

  Consider this as an alternative presentation: On the table you have some coins, a mixture of values and preferably about ten of them……

  ‘I am going to try to read your mind. To do this I am going to use a very simple form of computer and some coins. Firstly think of any number that is printed on the cards. Make sure that it is fixed in your mind. Now take one of these coins and put it onto the card that has your number. Have a look at the other cards and if your number is on any of the other cards take a coin and put one onto each of those cards.’

  As they are looking and doing this you can add up the left-hand corners as they are putting the coins onto the cards. In this way they will be busy whilst you are busy. If they stop putting coins onto the cards……

  ‘Are you sure that none of the other cards have your number on them? Well, now, you have used up 57p.…’ (or cents, or whatever) ‘….so you must have thought of the number.……’ and you tell them what their number is.

  Think about this. By using something that is NOTHING at all to do with the trick you have thrown them a piece of misdirection. They will be thinking about the money and not the real method. The next time that you do the trick.…not at the same time, remember, the money will be a different total amount, who cares? Not you, YOU have a SECRET.

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  Published by John Blake Publishing Ltd,

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  ePub ISBN 978 1 85782 784 2

  Mobi ISBN 978 1 85782 785 9

  PDF ISBN 978 1 85782 786 6

  First published in 2000

  ISBN: 978-1-85782-314-1

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

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