Cambuslang magician wins top awards

May 14 2008 By Jonathan Geddes, Rutherglen Reformer

A CAMBUSLANG magician has conjured up success for himself, winning two top awards.

Chris Dinwoodie has had an interest in magic since he was a young child, and started to perform in his late teens.

Now the 26-year-old has enjoyed such recent success that he’s been able to make magic his full time career.

Chris is regularly gigging at the Carling Academy’s monthly Club Noir nights, and is delighted at his recent awards double, which saw him retain his Scottish Conjurors Association Close Up Trophy, before adding the Scottish Association of Magical Societies award, as he cast a spell over the watching judges.

He said: “It’s been an exciting last year for me, especially now that I’m doing magic full time. It’s difficult to win the Close Up two years running.

“It’s a five minute act and a ten minute contest, I had performed my top two acts last year, so for this year I was down to my third and fourth act.

“I was a bit surprised when they announced my name, because there was another contestant there who I thought was going to win.

“There’s also another seven magicians who take part.

“A couple of weeks later I won the Scottish Association of Magical Societies award.

“This award is like the governing body’s awards and open to everyone in the nine clubs that make up the society, whereas the Close Up is just to members of the club I’m in.

“There were lots of other magicians there, even a guy who’d come from Portugal.”

While Chris is pleased to have landed the awards, he’s also thrilled at being able to make performing his full time occupation, having left an IT job at an accountancy firm.

“I went full time in November.

“Magic’s very up and down, I had a quiet February and April, but March was busy and there’s a lot coming up in May.

“I’ve just been getting my own business up and running, and my stand up has really come on in the past few months.

“I’ve also been doing some magic with music now.

“The biggest difference with going full time is that I’m not working eight hours and then heading off straight to a show.

“I can now put more work in on making sure the show goes well and is memorable.”

Chris is also now a regular at the Carling Academy’s Club Noir nights, having started there in December.

Club Noir is the world’s biggest burlesque club, with around 2000 people attending.

It features a whole variety of entertainment with a different theme at each show, but Chris, who previously told the Reformer he was inspired by the likes of Derrin Brown, admits his first appearance at the large venue didn’t have the ideal start.

“I was really nervous before it, the theme was called Smoke and Mirrors and I was working with a singer on it.

“I was supposed to be lighting a candle to start the routine and there was supposed to be music to match the mood.

“But when I stepped onstage, the music started earlier than I expected, so I had to run right across just to light it!

“The Academy is a bit intimidating, because it takes you out of your comfort zone, as I always like to talk to people and improvise, which you can’t do there.

“I’ve also written a booklet on various magic, because when I was trying to get into magic there was nothing like that for me.

“At the moment its all go for me!”

It’s a terrific comeback for Chris, who had to have a metal plate inserted into his arm when he was a teenager. But looking back on it, the magician admits it may have helped him.

“Both the bones broke in my arm, and they ended up having to put a plate in.

“That’s when I started doing a lot of magic though, as I needed to build the muscles up in my arm!”