Friday morning started with The Jeffrey Atkins Memorial Lecture given by Geoffrey Durham and entitled “Finding the Magic Ingredient”. Geoffrey talked for 90 minutes on seven keys to a great performance.

Number One was Find your Voice using musical analogy Geoffrey talked about finding your character and understanding who you are, he demonstrated this using Ken Brooke’s routine for the Multiplying Bottles.

Number Two was Understand your Rhythm he talked about how the rhythm of the multiplying bottles makes it a great closer, he also showed us Bob Swadlings Sympathetic Matchbox trick and said that the Rhythm of the trick helped him present it when he used it on a Countdown TV appearance. The Great Soprendo made a brief appearance as Geoffrey demonstrated his version of the George Sands Sandsational Rope Routine as he used to use it as an opener for that character.

The Third point was Question Everything You’re Told meaning don’t take givens in the magic world as the only way to do something. He demonstrated this point with the Slydini Silks using ordinary handkerchiefs and also showed us his version of the Chinese Rice Bowls.

Point Number Four was Bring it all Together this was about finishing a trick with everything in harmony, Geoffrey again demonstrated his point using a Paper Hat Tear, solving a Rubiks Cube by banging it on his head and his version of the Stargazer rubber band trick.

Point Number Five was Embrace your Creativity he said it annoyed him when people thought something was too much trouble to do in magic, e.g. to prepare the Torn and Restored Newspaper. He showed us his Linking Finger Ring routine to demonstrate his creative approach to his design of the Himber Ring.

Point Six and Seven were taken together, Point Six was “Firsts have Power & Meaning, Lasts have only Power” meaning your opener should be your best trick and can have power and meaning but your closer should only have power so that they applaud rather than analyse the trick. And Point Seven was You are the Magic Ingredient as Geoffrey tells us in his new book it should be your face they remember and you should frame everything so that they remember you. Geoffrey closed his lecture with a performance of his Hydrostatic Glass routine, which brought a well deserved standing ovation for a inspiring, remarkable lecture.