Chester born and raised in Hoole, Paul Shanley is the Secretary of the Chester Guild of Magicians.
“The Guild started in 1956 in Chester. A gentleman put an advert in the local paper in Hoole, and it met at his house. In 1957 it gained a lot more traction and they decided to have their own meeting place, which was the Church on the corner of Dixon’s Drive. They called themselves the “Chester Magic Circle” Quite a few groups across the country wanted to call themselves something similar, but the Magic Circle in London, they put a polite request out that they change their names as they thought there should only be one Circle. So Chester became the Guild of Chester Magicians.”
The world of Magic is a secretive one. “We used to have meetings in a closed off room, we used to use the Home Guard Club before it got demolished. That was when I first joined. ” Paul joined the Guild around 2005. “I had always loved watching magic on TV , the Paul Daniels magic show. It is a stereotype, it is a trope, but its so true, I got the Paul Daniels magic set for Christmas when I was about 14/15 and I was playing around with that, and I got to know some secrets.
“We had a private room upstairs in the Bull and Stirrup. We had a brief hiatus, where we had to reset how we dealt with things. We had quite a few traditionalist members who liked the idea of having a secret private meeting, but we couldn’t sustain it due to the cost of booking rooms. We meet 12 times a year but we are still paying out. We restarted, and now we just meet in a pub. We found that we weren’t revealing secrets because we were just having a quiet conversation, and that it was nice to perform for members of the public.” The Guild currently meets at the Coach House.
The Guild has around 20 members. “We have some great members, some of them are members of The Magic Circle. Some members have come to us and they have really grown and built because they have had the opportunity to meet other magicians and refine what they know. I Big shout to Luke, Scotty, Steve- the whole lot of you, anyone that’s going to be reading this!” Lord Mayor Razia Daniels and her husband joined the Guild a few years ago. The Guild will consider any applicants who can demonstrate a skill or have a passing interest in magic. ”
For those interested in developing magic as a skill, Paul says “It’s always going to be down to the 3 P’s : practice, practice, practice. You do need to put some time in and get used to how tricks work. There are things you have to remember. I learned from a magic set, there are books available. In the modern age its a lot of word and mouth and YouTube and any video platform online. ” Regarding those that seek to reveal / spoil magic secrets, Paul is philosophical. ” There was the Masked Magician… I’d hate to use his real name in case anyone went after him! He became very unpopular. I like the Penn and Teller view on revealing tricks. As soon its revealed, you forget it. So much of magic is presentation and entertainment. The mechanics change from a close up magician using sleight of hand, to something on stage, with misdirection. ”
Paul favours card tricks and close up magic saying “I like the intimate close up stuff, getting reactions from people, who may have seen magic on TV bit never seen it face to face. ” He also performs at children’s parties. “A lot of people try and get into the children’s magic scene and they find it very difficult because its hard work but luckily I’m quite mad and I’m on the same wavelength as my audience! I love it. We do stage work, weddings etc. Recently because I am the secretary for the Chester Guild I organised the stage show we did in November ( At St Mary’s Creative Space) It went down really well We used to do the occasional show, but we fell foul of Covid. We were going to do a show in 2020 and Paul Daniel’s son Martin was going to come to Chester and perform for us. We tried again back in 2021 and then we went back into lockdown. We are keen to restart the tradition of doing a show for the people of Chester. ”
The Guild of Chester Magicians can be contacted via their website:
The Chester blog 