INTERVIEW WITH MAGICIAN SAMUEL HOGARTH

"an unspoken contract between the magician and the audience to suspend their disbelief with the aim of getting that feeling of childlike wonder again. "


The Journal went and met Magician Samual Hogarth just before his performance in the famous Covent Garden.  We first came across Sam at a party where he performed some close up magic for us, In our opinion the best form, we're all huge fans of the art of illusion and magic so knew we had to get him on.  The performer who grew up with the likes of Dynamo explained how he got into the industry, how he comes up with new material and his project "The Beautiful Magicians Club". 


 
So who is Samuel Hogarth? 

A guy from a small northern town where going to a slightly bigger Northern town was a yearly event at best. I left school with the expectations of being a doctor but the world made me a magician. I'm a Husband to a ridiculously gorgeous wife and father to 3 fantastic boys.

Most magicians became enamored with magic at a young age. Can you describe your first encounter with illusion and how it managed to grab a hold of you? 

There were 2 late night magic shows on Channel 4 when I was younger, Shoot The White Rabbit and Penn and Teller. They tended to be on before Eurotrash maybe thats how I caught them lol but from watching those Paul Daniels etc, I would scour TV schedules for any mention of magic. 

What is magic, is it science, art, trick, or reality? 

It's all of the above plus more wrapped up in performance, with an unspoken contract between the magician and the audience to suspend their disbelief with the aim of getting that feeling of childlike wonder again.

Do you belong to The Magic Circle? 

I was recently Invited to become a member without audition this is a very rare occurrence and happily accepted.

How do you come up with new "original"material?  

I look at what I want to achive and reverse & engineer the effect. very often it will turn out to be impossible, or not worth the effort. I have performed illusions before that have taken 3 days to prepare for lterally a nano second of impact. Magicians (the magic circle included) often get together and discuss various methods of achieving desired outcomes.

When we met you said you've had a pretty varied life from the lowest lows to highest highs tell us a little about that.  

So i was kicked out at the age of 16,  that's where I learned to hustle,  before I knew it I was on television and being booked all over sometime flying in private jets. I had my first child then suddenly that relationship ended bringing about 10 years of depression, homelessness and alcohol. it was then I met my awesome wife , and now i'm on my way back up.

Tell us about the Beautiful Magicians Club. 

My wife I and a fellow magician started Beautiful Magicians Club as an alternative to all the stuffy pompous magic nights. Strangely Magic Conventions are quite boozy and we wanted to bring some hedonism to the world of magic. So ten years ago we started with parties in a basement in Dalston, and we have slowly built up to larger stage at music festivals. We are aiming to tour sometime in the next year, it's very much magic with the emphasis on getting fu***d up.


I know you're friends with both but cammon Blain or Dynamo? 

I know for a fact that Dynamo is a far better card worker, but the answer is easily Blaine. He changed the face of magic in 1999 just by turning the camera on the spectator.  since then whatever you think of his stunts he has cemented himself in the annuls of history very much the same way Houdini did a hundred years prior.


More images below from Danny Woodstock Photographer   


 

 

 


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