The Magic Circle

Inside London’s most mysterious Club

The Magic Circle is an exclusive members club for an amateur, semi pro, professional, and virtual magician in The Magic Circle. It has nearly 1000 members worldwide and is based in Euston, London. To gain membership you must do an interview and audition to show you are of a high standard.

An exclusive alliance

The club aims to promote magic and its place in society as producing its own magazine ‘The Magic Circular’. It has a library of books on the subject and holds monthly meetings to talk about magic tricks.

The club was founded in 1917 by a group of magicians including Harry Houdini who hadstarted out in the industry. It is the oldest magic society still running today.

Past presidents of The Magic Circle

The world’s most magical fraternity

  • 1905 – 1906 : David Devant
  • 1906 – 1924 : Nevil Maskelyne
  • 1924 – 1928 : Clive Maskelyne
  • 1928 – 1931 : Herbert J. Collings
  • 1931 – 1935 : Lord Ampthill
  • 1935 – 1954 : His Grace The Duke of Somerset
  • 1954 – 1958 : Herbert J. Collings
  • 1958 – 1989 : Francis White
  • 1989 – 1998 : David Berglas
  • 1998 – 2003 : Michael Bailey
  • 2003 – 2008 : Alan Shaxon
  • 2008 – 2009 : Ali Bongo
  • 2009 – : Jack Delvin

Members of the inner magic circle

The club members include acclaimed magicians such as Derren Brown, Dynamo, and Paul Daniels. They perform for private functions but one or two do magic shows at major venues across the country. The club hosts variety nights at its local pub.

How to join The Magic Circle

Magicians who wish to join may do as an Apprentice for up to two years before asking for full membership. Candidates must be at least 18 years old and have known two current members for at least a year. These two members are asked to serve as sponsors on the candidate’s application form and to recommend the candidate for membership. Following application receipt and processing, the candidate is invited to an interview with the exams secretary, which is normally held in the London headquarters. If the individual is found to be suitable and knowledgeable, a performance exam or thesis will be administered. The exam is held before a panel of judges, and the candidate must perform a rehearsed magic act in front of the examiners.

The Magic Circle magazine

The Magic Circle Magazine is a magazine published bi-monthly by The Magic Circle.

It was launched in November 1998 and is currently published six times per year. It contains magic news and updates from around the world, interviews with members of the group as up-and-coming magicians some tips for them to make their acts better. The Magic Circle Magazine has a section for their members which they call ‘Magic News’. This allows them to sell magic tricks made by their members. Along with the New Year specials, they usually sell around 2000 tricks per year and have for many years now. There are lots of magic tricks that are published in The Magic Circle magazine.

‘Making Waves’ is a Magic Circle campaign which aims to get magicians into UK schools. To do this they produced a DVD called ‘A wave of Magic’. It shows magicians teaching children magic tricks and includes various clips from past events.

As part of the ‘Making Waves’ campaign, The Magic Circle set up an online shop selling items for budding magicians. These include books and DVDs as membership badges and accessories such as swivel chairs for children they can learn tricks whilst standing up.

There have been some issues surrounding Derren Brown. He was banned from speaking at the Magic Circle’s AGM in 2002, which he did not attend, and missed out on a knighthood. In 2005 Brown joined the group as a paid-up member and stood up for himself by publicly criticizing its “archaic” ways.