Linking Rings

Paul Zenon is a magician, but this is not a magic show. We see a few tricks: the linking rings are performed with humour and gusto; a trick flask is used subtly, the joke slowly grasped by the audience. But that’s it. Instead, this is an autobiographical story of how it was that Zenon came to be a magician. This is a show for people who find that the machinations of magic are often more exciting than the acts themselves.

He looks back on a childhood of reading comic books, thinking about the tricks and games you could buy from the back pages. He talks about summers, and then weekends, spent at the House of Secrets in Blackpool, where he bought his first set of linking rings, and found his mentor, Bill. He talks of becoming a full-time magician at 17, performing on piers and acting in BBC TV series.

To complement this narrative, Zenon brings in stories of Houdini's assistant and mechanic, Jim Collins, discussing a man he finds as fascinating as he is enigmatic. In this, Linking Rings becomes the story of two men, looking up to an older magician who is leading their way.

Unfortunately, Zenon’s tales of Jim and Houdini don’t quite fit in this work. His own stories are told with delight, and then with love and pathos for his deceased mentor. Alongside these, the stories of Collins feel awkwardly shoehorned. Zenon sits more comfortably, and is more compelling, in stories that are told first-hand.