Broken Wand - Mandrake (Paul Stevens)
Posted: Jan 8th, '23, 09:30
This is Mandrake’s son, Pete.
Sadly, a few days before Christmas, my father Paul Stevens (better known here as Mandrake) died.
bananafish did publish a Broken Wand post in Magic News after it happened but frustratingly it was automatically deleted after a few days. So I thought that I should create a new post for those that didn’t see it and to provide a little more information about this unique man. If you replied to that original post then please comment again here.
Dad survived gastroesophageal cancer in 2014/15 after major surgery and chemotherapy. He received the ‘all clear’ a few years later and, whilst he had to make some adaptions, he was able to continue life without any other problems. Unfortunately, in April 2022 he was diagnosed with bone cancer and had a tumour removed from his spine. For a few months after that he was focused on recovery and rehabilitation. We even managed to go to FISM 2022 Quebec together at the end of July (and had a wonderful time!). We bought the tickets in 2018 so he was determined to go, even though he’d completed 5 days of radiotherapy the week before!
In early December his health declined rapidly and he was admitted to hospital with bone marrow failure. The blood and platelet transfusions didn’t work so the palliative care team organised for him to return home for his final few days.
Paul Stevens died peacefully at home on Friday 16 December. He is survived by his wife, two sons and one grandson.
I have attached part of the eulogy that I read at his funeral so that you can read a little more about this wonderful man (Memories of Dad.pdf linked below), along with two photo montages from the funeral.
Dad loved magic. He rarely performed, only to family typically, but he loved the art and science of magic. I caught the bug from him too and have also loved magic for my entire life. Dad and I would regularly discuss magic, share videos, go to shows and conventions, and generally share our love for the art. I will miss him terribly.
Over the last almost 20 years as a moderator here Dad contributed 27494 posts to Talkmagic!?! He would always have Talkmagic open on a tab on his computer. He enjoyed interacting with and learning from all of the people here. I know that in recent years there has been less traffic but Dad still continued to diligently check the forum every day (multiple times!), sharing news, replying to posts, dealing with spam, etc. He was still doing this from his bed only a few days before his death.
I don’t know what this means for the future of Talkmagic, perhaps that discussion is best for a separate post. But I hope that Talkmagic continues and I will do what I can to help with that. One of the last things Dad did was to turn off new registrations because he wanted to protect the forum from spam.
Finally, thank you to all of you for being part of this forum and for your love of magic. Dad dedicated his time here because he passionately shared that love and enjoyed interacting with all of you. I will continue to honour Dad’s love for this art. We were due to go to Blackpool together in a few weeks. I will still go, so if any of you are there and would like to raise a glass to him then that would be lovely.
Please comment below with any messages or stories about Mandrake/Dad/Paul, it will be wonderful to read them.
Paul ‘Mandrake’ Stevens 29 December 1947 – 16 December 2022