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i dont think hes married, he was in a long term relationship... but that is neither here nor there.

daleshrimpton wrote:i dont think hes married, he was in a long term relationship... but that is neither here nor there.

It is for his partner and child. They are the victims in all this.

no.... Its neither here or there......................... meaning, It doesn't matter if he is married or not , what he did to them was wrong. And he damn well knows it. Because they are the price he has paid.

They certainly are. His partner must be going through hell. I can't believe some of the supportive comments from magicians on his You Tube video. If that shows on a Google search they won't be getting booked for many kids parties

Never met him. Not sure why I should feel anything at all beyond disapproval. Just because we're both magicians doesnt make this case personal to me. Magicians are weird.

Lee Enfield wrote:Never met him. Not sure why I should feel anything at all beyond disapproval. Just because we're both magicians doesnt make this case personal to me. Magicians are weird.

The reason Magicians tend to take this personally is that in the Press coverage of such an event, the word 'Magician' is splashed around. A great majority of Professional Magicians income is generated by performing at Kids parties and the fact that Mr Bellars has admitted to offences of a sexual nature against a child (OK, she is 15 and unlikely to have a party with a Magician,) doesn't help with the general publics perception of Magicians. This is one of the reasons why Magicians feel let down and are angry with him. The other reason is of course is that he has created a victim(s) which includes his wife/partner and children. I do know he has a daughter who is below school age. If she was 15, how would he feel if some bloke was sending her pictures of himself naked in the bath and worse?

That's only because magicians are so close-minded, and a little backward thinking. Gary Glitter hasn't impeded the career of every singer nationwide, so why should the Bellars chap affect my career? This is hysteria that magicians are creating and perpetuating. I can assure you that the rest of the world couldn't give a f***.

Hmmmm I'm not sure I entirely follow your thinking here. Yes, it's true that Gary Glitter hasn't had an adverse effect on the careers of other singers but most singers/pop stars don't tend to perform specifically at children's parties in order to earn a living. There are many magicians who do precisely that and now there is the real possibility that many may have their bookings cancelled or not take due to parents being cautious about exposing their children to the perceived risks.

When Chris Langham, one of my favourite comedy actors, was caught with a PC full of child porn, I was deeply shocked but had to re-evaluate what I thought of him. The laws forbidding under age sexual activity and sexual images of minors are there for a reason, and we must obey them because to break them can and does ruin the lives of children in ways that, if not immediate, certainly become apparent later in life. We are the sum of our experiences and influences. The nonsense of her being "nearly 16" is just that. Nonsense. Some things are verboten for a reason, regardless of what children think they're ready for and how they dress.

Where's the like button......

I have to admit in this day and age of social networking etc. we need to be more careful in how we conduct ourselves and i can totally understand certain people's comments when they have children of their own.

The difficulty i am having is that as entertainers we have a responsibility to our audience to maintain a professional attitude throughout and personally for me, i would not be giving my personal mobile number to clients, no matter the situation, i have a "work" number for bookings/business cards/advertising etc. and it is only used for bookings, any unsolicited text messages do not even warrant a reply, but that is my outlook on trying to create a professional image for myself as a magician.

What i do in my private life with regard to relationships and text messages are exactly that, private.....i would never cross my work with my personal life in any other career and i don't see being a magician as anything else.

I have entertained various ages, especially in working on the pier from as young as 2/3 years old all the way up through to 80 year olds and they get the exact same professional treatment. Not once has it crossed my mind that i would want to be romantically involved with a customer/spectator. I have also performed for friends and friends of friends in bars/house parties etc. Whereby it drew attention, but i wasn't there as a magician, i was there on a social outing....but again people should try to remember work and private lives are two separate things.

I do not believe this will affect the bookings of other magicians, and please correct me if i am wrong, but i do not think we will all be tarred with the same brush, if you are a good performer and bookings have been made from advertising/word of mouth then surely the clients need not worry as you are a different performer to the one in the press, yes it may affect his career and future, but it shouldn't and i hope won't affect the rest of us!

I feel for all those people involved in this mess.

Sorry for the wall of text, wanted to get my thoughts down!

Much love

Aza

I'm glad this is being discussed openly and sensibly here. On a certain Facebook group any mention of this situation is deleted and any discussion is full of magicians dismissing it or defending him. What really irks me is the same group had threads discussing mediums and referring to them as "scum" etc and this carried on but anyone discussing someone who has admitted to sending texts to a 15 year old girl allegedly saying they were going to rape her was met with hostility and deleted. There are some really screwed up morals in the magic world....

The You Tube video has now been deleted. The most suprising thing about it was the justification for sending a 15 year old a text saying they would "hold them down and rape them" as being a joke of the kind that comedians say all the time. On stage. To an audience of consenting adults. Not in a two way conversation with a 15 year old girl. It was also stated it was taken out of context, though I'd be interested to see the context which makes such comments look like innocent banter. Although Richard states in his video this comment was a joke, it wouldn't be advised to try this one out at your next birthday party gig.

What supsrised me about the whole thing is the attitude towards it (not on here) by some magicians.

I have quite a lot of near the mark material/patter for a certain age group, generally 20 something drunk blokes, that i spend a lot of time with drinking and i also cannot fathom how the "hold them down" comment would ever be classed as a joke regardless of context or situation.

As i say, my material is very very near the mark for certain people and some may consider it offensive, but with a cheeky grin and the right audience it works for me, but there are things that aren't funny no matter what and for me i couldn't ever contemplate using that as a joke in any context, so consider me puzzled to that one....

Much love

Aza

Not surprised to hear the vid has gone, no doubt it's been downloaded and stored by a lot of people. I'm glad it's been noticed that none of the text posted here has been edited - I admit I was very apprehensive in case this became out of control but you've all proved your worth by posting your thoughts, strong and emotional in some cases, but still in a civilised manner. Thank you all for that.

I think it's pretty clear by now that the vast majority of people posting here view all this as totally unacceptable, to say the least. There may be many reasons why it took place but those reasons won't ever justify it happening. I've been waiting to hear if anyone I know outside magic has picked up on the story but no mention so far. There's been no TV or radio coverage as far as I know but there's sill time for that to happen. Yes, there will probably be fall-out for other performers in some areas but, as with all other setbacks, we'll just have to do all we can to reassure potential customers that most performers are simply there to entertain as artist to audience and that's it. Contact with children has become an extremely sensitive issue in recent years, CRB checks, making sure other adults are in the room and so on. I doubt we can say much to customers to convince them that we're harmless but we can at least demonstrate by example at every opportunity.

This is also another reason i tend to avoid children's magic.....but hear hear Mandrake, this shouldn't be a case of brush it under the carpet and hope it goes away, it should unite all of us who are out there working to show the public one "bad" magician does not act on behalf of all of us.

I hope this doesn't have any effect on anybodies work/income

Much love

Aza

Sadly for the Sussex Magic Circle, we have his face on posters as being one of our acts in the upcoming 60th Anniversary show in a months time. These are in pubs and other places all over mid Sussex. New posters and altering websites will cost us time and money. His actions are directly impacting on all of us! Although he doesn't live in Sussex, it is close enough and this incident is all really rather local for us. He is well known at the SMC and did a lecture for us last month.