Paul Daniels
- This article is about Paul Daniels, the magician. There is also an article about the conductor Paul Daniel.
Paul Daniels (born 6 April 1938 in South Bank, Middlesbrough) is a television magician in the United Kingdom.
Career
Early Life
Daniels' interest in magic began at the age of 11 when reading a book called How To Entertain At Parties while on holiday.
Daniels served in 1st Battalion, The Green Howards during his National Service and was posted to the British garrison in Hong Kong, before training as an accountant in the Civil Service. He left his job in local government to run a small, mobile grocery business.
Television
Daniels made his television debut on Opportunity Knocks in 1970, and came second. Television producer Johnnie Hamp later gave Daniels a regular spot on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club for Granada Television.
Daniels presented his own show, The Paul Daniels Magic Show, on the BBC from 1979 until 1994, and also hosted other television shows during the 1980s to the 1990s, such as the quiz shows Odd One Out, Every Second Counts and Wipeout, and the BBC children's television programme Wizbit, about a magician called Wizbit and a rabbit called Woolly, who lived in Puzzleopolis.
An easter special of The Paul Daniels Magic Show won the Golden Rose of Montreux Award at the International TV Festival in Switzerland in 1985.
Since the late 1990s, Paul Daniels has largely retired from television, although he does make ocassional guest appearances. He appeared on Da Ali G Show in an Ali G costume and was interviewed by Caroline Hook in her guise as Mrs Merton. In 2004, he and Debbie appeared in the Channel 5 reality TV show, The Farm, and in 2006, they appeared in the ITV1 show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars. They were the first act voted off the show, after singing Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams.
Theatre
Daniels starred in his own show, It's Magic, at the Prince of Wales Theatre from December 10, 1980 until February 6, 1982. At that time, the show was one of the longest-running magic shows ever staged in London.
Despite his retirement from television, Daniels still tours with his magic show, and recently presented a show about the 'Magic of Max Malini'.
Paul was awarded the prestigious ‘Magician of the Year’ Award by the Hollywood Academy of Magical Arts in 1983, and was the first magician from outside the US to receive it.
Family
Early in his magic career, Daniels performed a manipulation act under the name of 'The Eldanis', an anagram of Daniels, with his first wife Jackie.
He has three sons by his first wife: Gary, Paul and Martin. Martin sometimes appeared on The Paul Daniels Magic Show, and Paul's own father, Hughie, often made props for the show, such as wooden boxes for the Selbit Sawing illusion.
Daniels married his second wife, long-time assistant Debbie McGee in 1988.
Trivia
- His catchphrase was "You'll like it, not a lot, but you'll like it."
- He was humiliated by Chris Morris in the 1997 media spoof TV series, Brass Eye, in a segment where he was persuaded to appeal to viewers to help a fictional East German elephant that had got its trunk stuck up its anus.
- In the same year, he threatened to leave the UK if New Labour were elected, a threat he did not carry out. However he defends this as a misquote on his own website [1]