SMC Childrens Competition

6 December 2005

There were five entrants for this year's competition. In order of performance they were Andy Adsett, Andy Hart, Mike Pettitt, Paul Leacy, and Felix Beacher. Firstly, Andy Adsett went through a variety of routines, showed good timing in his sponge ball routine, and had some good one-liners. Andy Hart showed good spectator management, kept his act child-focused, and finished with his slick rabbit production routine. Andy is an experienced and very good children's performer and I would have liked to have seen him do another routine or two. Mike Pettitt's enthusiasm for magic was obvious through his act and his Silver Sceptre and Sponge Ball routines in particular were well honed. Paul Leacy had the audience in stitches with his quick-witted humour and self-effacing personality. Felix Beacher's act was full of highly original material and the cloak was effectively the largest topit you will ever see!

Before I go any further, let me make something clear. Nothing that follows is intended to detract from anyone's performance. I apologise if anyone feels that this is a personal issue; it most certainly is not intended as such.

Imagine suggesting that from now on, it will be possible to take your driving test without getting in a car. Of course, people would tell you that you were mad. Yet this is not a million miles from the situation in which we now find ourselves with our annual Children's Competition.

The Sussex Magic Circle is a healthy mixture of professionals, keen amateurs, and those of us who are somewhere in between. All three groups were represented in the competition.

All five entrants found themselves in the unenviable position of having to perform a children's act to an audience containing no children. The obvious consequence of this was that they felt a need to entertain the adults, and this they all tried hard to do. Chatting to the winner afterwards, I remarked (somewhat rudely) that his magic was not great but that he won on entertainment value alone. He was gracious enough to accept this as true (rather than slap me). The other entrants were equally gracious in defeat, and were all, I am sure, sporting enough to congratulate Paul, but they must also have been secretly disappointed not to have had their own performances judged in front of a group of real children.

Now for the controversy. I feel that we as a club need to rethink the structure of this competition. I spoke to a past president of the club who feels the same. One year we awarded the prize to the member who was adjudged to have 'gone down best' at the shows we did for Children in Need in a primary school, filled with 100% genuine bona fide real live children. I think that it would make a huge amount of sense to revisit this idea, and I suspect that many if not all of this year's competitors would also agree.

Unfortunately this immediately throws up all sorts of problems. Firstly, who would judge it? The kids? The parents? The SMC members present? The council? There are problems with any of these groups being appointed as the judges. Secondly, who could enter? Under the current rules of competitions, any member is free to enter. This throws up a major difficulty. If we are putting on a public show, we cannot afford to have anything but the best performers. So - either we are effectively excluding members from entering the competition until they are adjudged to be of an acceptable standard (again, by whom?), or we risk putting on a show that is weaker than it might be because we allow everyone to enter. Also, if 8 people want to enter the competition at 15 minutes each, the show would then be far too long.

Of course it is easy to outline problems, and harder to outline solutions. So, in order not to be branded as overly negative, here is my attempt at a solution. Perhaps we could have an 'in-house qualifying round', wherein members who wish to enter the competition but who are not professional entertainers could perform their act. The best few (as judged by the members) would then be put forward to perform in the show, alongside the more experienced acts. This would mean that everyone could have a go, but with the realisation that a certain standard was expected in order to perform to the public under the club's banner.

This does not solve the problem of who judges the actual show, but it is a start.

Finally, I accept that my views are controversial, but they are not designed to be inflammatory. Feel free to publicly disagree with this viewpoint - I am genuinely interested in stimulating debate in order to find a solution to this issue, and to restore some credibility to our beloved SMC's Children's Competition.

Andrew Jeffrey
President

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