Simon Alexander Blog: Professional Magician

I was channel-hopping yesterday and stumbled across a TV commercial that I did for Sky to promote their gaming channel, Sky Vegas.  (It was a “hands only” shoot - they used someone handsome for the face shots!)  It was quite exciting to see the advert being aired, as I’d never actually seen it before. 

It took me back to the summer, when I spent six hours being filmed performing the same dozen or so card-sleights (fancy cuts, one-handed shuffles, card fans etc) from every conceivable angle.  The studio was absolutely steaming under the hot lights and we had to keep the cards in the fridge to stop them misbehaving.  I really enjoyed the day but, by the end, my hands were literally shaking with tiredness.

What struck me about the finished product was that my six hours had been edited down to about twelve seconds.   Although, I have to say … they were a pretty slick twelve seconds! 

Anyway, just for fun, here are few shots of me the Camden Studio in London, quite obviously struggling a bit towards the end.