I saw Paul Daniels perform live several times. To be honest, his large-scale magic shows were starting to look a bit dated towards the end, but his small, one-man shows with his close-up magic and ask-me-anything audience interaction were excellent.
I personally think a lot of the recent obituaries havenât fully done him justice. They give a lot of attention to his showmanship, and that certainly was hugely influential but â probably due to the secretive nature of magic â they havenât given enough credit to his influence on magic itself. Itâs perhaps not appreciated now that before Daniels, TV magicians actually used camera trickery for their illusions. He developed a lot of new tricks including â I believe â a new sleight-of-hand technique for vanishing cards. He was the first non-American to be voted âMagician of the Yearâ by the Academy of Magical Arts.
Outside of straight magic, Daniels â like several other famous magicians â was committed to educating the public against charlatans. His âBunco Boothâ routines were important and were the start of a âfood chainâ that led to shows such as âThe Real Hustleâ.
He developed special effects for stage shows such as âThe Phantom of the Operaâ.
Further afield, he was heavily involved in memory techniques, and produced TV shows, books and language courses based around them. He was also a prominent figure in the 80s home computing boom (Atari computers in his case).
I know he could be a bit of a âmarmiteâ figure, and there were some aspects of his personal life that I wouldnât defend, but think his career stands up incredibly strongly.