There was a time when Derren Brown used to work his voodoo on the diners of Byzantium. But Derren Brown buggered off to Channel 4 with his witchy ideas instead, leaving Byzantium a few aces short of a full deck.

So they're brought in a new magician, Philip Ringland, who does the kind of close up magic with cards that has fellow diners making all the right 'ooh' and 'ahh' noises before moving on to the next table, safe in the knowledge that he's managed to dictate the topic of conversation over dinner.

I try to faze him with some spectacularly crap shuffling which also involves dropping a good portion of the deck and momentarily managing to lose a couple of cards completely, but this man, it seems, is a true professional who isn't going to be distracted by a lack of dexterity bordering on the imbecilic.


Marc Crewe (Venue)