Joseph Jacobs (c. 1813 – 13 October 1870), also known by the
stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
s The Wizard Jacobs, Jacobs the Wizard, and The Great Jacobs, was an
English magician
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
,
improvisatore, and
ventriloquist.
Biography
Jacobs was born to a
Jewish family in
Canterbury,
Kent. He appeared on stage at an early age, visiting
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
, and other provincial towns during the summer and autumn of 1834. He first appeared in
London at Horn's Tavern,
Kennington
Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...
, in 1835, where he performed the
Chinese ring trick. Four years later he had the honour of performing before the
Princess Augusta at Brighton.
At the
Strand Theatre in 1841, he made a great show of expensive apparatus in imitation of
J. H. Anderson. He performed in 1846 the trick of turning ink into transparent water in which goldfish swam, and in 1850 he introduced the trick of producing from under a shawl bowls of water containing goldfish, afterwards throwing the shawl on the floor, and then, on raising it again, disclosing live ducks or rabbits.
He appeared at the
Adelaide Gallery
Jacob Perkins (9 July 1766 – 30 July 1849) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical ...
in 1853, in America in 1854, and in 1860 in Australia and New Zealand. In 1860 he also opened the Polygraphic Hall in London.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Joseph
1810s births
1870 deaths
19th-century English Jews
English Jews
English magicians
Jewish entertainers
People from Canterbury