The Magic Circle is a British organisation dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of

magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

. Applicants must qualify for membership, either through a performance exam or by a written thesis on a branch of magic, after which they are designated Members of The Magic Circle (M.M.C.). Further distinctions may earn them the titles Associate of the Inner Magic Circle (A.I.M.C.); and Member of The Inner Magic Circle (M.I.M.C), a select group limited to 300 members. The Circle was founded in 1905, and was male-only until 1991. There is a junior branch, the Young Magicians Club.

History

The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians at London's Pinoli's Restaurant. At this founders meeting, chaired by Servais Le Roy, those present decided upon the name of the Society: it was initially felt that the name of the Society should be the Martin Chapender Club, in memory of the performer and founding member who had recently died at the age of 25. However, it was finally agreed that the name "Magic Circle", which shares the same initials as those of Martin Chapender, would be more appropriate. The first official meeting was at the Green Man

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

, but meetings were later in a room at St George's Hall in Langham Place, where

David Devant David Devant (22 February 1868 – 13 October 1941) was an English Magician (illusion), magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David Wighton in Holloway, London. He is regarded by magicians as a consummate exponent of suave a ...

and

John Nevil Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 1839 – 18 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with other Victorian-era devices. He worked with magicians George Alfred Cooke and David Devant, and many of his illus ...

were regularly seen performing. Devant became the first president of The Magic Circle, and in 1906, Maskelyne edited the first issue of ''The Magic Circular'' magazine, a regular feature for members ever since. ''The Magic Circular'' claims to be the longest-running regular magic magazine in conjuring history. The club admitted only men until 1991, when more than 75% of members voted to admit women. But the club's first woman member, Sophie Lloyd, had already joined surreptitiously 18 months earlier, disguising herself as a man with the help of fellow magician Jenny Winstanley, and using the name Raymond Lloyd. When she revealed her gender after women were officially allowed to join, the Magic Circle's members voted to expel her for "deliberate deception". In 2024, the club's first female chair, Laura London, said that she was trying to track down Lloyd in order to apologise and to readmit her, but that Lloyd seemed to have disappeared some time after 1997. In 2025, Lloyd was alerted to the search for her by her sister and admitted to the Magic Circle under her own name. As of 2024, 5% of the 1,700 members are women. In 2014, Megan Knowles-Bacon became the first female officer in the Magic Circle, as well as the youngest person to be elected as an officer; she was elected as secretary. In September 2021 she was elected as the Magic Circle's first female, and youngest ever, president, using her working name Megan Swann.

Motto

The motto of the society is the Latin ''indocilis privata loqui'', which roughly translated means "not apt to disclose secrets". Members give their word not to wilfully disclose magic secrets other than to ''bona fide'' students of magic. Anyone breaking this or any other rule may be expelled.

Headquarters

Since 1998, The Magic Circle building in central London near

Euston Station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...

in Camden has been available for meetings and corporate entertainment. It was voted the UK's Number One Venue in the hospitality industry's Top 20 UK Venues poll 2008. The Magic Circle's headquarters houses a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

, library, museum, dining room, clubroom and bars. The museum features magic tricks, props, posters, programmes, toys, photographs and artefacts related to conjuring history. Items of interest include,

Robert Harbin Robert Harbin (born Edward Richard Charles Williams; 12 February 1908 – 12 January 1978) was a South African-born magician and author. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the '' Zig Zag Girl''. He also becam ...

's original Zig Zag illusion,

Chung Ling Soo William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918) was an American magician who went by the stage name Chung Ling Soo (). He is mostly remembered today for his extensive use of yellowface in his act to falsely represent himself to be ...

's robes, an original

Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in '' The Sooty ...

with associated

Harry Corbett Harry Corbett Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 January 1918 – 17 August 1989) was an English Magic (illusion), magician, puppeteer and television presenter. He was best known as the creator of the glove puppet character Sooty in 1952 ...

apparatus, sets of props used by television magicians David Nixon and

Tommy Cooper Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army ...

, a sound recording of

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

taken from an Edison cylinder, and a set of

cups and balls The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the ...

used by Charles, the then Prince of Wales when he took his Magic Circle exam in 1975. Visits are by arranged tour.

Membership

Magicians who wish to join may spend up to one year as an apprentice before applying for full membership. They need to have known two current members for at least one year and must be at least 18 years old. These two members are then asked to act as proposer and seconder on the candidate's application form and propose them as a suitable candidate for membership. Following the receipt and processing of the application, the candidate is invited to an interview with the examinations secretary, usually at the London headquarters. If the candidate proves suitable and sufficiently knowledgeable a performance exam is scheduled or a thesis may be written. The exam takes place in front of a panel of judges, and candidates must demonstrate their skills to members in a rehearsed act. If a thesis is chosen, it is read by two examiners and a copy is made available in The Magic Circle library. The final stage is by vote by members of the Council, who will approve the candidate as a member. Once the applicant is successful, they are free to call themselves "Members of the Society" and use the letters ''M.M.C.'' after their name. Members of The Magic Circle include: King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

, Jay & Joss,

Luis de Matos Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, Michael Vincent,

Dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

, , and

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

Penn & Teller Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since 1975. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. The duo has bee ...

, however, have been refused membership due to their tradition of revealing the secrets to magic tricks during their performances. Members must undertake not to reveal magic secrets to anyone except bona fide magicians; anyone breaking this rule may be expelled. An example of this was when the former Young Magician of the Year

Dominic Wood Dominic Simon "Dom" Wood (born 3 January 1977) is an English entertainer, magician, TV presenter and DJ. He is best known as one half of the double act Dick and Dom with Richard "Dick" McCourt, with whom he was won two British Academy Children ...

was expelled for publishing magic books containing secrets behind tricks.

Associate of the Inner Magic Circle

Members may take a further examination to achieve the degree of Associate of the Inner Magic Circle. The designation A.I.M.C. shows this higher membership. The A.I.M.C. degree can also be attained through thesis, and in rare cases – that is when a candidate gains 18 or higher out of a possible 20 marks in the written exam – examinees taking the M.M.C. exam are awarded the A.I.M.C. degree. Those who attain an A.I.M.C. degree as a result of a performance examination are awarded the A.I.M.C. with silver star.

Inner Magic Circle

Within the society, there are a number of members never exceeding 300 known as the Inner Magic Circle. Full membership of the Inner Magic Circle is denoted by the letters M.I.M.C. after the member's name. Membership of the Inner Magic Circle is by call of The Society's President. The M.I.M.C. degree may be awarded with a gold star, to signify that the recipient is a performer of magic (as opposed to e.g. an inventor, historian or noteworthy volunteer for the Society).

The Young Magicians Club

''The Young Magicians Club'' is part of the ''Youth Initiative of The Magic Circle'' (the other major part being the prestigious ''Young Magician of the Year Competition'') and is a club for magicians between the inclusive ages of 10 and 18 which was founded in 1996. Sponsored by The Magic Circle, members of the Young Magicians Club meet for monthly workshops at The Magic Circle Headquarters, the 'Centre for the Magic Arts' in London. The Young Magicians Club has a current membership of around 200 members. The Young Magicians Club's principal means of communication among its members is its bi-monthly magazine ''Secrets''. The worldwide membership also communicates through a members-only on-line forum on the Young Magicians Club website. Membership in The Young Magicians Club requires no interview or exam and is open to all young people interested in magic. There are monthly all-day workshops for members who come from all over the country to take part. Adult members of The Magic Circle take on the responsibility of instructing the members of the Young Magicians Club. Local adult magic clubs will often have a junior magicians club attached to them but The Young Magicians Club is the only such club associated with The Magic Circle. Members of the Young Magicians Club are eligible to join The Magic Circle at a reduced rate when they reach 18, but then they must complete the examination procedure for full membership. The Young Magicians Club holds their annual one-day convention every October called 'J-Day'. The convention includes lectures and the finals of two competitions with awards, which include the ''Home Counties Trophy'' for stage magic, ''The Mark Leveridge Cup'' for close-up magic, ''Kaymar Komedy Cup'' and the ''Peter McCahon Award for Originality''. In recent years, the celebrity guest lectures have been presented by

Derren Brown Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist, illusionist, and writer. He is a self-described "psychological illusionist" whose acts are often designed to expose the methods of those who claim to possess supernatural powers, ...

in 2010,

in 2011, John Archer in 2012, Marvin Berglas in 2013,

Luis De Matos Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

in 2014 and Dave Loosley and Andi Gladwin in 2015. The popularity of the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

franchise was one of the key reasons for the organisation's growth this century with membership doubling after the announcement of the first film in 2001.

List of Presidents

Timeline

References

External links

*
The Young Magicians Club website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Circle, The 1905 establishments in the United Kingdom Arts organizations established in 1905 Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Camden Clubs and societies in London Magic clubs Magic museums Museums in the London Borough of Camden Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Performing arts museums Theatres in the London Borough of Camden