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Simon Drake |
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Simon Drake is the stage name of a British magician based in London. He is best known for the innovative and shocking television series Secret Cabaret made for Britain's Channel 4.1
Drake has said he is the son of a surgeon and that both sides of his family were connected to the medical profession for some generations.2 3 In an interview included in a recent book about Arthur Brown, Drake says he was born Simon Alexander and was working as an office boy at the Gull record company when he met Arthur Brown:
Arthur's single 'Fire' was the first record I bought at the age of 12, the same year my father was cremated. As the years went on I saw Arthur at the Rainbow with Kingdom Come. I was a huge fan...I was promoted to plugger. I took Arthur round for interviews with the radio, and got to know him as a person. He came round to my squat in West London - of course we weren't paid enough to afford a flat.4
Simon Drake should not be confused with the Berkshire-based magician Simon Alexander, who specialises in close-up magic.5
He first came to wider attention in Kate Bush's UK live tour in 1979 for which he co-devised visuals and played seven characters.6 He has a diverse performing history, from Terayama’s Tenjo Sajiki theatre in Japan to the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium before Queen Elizabeth II. He advised Nicolas Roeg for the film Castaway, with the tricky task of coaching Oliver Reed in sleight of hand, and was magic advisor to Harvey Keitel on Fairy Tale, A True Story.7 In two series of the award-nominated Secret Cabaret for Channel Four, he won an international cult following for his original and shocking presentation of illusions. He has performed and consulted with many stars including: Elton John, Phil Collins, Madness, David Gilmour, Meat Loaf, Steve Miller’s Abracadabra, Darryl Hall, Bill Wyman, George Harrison, Julian Lennon, Peter Gabriel and Pamela Stephenson. In August 1993 he was seen on American TV in the special Raising Hell, in which he co-starred with heavy metal band Iron Maiden.8 The same month Drake performed with Carl Davis and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. On October 28 1995, he appeared on the Saturday morning ITV children's show Massive, where he sawed host Denise Van Outen in half. The graphic nature of this performance, featuring the liberal use of fake blood, drew a number of viewer complaints, and resulted in the show's producers being warned by the independent regulators, the ITC, to moderate the show's content.
Drake has performed twice as a guest with The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the London Coliseum. He has appeared at festivals and tours in Canada, New Zealand, Europe and in the UK and has had residencies at many London nightclubs as well as a month in cabaret at The Casino in Monte Carlo, Paris and Dubai. He was the magic and effects supervisor to Cameron Mackintosh for the West End production of The Witches of Eastwick and Ducktastic, directed by Kenneth Branagh.9
He was a consultant on the South London Theatre's Spring 2007 production of Dr Faustus. He was also a consultant on the production of episode 6 of the fourth series of the BBC television drama Hustle, broadcast in 2007, where he worked with actors Marc Warren and Jaime Murray, teaching Warren how to saw Murray in half.1011
In 1996 he opened his own 5,000 square foot venue, Simon Drake’s House of Magic, in a converted former pub at an unpublicised location in south London.12 13 This performing space specialises in corporate entertainment functions with occasional public performance nights. Shows feature such gory effects as light-hearted amputations and decapitations of senior executives and celebrity guests.14. His regular warm-up act is piano-based comedian Adam Kay, aka Amateur Transplants.
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