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Bobby Bernard
Remembered by Dave Brown
November 2014
I
first met Bobby as an 18 year old (41 years ago) entering my first ever magic
competition at a Northern Magic Circle convention.
He told me that I was quite talented but I was walking around stage as if my
trouser legs were tied at the bottom and they were full after I had crapped
myself. Later when I got to know him I realised that I had been treated quite
gently.
Some three years later I moved from the North East to find fame and fortune in
London and was lucky enough to work in Hamley’s Magic Department where I got to
know more of Bobby Bernard and his thoughts about magic, magicians and life.
During my time at Hamley’s I was moved to a new store that Hamley’s had opened
on Wimpole Street – hardly any customers ever came to the store.
Bobby would pop in to the new store for a quick chat and hours later he would
leave after having insulted everyone I have ever known. One thing Bobby and I
would do was to challenge each other to ever more ridiculous feats of
Dice-Stacking and I suspect it quickened his skills as much as mine. He would
arrive with new challenges which he had obviously spent time working out and
practicing and in between laughing at my accent and generally insulting me we
would pass the time having fun.
The store eventually closed and I moved out of London so didn’t see him for a
while and our paths crossed again when I moved back to London full time. My job
at that time didn’t work out very well for me and I was quite despondent which
brings me to an incident where I got to know a Bobby Bernard that most people
never saw.
I bumped into him on Tottenham Court Road one day and he asked how everything
was going so I told him the truth, which was that I couldn’t find any work and
my girlfriend and I were having a really tough time. Bobby didn’t hesitate, he
said “come with me” and he took me to his flat in Kilburn where he proceeded to
fill plastic carrier bags with food then he said “let’s go to your gaff and you
can cook me a meal”.
My girlfriend and I cooked a meal with some of the food and then we had what was
one of the most memorable evenings I can ever remember. Bobby was on form and
regaled us with some very funny stories about being evacuated to Wales during
the war and some of the hard times he’d had in his life. He never once talked
about magic and I think he was just reassuring us that life would get better and
we would laugh about it later.
After that evening he would always tell me of the latest disaster that he’d had.
I could go on for ages with stories he told me but I’d like to keep them as a
reminder of one of magic’s real characters – there was nothing insipid about
him, he was larger than life and I will always remember him with great fondness
for his kindness to me and my future wife.
Dave Brown, November 2014