Our speaker this afternoon was Ian Keable and his talk today was entitled ‘One Hundred Years of Deception: Hoaxes & Swindlers in the 18th Century. Ian is a Member of the Magic Circle with Gold Star. He has received The Magic Circle Comedy Magic Award and has also won the British Champion of Comedy Magic.
Why the 18 century, this was the first century where the incidents of hoaxes had been properly reported and also because he was intrigued about the truth and lies of hoaxes. Ian outlined 3 incidents where the public had been duped, deceived or taken in by sometimes simple and other times elaborate deceptions. He interspersed each story by a magic trick. He was very entertaining which made for a light-hearted, enjoyable afternoon.
He has written three books for the general public on magic and also two specialist books for the magic profession: this includes his highly acclaimed Stand-Up: A Professional Guide to Comedy Magic.
He offers a choice of nine talks, divided into three sections: three talks on Satirical Prints & Cartoons; two talks which include some performance of magic; and four talks on 18th Century hoaxes. .