One of the North East’s Favourite Magicians has collaborated with fellow Geordie Stars – To write a Geordie-themed book of magic in the hope it will bring more North-East families closer together this Christmas…
The ”Geordie Book of Magic” features illustrations by VIZ Comic artist Davey Jones, a Foreword by Strictly’s Debbie McGee and a DVD, which accompanies the book, featuring some of the most-loved Newcastle Stars, including: Benidorm’s Tim Healy, Soapstar Charlie Hardwick, Lindisfarne’s Ray Laidlaw, Newcastle Footballing Legend Malcolm ‘Supermac’ Macdonald, Purely Belter’s Chris Beattie, Auf Wiedersehen Pet’s Lesley Saint John, VIZ Comic’s co-founder Simon Donald, plus more Geordie faces are all featured on the DVD…
Many other celebrities from the Entertainment World have posed with the book too – Including Comedian Ross Noble, Showbiz Legend Des O’Connor, NWA’s DJ Yella and Footballer Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne – to name but a few!
Chris was invited on the set of ”Still Open All Hours” where he taught Sir David Jason a trick or two between filming his scenes!
Chris Said: ”Too many people sit on their mobile phones and tablet computers instead of actually talking to each other and interacting with each other in person, it’s becoming scary. A family get together means, in lots of cases now, a bunch of people who are related sitting together on their phones, instead of being by themselves – the world’s gone crazy! What happened to family time meaning sitting around the table with the fire on playing board games and suchlike? Hopefully my new Magic book will encourage parents and children to come together to cut out and make the magic tricks in my book and learn them together. My new magic book is a great family activity for Christmas day – first you have to make the magic tricks, then learn them, then fool other friends and family with them! Much better than just sitting and playing on the latest computer game.
I was lucky enough to grow up to catch the tail end of the golden age of magic. People like Paul Daniels and David Copperfield were household names who inspired people across the globe. Nowadays magic is more popular than ever, but there is hardly anyone performing proper magic tricks that people can learn to do themselves. A lot of TV magicians now perform tricks that aren’t really tricks, they are more like stunts that can only be performed behind a camera or with a huge budget. Dynamo is more like a Marvel Superhero than a magician.
People like Paul Daniels did tricks that anyone can do, with practice. That’s why I wanted to do something to make sure the art of proper magic doesn’t vanish. I want to inspire the next generation to get involved and start performing tricks. If I don’t, who will? I learned my first trick when I was ten, and I hope my book will inspire others to get hooked on magic. If a 10 year old kid picks up my book and 10 years later they’re working as a full time magician, my mission will be accomplished. It’s great to keep the creative arts alive and get the younger generation into magic – they are the future of the art after all. It’s much better than giving them an iPad to play with. Give them a magic set any day – My Geordie Magic Set!”
Shops including WHSmith, The Back Page, Upside Down Gifts, Handpicked Metrocentre & The Central Library have all jumped at stocking Chris’s debut publication.
Once a fully-fledged professional magician, Chris became friends with hero Paul Daniels. He performed alongside his idol in the region a few years ago and a tour was planned to take place last year – but Paul became ill before their scheduled show and sadly died in last March. Paul’s wife Debbie McGee, the writer of the book’s foreword, is one of a number of a celebrities to support the project.
Strictly’s Debbie McGee supports the new book and she says: ”On meeting Chris, you cannot help but like him! It doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s put together this fun and informative book – he is a Geordie through and through! The book is not only a good read – it has some great magic and lovely bits of Geordie info along the way. I enjoyed it and I’m sure you will too!”
Chris has performed a number of incredible stunts around the city, including escaping from a straitjacket suspended 100ft upside-down over the city’s famous castle. He has also performed for some of the biggest names in show-business, including Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, the Arctic Monkeys, Alan Shearer and national and international royalty.
Chris recently appeared alongside a cast of fellow Geordie Stars at The Tim Healy Charity Golf Day at Linden Hall on 7th September, before going on to Host his own ”Greatest Show on the Tyne Show” to Celebrate The Tyne Theatre & Opera House’s 150th Anniversary on 6th October. Both events were a great success.
Tim Healy Says: ”Chris is a top man, a top, top man. So there. Get out and buy his book!”
Chris Cross will be appearing at the ‘BOOKS ON TYNE – Newcastle Book Festival’ at the Newcastle Central Library on 2nd December at 1pm in a FREE Event, where he will be performing some tricks from the book, as well as giving a talk about writing the book itself and drawing inspiration from various North-East landmarks.
All details about this event can be found here: http://www.booksontyne.co.uk/events/item/the-geordie-book-of-magic
His Geordie book of magic is suitable for all ages and comes complete with some specially printed trick cards to perform with, as well as a DVD of Chris performing and explaining all of the tricks from the book to numerous local celebrities. Great for adults to learn a few tricks for dinner parties or the pub and great for budding young magicians to fool their friends in the playground, too! The Book is available at the above stores or Online here: http://www.chris-cross.co.uk/store.html