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6 articles
Everyone remembers the card trick. Nobody remembers the fifteen minutes I spent negotiating with a 1970s plug socket in a Wetherspoons function room. Here's what really goes on in the half-hour before doors — and why the unseen gig is the one that saves the seen one.
Everyone at a wedding in Wigan asks if I'm doing the Fringe. Here's the honest arithmetic of what a month of magic up a Scottish hill actually costs, earns, and does to your shoes. Spoiler: the exposure is mostly drizzle.
Every DJ has a secret weapon, and mine isn't a fancy controller or an exclusive remix. It's the ability to diagnose a dancefloor in the time it takes to play three songs. Here's what those fifteen years of watching rooms have taught me.
From a rain-lashed high street in Doncaster to a black-tie gala in Mayfair, I've been paid by nearly every method known to British entertainment — including a meat pie and, once, exposure. Here's what the UK's entertainment food chain actually looks like from the bottom up.
From a drafty scout hut in the Peak District to a converted Salford warehouse with wiring that predated the Beatles, Chris Sparks has performed in some truly questionable spaces. Here are the stories — and the hard-won checklist that turns any oddball venue into a stage worth remembering.
Every magician has a graveyard of failed tricks. Chris Sparks opens the crypt and shares ten of his finest on-stage disasters — including one very liberated dove and a card trick that collapsed in front of 200 wedding guests — plus the hard-earned lessons each one taught him.