I
knew nothing about Mac Ronay until yesterday, when the video below popped up in my
recommendations, and if my youtube algorithms are going to
keep bringing me gold like this I couldn't be prouder of them. Like bubble magician Tom Noddy,
Ronay seems to have fashioned one perfect, unique, ten-minute set that's
lasted his whole career. Tommy Cooper is the most obvious comparison – which isn't bad
– but the joke's not quite the same: Ronay doesn't perform tricks
badly. He performs bad tricks. And he shambles where Cooper swivels.
Enjoy.
It's true the '61 set ends with a good trick – the egg gag made famous in Airplane
– but apart from that, no magical skill is required, which is
the joke, which requires skill. When Ronay plays The Bob Monkhouse Show
twenty-five years later, to a glowing introduction from a man who
really knows his onions (although I wouldn't personally describe the
act as "heart-rending") the egg trick's gone, and the most baffling
trick Ronay pulls off in its place – eight and a half minutes in – is
immediately explained. It would be breaking the terms of the
contract now to do anything so soullessly impressive as magic; the
punchline is the prestige. Immediately I want to apologise to anyone
with an actual skill for suggesting magic is "soulless". If I'd been at
all aware of Mac Ronay before now, I would be copying him.
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