I
knew nothing about Mac Ronay until the video below popped up in my
recommendations yesterday, 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 unique, perfect 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.
The '61 set ends with a good trick, it's true – 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, personally, I wouldn't 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, because it would be breaking the terms of the
contract now to do anything so soullessly impressive as magic; the
punchline is the prestige. I immediately 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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