Introduction

Well let’s begin with an introduction.  A good place to begin; a rather formal blog from a rather formal bloke.

I’m Mr Alexander, proprietor, owner and sole performer of Mr Alexander’s Travelling Show.  Magic, juggling, unicycling, balance and illusion.  And occasionally fire.  Eating, juggling and body-burning. Oh and two small white dogs, Mimi and Blue. And no they don’t eat fire and I don't juggle with them! More about them another time but they would be upset if I didn’t mention them early on.

I do have a first name, and you could probably find it out easily enough, but most people call me Mr A or Mr Alexander and I prefer it like that, so let’s continue as we started; rather formally.

If you are reading this because you have seen the show and heard me mention the blog then I hope you enjoyed the show and hope you also enjoy the blog. The blog’s a chance for me to tell you a bit more about myself in a little more of a personal way and also tell you about some of the amazing things I have done in this incredibly lucky life I continue to lead.

If you are reading this for any other reason; accident, curiosity, mistake, then do read on, but please also try and come to see the show soon.  Details of where I am performing are on my website and I try to keep it up to date.  And please don’t feel shy about coming up after the show to say hello – I’ll even show you a personal piece of magic if you ask…

The blog will also be a diary of things I’m up to and am planning so I hope you’ll find that interesting too.  I might also let you into some of those magic secrets magicians go on about.  I don’t mind talking about some of these to my special friends, and if you’re reading this, that’s what I shall consider you are from now on.

Magic of course is brilliant.  Everyone needs a little magic in their lives and I love bringing magic into people’s lives.  The first trick I ever learned was the coin roll.  I hope you’ve seen me do it.  It’s the one where the coin rolls over my fingers and seems to have a life of it’s own. It’s really finger juggling, but most people like to see a little finger juggling as an introduction to the magic. It’s magic too, in a way. You can learn to do it too.  All it takes is practice and the right size of coin.  If you see me after the show I will give you a personal lesson in how to do it.  One of the things I am always saying is Practice makes Progress. Not ‘Perfect’, by the way.  Nobody is. We all make mistakes and I’ve made quite a few which I will tell you about sometime, but making mistakes is almost the best way to learn.  No-one ever learned to ride a unicycle without falling off it a great deal first! Failure is on the road to Success. End of today’s Life Magic Lecture!

A little more about myself and we’ll call it a day for Blog 1. I live in a lorry and it’s a lovely lorry.  It’s  a Ford Iveco 0609 Cargo specially converted from an old NHS screening vehicle.  It’s a B reg, 1985. Here's a photo of it, with my stage trailer in tow.  I have lived in a house but not any more.  The only thing I miss about a house is the garden.  It seems to me though that I can drive to many beautiful gardens and when I do the show in the grounds of a wonderful country house or right by the seaside I have a different garden to look out at every day, and this more than makes up for it.

In the lorry I have a double and a single bed, a sofa and comfy chairs, a wood burning stove, oven, grill, hob, sink, fridge, satellite tv, dvd player, a radio and great sound system, a shower, toilet and wash basin with hot and cold water and loads of cupboards all with useful things in.  Oh and a chandelier. (Well I told you I was formal). I say if it’s in the lorry it has to be beautiful or useful and ideally both.    Some of the things (the sofa and the bed for example) double up.  I have lots of photos and pictures on the walls and it is really cosy, especially on cold nights with the wood burner going.  I like to think I live much closer to nature than most people, but really it feels like living closer to the road.  The road and I know each other very well.  I really don’t understand why more people don’t give up brick houses and take up homes with wheels.  But that’s a story for the next blog.

Until then, goodbye for now. More next week and I’ll write a new blog a week from now on.  Add me as an RSS feed and you will receive it automatically. Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.

All the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander