Andrew Eborn MAGIC SPECIAL - with Donna King remembering Tiger King Siegfried, Gerry Cottle & 100 years of sawing in half He Came , He Sawed, He Conquered
- 3 years ago
Andrew Eborn MAGIC SPECIAL - with Donna King remembering Siegfried, Gerry Cottle & 100 years of sawing in half
He Came , He Sawed, He Conquered
On National Hat Day Andrew Eborn raises a Top Hat to Siegfried, Gerry Cottle & 100 years of sawing in half
In 1990 Donna King was married to set-designer John Napier who was asked to co-direct a show in Vegas with John Caird (who co-directed Les Miserables).
Napier was kind enough to ask the choreographer (Anthony Van Laast) if Donna his then wife, could assist in putting the production together. They had two small children and as delightful as young motherhood is Donna was very much looking forward to donning a leotard and dancing in a sweaty studio again. So off they flew~
The show was Siegfried and Roy and boy were they ever a trip!
After scourging around Tower Records for music templates to ask the composer ‘to write pieces in the manner of’ Caird and Napier devised a fairytale to hang the story on.
Napier created a massive dragon that spawned 40 showgirls marching to a Michael Jackson percussive track. MJ wrote the theme song especially for the magicians because he loved the animals. Through the dragon’s nostrils were lifted the magicians high into the air as it spit fire. Donna was asked to choreograph the snake dance for Lanelle, their P.A. and leading lady.
Their house was on a golf course and owned by Engelbert Humperdinck Every room was designed in orange from the shag carpet to huge L-shaped sofas under massive paintings in shades of orange. Only the master bedroom was something else. Pink! Pink shag carpet under clunky large statues of gold, golden phone hung on the wall next to the toilet. S & R were moving their production into a brand new hotel called The Mirage.
Siegfried was the magician and Roy was the one who had the most phenomenal rapport with the animals. Donna remembers going into the new theatre when no one else was there and witnessing Roy 'establish territory' with the black panther as they sat batting one another’s faces… ... back and forth. Whack, whack !
Siegfried Fischbacher, one half of German-American magic duo Siegfried and Roy, died at the age of 81 on Wednesday 13th January 2021 at his home in Las Vegas after succumbing to pancreatic cancer.
Fischbacher's sister Dolore, who lives as a nun in the Bavarian capital of Munich, confirmed the magician's death.
Gerry Cottle, circus showman and Wookey Hole Caves owner, died of Covid aged 75. A dynamic champion of circus with a lifelong passion for entertaining, Cottle toured his circus spectaculars around the UK and internationally for more than three decades before taking over Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset in 2003.
On Sunday 17 January, the Magic Circle will mark the centenary of sawing someone in half. The illusion was invented by PT Selbit, and was first performed at the Finsbury Park Empire in North London on 17 January 1921.
He Came , He Sawed, He Conquered
On National Hat Day Andrew Eborn raises a Top Hat to Siegfried, Gerry Cottle & 100 years of sawing in half
In 1990 Donna King was married to set-designer John Napier who was asked to co-direct a show in Vegas with John Caird (who co-directed Les Miserables).
Napier was kind enough to ask the choreographer (Anthony Van Laast) if Donna his then wife, could assist in putting the production together. They had two small children and as delightful as young motherhood is Donna was very much looking forward to donning a leotard and dancing in a sweaty studio again. So off they flew~
The show was Siegfried and Roy and boy were they ever a trip!
After scourging around Tower Records for music templates to ask the composer ‘to write pieces in the manner of’ Caird and Napier devised a fairytale to hang the story on.
Napier created a massive dragon that spawned 40 showgirls marching to a Michael Jackson percussive track. MJ wrote the theme song especially for the magicians because he loved the animals. Through the dragon’s nostrils were lifted the magicians high into the air as it spit fire. Donna was asked to choreograph the snake dance for Lanelle, their P.A. and leading lady.
Their house was on a golf course and owned by Engelbert Humperdinck Every room was designed in orange from the shag carpet to huge L-shaped sofas under massive paintings in shades of orange. Only the master bedroom was something else. Pink! Pink shag carpet under clunky large statues of gold, golden phone hung on the wall next to the toilet. S & R were moving their production into a brand new hotel called The Mirage.
Siegfried was the magician and Roy was the one who had the most phenomenal rapport with the animals. Donna remembers going into the new theatre when no one else was there and witnessing Roy 'establish territory' with the black panther as they sat batting one another’s faces… ... back and forth. Whack, whack !
Siegfried Fischbacher, one half of German-American magic duo Siegfried and Roy, died at the age of 81 on Wednesday 13th January 2021 at his home in Las Vegas after succumbing to pancreatic cancer.
Fischbacher's sister Dolore, who lives as a nun in the Bavarian capital of Munich, confirmed the magician's death.
Gerry Cottle, circus showman and Wookey Hole Caves owner, died of Covid aged 75. A dynamic champion of circus with a lifelong passion for entertaining, Cottle toured his circus spectaculars around the UK and internationally for more than three decades before taking over Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset in 2003.
On Sunday 17 January, the Magic Circle will mark the centenary of sawing someone in half. The illusion was invented by PT Selbit, and was first performed at the Finsbury Park Empire in North London on 17 January 1921.