Cross Dressing Magician and Scammer
My new favourite con artists are also magicians.
Back in 1989, The Magic Circle in the UK, refused to let women join the society.
This annoyed female magicians such as Jenny Winstanley no end. But Winstanley had a plan.
She teamed up with Sophie Lloyd, a 28 year old actress, and taught her how to perform magic to a standard high enough to join the society (this was back in the day when clubs actually had standards rather then just letting every nerd with a deck of cards and a youtube account)
Sophie then created the character of Raymond, a young, socially awkard magician. Sophie spent a year performing in clubs around London until she was good enough and professional enough to join the club.
She auditioned in front of a panel of judges and an audience of 200 people and was accepted into the exclusive club.
A few months later when Lloyd and Winstanley revealed to the club they had been hoaxed, the circle didn’t see the humour and, rather ironically, kicked ‘Raymond’ out on the grounds of deception.
The pair even received the cliched late night “you’ll never work in this town again” phone call.
I couldn’t chase down Lloyd but I believe that Winstanley now makes and sells lovely cat sculptures in Norfolk,
As Groucho Marx said, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”
Sophie and Jenny, I tip my rabbit filled top hat to you.
“Raymond” and identified simian friend
2 Comments to
What become of them I wonder? Did they ever work again?
Hello “Joseph”
I just heard that, sadly, Jenny passed away six years ago. I believe that Sophie is working in educational theatre in the UK but I’m yet to find her.