Year 11 student Alfie wins prestigious Young Close-Up Magician of the Year 2025 Award

Since 1905 when 23 amateur and professional magicians got together at Pinoli’s Restaurant in London’s Soho district and decided to form a society, The Magic Circle has been at the forefront of the magic community in the UK and worldwide. Promoting magic as an art form and protecting its secrets, The Magic Circle’s Latin motto is Indocilis Privata Loqui, which roughly translates to ‘not apt to disclose secrets’.

 Their plush headquarters in Stephenson Way, near Euston Station was officially opened in 1998.

Membership of The Magic Circle continues to grow and magic continues to play a part in entertaining the UK and the world. There have been many ‘high profile’ magician members in the society over the years, including David Copperfield, Dynamo, Paul Daniels, Fay Presto, Stephen Fry - and even King Charles III.

Anyone aged between 10 and 18 with a keen interest and aptitude in magic can join The Young Magicians Club. Its mission is to promote the performance of magic among young people – and over the years it certainly has done that. Troy and Ben Hart, who some may have seen on TV, are both past members, as are many other professionals in the UK.

Year 11 Southborough student Alfie L first became interested in the art of magic at the tender age of just 5 years old and by the time he had reached his 10^th birthday, had joined The Young Magician’s Club. A highly gifted, academic student, Alfie has put as much effort and hard work into learning the craft of magic as he has with his studies – with fantastic results in both.

Over the past 5 years, Alfie has honed his magic skills to specialise in what the society calls ‘Close-Up’, rather than ‘Stage’. The key difference is the scale of performance: close-up magic is interactive and performed for small groups with everyday objects, while stage magic is a theatrical show with larger illusions for a large audience. Close-up magic focuses on intimacy and portability, using props that fit in a pocket and often involving the audience directly. Indeed, Alfie has performed at many events both in and outside of school -including regular PTA fund-raising evenings at Southborough and our Senior Citizen’s Christmas Tea Party.  He has a charity ‘gig’ coming up shortly and a number of additional bookings in the New Year.

A couple of weekends ago, Alfie travelled to The Magic Circle’s London Headquarters to take part in the prestigious Young Magician’s Club Close Up competition for 10-18 year olds, where he performed card tricks themed around “Time” – the Past, Present and Future. Much to the delight of Alfie, his family – and Southborough High School! – Alfie won!!!!! The photo above shows Alfie receiving his award from Marvin Berglas, President of The Magic Circle (left) and Edward Hilsum – Co-Chair of The Young Magician’s Club (right).

As you can imagine, this is a BIG THING for any teenager to achieve, and we are all so very proud of him. Whilst Alfie still plans to take A levels and go to university, his main aim is to become a professional magician. As someone who is already a ‘face’ in the Young Magician community, we have no doubt that Alfie will -as if by magic – succeed!!