Who Is Mark Leveridge?
Mark Leveridge – magician, lecturer, inventor, publisher, event organiser
Mark is a full time professional magician, dealer and author with a wide performing experience gained over many years as an entertainer.
In Britain he has presented close up magic at many venues around the country, his engagements including business functions, private dinners/parties plus a number of extended periods performing in restaurants and hotels for groups such as Trust House Forte and Leisure Inns.
Mark has presented his lectures at nearly every magic society in the country and has appeared on the bill at most of the major magic conventions including the IBM, Blackpool and Macmillan London Conventions.
Abroad Mark has entertained and lectured several times in Europe, including engagements in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and Holland, plus has lectured in Australia and Singapore as well as many times visited the United States, appearing at both the IBM, SAM (twice), the 4F’s and Abbott’s Conventions and performing and lecturing at venues in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Colombus, Baltimore, Louisville, Salt Lake City and on board the Hotel Queen Mary in Long Beach, California to name just a few.
In the magic world Mark is well known as an author, inventor and lecturer on close up, children’s and mental magic, his creations, sold by his mail order company Mark Leveridge Magic, being used by magicians from all over the world.
Mark has written several books, mainly concentrating on close up, but his two biggest works to date are THE COMPLETE MAGIC PARTY, concentrating on performing games and magic at children’s parties, and THE STROLLING MAGICIAN, a highly detailed book on working commercial strolling magic. Mark has also submitted many items for inclusion in magic magazines such as Genii, M-U-M, Magic Manuscript, The Budget, Linking Ring, The Conjuror and Abracadabra.
Mark has won several competitions for close up magic including, in 1981, the prestigious Zina Bennett Trophy, the all comers competition for close up magic organised by the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
In 2021 Mark was awarded the John Nevil Maskelyne Prize by the Magic Circle in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the literature of magic.
Mark is a member of the Magic Circle in London where he is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star.
Mark also has six television appearances to his credit to date.
Mark loves to organise events and over the years has been successful in staging and sponsoring a number of different ones including the well known British Close Up Magic Symposium (which ran for 16 years), plus other smaller occasions such as ImagE (a day of workshops), The Commercial Close Up Forum (a day of advice and interaction with pro magicians) and more.
Mark also provides extensive online help, advice and training for magicians of all standards through the medium of his online club and information resource the E-Club. With members all over the world, this monthly updated Members’ Only website features many hundreds of pages of content, most of it video, which aims to support, advise and enthuse everyone from amateurs to full time professional magicians. With all the content being updated fully on the first of every month and all the material drawing on Mark’s 40 years of full time professional experience, E-Club Pro and E-Club Elite have proved to be a popular and trusted resource.
Since March 2005, Mark has also been the Editor and Co-Owner of Magicseen, a full colour independent glossy magic magazine which features personalities, news, tricks and a whole range of interesting articles on magicians from the UK and beyond. With subscribers worldwide and many more magicians who purchase their copies from magic dealers or through Magicseen’s US distribution partner Lybrary.com, this bi-monthly magazine has established itself as a firm favourite with readers. The magazine is also available as an instant .pdf download from the Magicseen website which can be found at www.magicseen.co.uk.
Mark Leveridge Magic
Mark Leveridge Magic came into existence almost by accident! Mark presented his first lecture in 1977 and produced some lecture notes and one or two other items made up for sale afterwards.
At first any sales were restricted to after the lectures, but then gradually people who had not bought on the evening started to send for things afterwards by mail. As news of what Mark had to offer spread, so even magicians who had not been at a lecture wanted to get hold of the small number of items which had been for sale and so they began to send orders in too.
Over a period of two or three years a second and then a third lecture were put together and the number of associated lines started to grow. Eventually, Mark released one or two effects which were not linked to a lecture and this started a process of invention and marketing which is still going strong today.
Mark has always had a policy of only selling his own ideas and variations, or products which have a clear link to something he has organised or been associated with. In 2017 Mark adapted his business model so that all of his magic creations were available as downloads. This radical change has many benefits for his customers, including most prices being lowered, everything being available instantly, and no P&P charges needing to be added.
