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| Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod |
Biography
Barry and Stuart are both previous winners of “The Young Magician of the Year” competition. Barry was born in on April 16, 1982 in Aberdeen and grew up in Portlethen, Scotland. Stuart was born on July 4, 1980 in Aberdeen and grew up in Peterhead, Scotland. Stuart lived in Peterhead and studied philosophy and psychology at Aberdeen University, while Barry grew up in Old Portlethen, before moving to London to study multimedia computing.
They met in Aberdeen in 1994 and started making videos of themselves performing magic. This is where their style of acting out scenes in character while performing illusions developed. The filmed results of these magic sketches eventually reached a television production company and led to the making of their first TV series “Magick.” The show was nominated as Best Comedy Series at the international television awards in Montreux in 2004.
In 2005 Barry and Stuart hosted the Channel 4 studio magic show Dirty Tricks and presented the clips show When Magic Tricks Go Wrong. Most controversially they put together a TV special entitled The Magic of Jesus, in which they drew inspiration for their illusions from the accounts of Jesus’ miracles found in the New Testament.
In 2006 Jones and MacLeod put together a second special called Tricks from the Bible, in which they took inspiration from the stories of the miracles of Moses among other Old Testament events and performed illusions based on these accounts. They currently live in London where they perform live together in comedy clubs.
In 2009, Barry and Stuart were awarded the 'Best Comedy Illusionist' Award at the World Magic Awards.
Television Shows
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| Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod |
Barry and Stuart's first television series Magick debuted on October 5, 2003 and was described as "comedy magic featuring surreal characters in bizarre and uncomfortable situations." It began airing in Australia on SBS on February 1, 2007 as Sick Tricks, and is aired in America as Crack Magic.
This series featured reverse film magic, where the magic was performed backwards and the film later reversed to reveal the backmasking.
In one of a series of ‘crimes’ caught on CCTV, footage captures two men being caught en flagrante in a public toilet by a police officer. To get out of trouble, one of the men hides the other behind his coat and makes him disappear. In another incident, a man breaks into a car by sticking his hand through a glass window without breaking it.
Secret filming in a supermarket captures Stuart and Barry magically sabotaging the products by putting dead insects into sealed bottles of mineral water and penetrating razor blades through the foil lids of ready-meals.
Magick also had dark comedy that would mix with the magic on the show.
In 2004 this four part series was nominated for a Rose D'Or comedy award in Montreux.
Dirty Tricks
Dirty Tricks was a six part series hosted by Barry and Stuart. It was described as “like magic meets Natural Born Killers.”The show also had regular spots from Pete Firman, Ali Cook and Jonathan’s Escapes as well as guest appearances from international variety acts and celebrities. These acts included Penn & Teller and Kevin James.
At the end of every show Barry and Stuart ‘killed’ the cheesy radio and TV presenter Neil Fox (also known as Dr. Fox) in a horrific and painful manner. These included him being cremated, stabbed and crushed.
The Magic of Jesus
This one hour special aired in December 2005. In this show Barry and Stuart drew inspiration from the accounts of Jesus' miracles in the New Testament to present illusions which included apparently walking on the surface of water in a glass tank, turning water into wine, causing a blind person to temporarily 'see', appearing to raise a deceased person, causing a virgin to apparently become 'pregnant' and feeding 5000 people.
The show caused controversy among newspapers and other press with Bishop Michael Reid, the Founder of the TV watchdog the Christian Congress for Traditional Values giving the following statement, “Maybe these two fraudsters could try being crucified to see if they can rise three days later.”
Tricks from the Bible
Following on from “The Magic of Jesus” this one hour special aired in June 2006. The duo drew inspiration from the miracle accounts in the Old Testament. Barry and Stuart performed illusions such as turning staffs into snakes in Egypt, exactly where it was said to be performed in the Old Testament, casting some of the plagues of Egypt on two fans in an enclosed part of a restaurant, a transformation into a pillar of salt, exorcism of a demon, robbing a man of his strength as Samson had, apparently raising someone from the dead and pulling a coin from the mouth of a fish, performed on a boat in the Red Sea.
The Magicians
The Magicians is a five-part BBC primetime show, that aired during January 2011. It featured Barry and Stuart alongside fellow magicians Luis de Matos and Chris Korn.
