A link to the PDF of my presentation can be found below.

After three years of pandemic related cancellations and delays, the highlight of the UK Bizarre Magick calendar, Doomsday, returned to the Derby Conference Centre.  This is the 11th outing for the event and as usual it was an excellent weekend, featuring marvellous presentations and amazing discussions.

Friday’s Spookshow revival was superb, and has sowed many a seed for future research collaborations. Thank you Michael Diamond!

The Saturday saw presentations from;

  • Mark Dilliway, who discussed the work of Charles Cameron, a figure close very to my own research.  It was also great to see Cameron’s work being performed live
  • David Alnwick, demonstrating excellent storytelling 
  • Dan Baines, talking about hoaxes (I shall never believe him again. ever.)  
  • Matteo Borrini, performing some lovely magic as The Great Borrini 
  • Jon Marshall, excellent as ever, talking about the horror-themed sideshows of Jon Gresham
  • Someone called Nik Taylor, banging on about how we can benefit from the academic study of the bizarre
  • And finally, Tracy Wise performed her full show, with a surprising and rather terrifying special guest in the finale.

The relaxing into the evening we had a strong line up for the Hex Factor with Luke Robson, Mark Dilliway , Michael Kelly, Paul Forster, and Paul Temple all performing excellent sets.  In the end the dapper Luke Robson was crowned the Hex Factor winner of 2022.  Much deserved!

After we said our goodbyes Sunday morning, we got to derigging the set, and waiting for the AA (but that’s another story).  The extra time we spent at the venue did allow more of a catch up, which was wonderful.

Tired, but full of ideas – roll on Doomsday 12! 

Blatant Product Placement

You can pick up my Making Dark Magicks pdf over at Lulu. The 70+ page download contains;

  • A Foreword by Ashton Carter
  • My Doomsday 11 lecture in full
  • Two illustrated articles on two of the shows I discuss in my lecture
  • The full illustrated script of Phantasmagoria: Stories To Be Told Out (which includes 13 mini scripts for effects, including the needle swallow script I talked about in the lecture);
  • A write up of my propless storytelling effect The Gift of Hermes which leaves your audience with a little bit of magical thinking to take with them after your show.

Here’s a link if you are interested – Making Dark Magicks (PDF) – Making Dark Magicks (Paperback)