Fifty Years in the Magic Circle

Who could resist an autobiography that boasts such chapter headings as “An Aristocratic Cabbage” and “The King of Pigs”? Not content with confining his hugely successful comedy magic to the stage, Signor Blitz conjures up a tale of globetrotting adventure that’s best taken with more than a pinch of salt — despite his assertions of Moravian parentage and an account of childhood performances in Hamburg, the self-described signor was born in a coastal town in England. There is, however, still plenty of fun to be had and much to learn from this mammoth account of what it was like to perform around the world in the nineteenth century, and whether he’s crossing paths with the famed chess-playing automaton the Turk, narrowly avoiding death while attempting the Bullet Catch, or falling in love, Signor Blitz proves so entertaining a narrator that we have little choice but to revel in his storytelling abilities and read on…