The Trade Of The Tricks

Meet Joe in black

ver since GG was a handsome, debonair and ridiculously intelligent young boy, we’ve loved magic tricks.

It’s a love that probably stemmed from our very great uncle Ned, who used to perform under the moniker of The Great Sarcasmo.

Joe with that cookery fella

His big showstopper was pulling hats out of rabbits.

A sight to behold.

Hot off his brand new RTÉjr show Dizzy Deliveries – a handy companion piece to his other RTÉ show, AbraKIDabra – Joe Daly is coming back to The Whale on Sunday, February 6th.

So, naturally, we had to ask Joe The Magician just where all this magic stems from…

I got into magic at the age of 6, on a family holiday in Blackpool and seeing magician Paul Daniels on stage. Straight after the show I got his magic set and I was hooked!

I was terribly shy as a kid but performing magic really forced me to get over that. I wanted to perform so bad that shyness was not going to hold me back.

Soon I was performing small shows on my street, for visitors to the house, then school talent shows and later paid gigs. The real draw was getting paid to do something I absolutely loved! It was a no-brainer!

I studied marketing in college, purely so I could learn how to market myself, paying my way through college by performing shows at weekends.

I have never had a ‘real’ job in my life. I’ve only ever made money performing magic – which in itself is, of course, magic.

David Copperfield
My greatest magician influence was American illusions David Copperfield. Back in the ’80s and ’90s his TV specials were incredible. Now it’s all ‘street magic’ but back then it was all big illusions and theatricality. That had a huge influence on me then and now. I love theatrics and I try and bring that element to all of my performances. Above is the most beautiful illusion in the world. I’ve seen him do this live and it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to real magic.

John Cleese
Comedy influence has to be John Cleese. A a kid we had the video of Fawlty Towers at home and I repeatedly watched them crying laughing. Every now and then I’ll pop on an episode or two.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Favourite movie of all time is the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder puts in the most wonderful performance as Wonka. You were never quite sure what he was capable of of what he was going to do next. Lots of ‘wonkaisms’ work their way into the show!!

Stephen Roche
One of my other passions in life is cycling. I used to race a lot both in Ireland and France and seriously considered turning professional in my late teens. My cycling hero has to be Stephen Roche. Winning the World Championship, the Giro d’italia and the Tour de France in the same year is unheard of. Pure grit and determination.

Norman Wisdom
Another firm favourite of mine was Norman Wisdom. To this day his movies still have the ability to make me cry with laughter. His frenetic mannerisms have definitely rubbed off on me and slapstick humour is a huge part of my show.

Performing at The Whale on Sunday, February 6th 2022 at 12pm and 3pm, you can still grab tickets for the former right here.