Paul Potassy on Youtube
Here’s a youtube video clip of Paul Potassy when he was still younger.
The clip shows him performing his pick pocketing act on Spanish TV. You will notice he speaks Spanish like a native. He is reputed to speak several languages (six, I think) fluently, including inscrutable Japanese.
About 10 years ago, I caught his show at Prince of Wales in Makati. I remember laughing hard at his opening number (Sympathetic Silks), Torn and Restored Newspaper, and the Razor Blade Swallowing (yes, it’s funny when Paul Potassy does it).
One unintentional funny highlight of the show was the part when a drunken patron kept standing up and going to the toilet. I don’t recall exactly the lines Mr. Potassy used, but the tipsy gentleman’s trips to the toilet became a sort of running gag, a la the salt shaker, that brought down the house.
Improv or ready-lines for contingencies such as that? I don’t know, but the way Paul Potassy handled the situation was a fine lesson on stage presence and audience control.
Here’s the video on the Spanish TV show. Watch and enjoy Paul Potassy, magician extraordinaire.
Stay magical,
Leodini
Hi LEODINI,
it is a pitty that you can not see anymore the Video from the spanish TV…. ON YOUTUBE
Can u do anything about it that it will be bacK in your website ????????????????
I thank you very much in advance ; best regards
P A U L POTASSY
YOUTUBE was great :why can we not see it anymore >>>>
Hi Paul,
I agree with you. It’s a pity the video of your performance on Spanish TV is not viewable anymore.
YouTube removed it. The reason for the removable is “terms of use violation.” Exactly what terms were violated, YouTube didn’t say. I suspect, however, it’s something to do with copyright issues.
Sigh…
Leodini
I first saw Paul Potassy perform about 40 years ago on British television and I was electrified by it. I actually saw him twice. I knew I had seen a great magician.
It is indeed a shame that the Spanish television clip has gone. I used to watch it often.
I have been inspired by Paul’s work to learn a few of his tricks. 4 of them to be precise. I am no Potassy but I am doing my best. I have mastered the wonderful sympathetic silks routine. It is quite similar to Paul’s although I only use one rubber band. I do have more but they are just spares in case of accident.
I do the newspaper trick although it is a completely different method from Paul’s and the routine and presentation is different too. However it was Paul who inspired me to do it in the first place.
I do the card in lasso thing too but with a paper bag rather than a metal bucket. And I also use an invisible flea. Don’t ask……………………….
I have mastered the above three tricks but I am still working on the pickpocket routine which I love dearly. I am not there yet but I am getting there.
I thank Paul for inspiring me and I hope to do his material justice. He really is a maestro of magic and I am glad I saw him work so many years ago.
Hi Mark,
I’m so glad you stopped by and took time to write about Paul Potassy. I know you are a long-time fan of his, as this is not the first time you wrote glowingly about him. A few years back, I saw your post about him on one of the online forums of magicians.
Paul is revered here in the Philippines as he is in other parts of the world. For that reason, I am publishing your comments as a full-fledged post of this blog, so that the younger generations of magicians in my country, many of them nurtured by Ellusionist and Penguin Magic, may hear more about Paul Potassy and his magic.
Best,
Leodini
Here is a little more detail on the matter. Just over 40 years ago I was informed by Michael Vishnick now known as Michael Vine (Derren Brown’s manager) that there was a wonderful magician named Potassy. I had never heard the name so just shrugged my shoulders. A few months later I heard the name again. Someone who I can no longer recall told me that there was a magician in Paris who was getting standing ovations working to drunks at 2am in the morning. Since at this time I was also working in London nightclubs working to drunks at 2am but dying dreadful and horrific deaths I was intrigued enough to ask who this miracle man was. The name was Potassy.
Again I shrugged my shoulders but about a year later I saw Paul on British television. All he did was the pickpocket routine but he didn’t need to do anything else. I was electrified by the performance. I remember thinking that if I ever did pickpocketing this was exactly how I would do it. I didn’t know at the time how technically easy Pauls routine was. I then saw another performer a few months later called Rodolfo also from Hungary do essentially the same routine. I suspect one of them got it from the other. Or perhaps it was how pickpocketing was done in Hungary-I have no idea. Rudolfo was also a master performer.
Then a year later I saw Paul again on TV doing the razor blades. This was over 40 years ago and he does it exactly the same way now! Hardly a word had changed! An incredible masterpiece and I have never seen a better presentation. I was particularly impressed at the fact he put the blade in sideways and the memory stuck with me for over 40 years. I was delighted to see that he did exactly the same thing all those years later.
I would mention Paul Potassy to magicians in Britain and North America and nobody knew who the hell I was talking about. When I saw the book and DVD I nearly fainted with excitement! The magic shop owner was amazed when I demanded to buy the material within seconds of seeing it on the shelf. He asked if I knew the price and I told him the price didn’t matter. He was astonished because I am not a big spender in magic shops and he himself had never heard of Potassy. I told him that the man he had never heard of was one of the greatest magicians in the world. I also told other people in the shop this. All young magicians who thought I was nuts. Of course they had never heard of him either.
I am glad that Paul is getting a little more known among the magic community. About bloody time.
Hi Mark,
Thank you, thank you, for this wonderful story about Paul Potassy.
I guess Paul is a well-kept secret in other parts of the world. Here in the Philippines, he is quite well known in the magic community, gracing anniversary celebrations and other Club events. When he is around at gatherings of magicians, Paul doesn’t act like the superstar that he is. He is always humble and bursting with enthusiasm when the subject is about magic.
Though officially retired (or so I heard), Paul still sometimes performs for select clients at private parties. I don’t know if he is going to perform publicly again. For the sake of the young generations of magicians here in the Philippines who have not seen him live on stage, I wish he would.
Again, as in your first message, I’m reprinting your write-up on Paul as a post on the main pages of this blog…
Leodini