Simon Lovell (born 1957) is an English comedy magician, actor, and

card sharp A card sharp (also card shark, sometimes hyphenated or spelled as a single word) is a person who uses skill or deception to win at card games (such as poker). "Sharp" and "shark" spellings have varied over time and by region. The label is not a ...

, who specialises in magic using playing cards.

Career

Lovell was a regular performer in ''Monday Night Magic'', an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

show featuring magicians and related performers. He also appeared in the one-man off-Broadway show ''Strange and Unusual Hobbies'', which combined humor with card and magic tricks, and ran for eight years at the

SoHo Playhouse The SoHo Playhouse is an Off-Broadway theatre at 15 Vandam Street in the Hudson Square area of Manhattan. The theatre opened in 1962 as the Village South Theatre with the original production of Jean Erdman's musical play ''The Coach with the S ...

. He was a consultant

con man A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...

for

Matt Bomer Matthew Staton Bomer ( ; born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. His works have earned him accolades including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. Bomer m ...

in the show ''

White Collar White collar may refer to: * White-collar worker, a professional who performs office-based or similar service-based jobs, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor * White-collar boxing * White-collar crime The term ...

''. In 1987, Lovell appeared performing a magic trick in series one of ''

ChuckleVision ''ChuckleVision'' is a British children's comedy television series created by Martin Hughes and the Chuckle Brothers for the BBC. It starred Barry and Paul Elliott as the Chuckle Brothers and occasionally their older brothers, Jimmy, and Bria ...

''. Other TV appearances include

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reality show ''Celebracadabra'', on which he and other magicians trained celebrities to perform magic tricks. He appeared in the 1988

BBC Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its fundraising efforts. Th ...

telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause. Most telethons feature heavy solicitatio ...

. Lovell has written 16 books, including ''How to Cheat at Everything: A Con Man Reveals the Secrets of the Esoteric Trade of Cheating, Scams, and Hustles'' (first published as ''Billion Dollar Bunko''). He appeared as the devil in the short film ''Redemption'' in 2013. In October 2013 Lovell suffered a severe multiple break to his right femur, requiring surgical implantation of titanium rods and two-and-a-half months of hospital care. https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/simon-lovell He suffered further complications in 2014 and is currently living in England.

Books

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References

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The Linking Ring ''The Linking Ring'' is a monthly print magic magazine published by the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) for its members since 1922. It is based in Bluffton, Ohio. In 2007, Samuel Patrick Smith, a magician, author and publisher ba ...

Volume 84 Number 11 (November 2004) English magicians Comedians from Manchester 1957 births Living people {{Magic-stub