One hundred years of magic at Cambridge's Pentacle Club

Cambridge’s famous Pentacle Club celebrated its 100th anniversary with a touch of magic at the Guildhall.

Members put on a show to a packed venue, showcasing some of their best illusions.

The event guaranteed spellbinding miracles, stage illusions, close-up magic, comedy and pulse-quickening danger – including the pin cushion girl whom we were promised escaped unscathed.

Secretary of the Pentacle Club, Hugh Newsam, said: “It was a brilliant event and we are hoping it will attract even more members to join us. I’ve been part of the club for 11 years but we are one of the oldest clubs in the country and there are people from all walks of life and all ages here – we have professors, engineers and plumbers amongst us. What they all share is a love of magic.

“The fun of performing magic is the adrenalin rush of getting on stage and doing things that bring excitement and entertainment to other people. Some of the things you can do are shocking and seem impossible, and it is lovely sharing that moment of wonder with someone. When the coin floats from your hand or a card turns into something else, it is brilliant seeing the audience’s response.”

The show on Sunday (February 24) was in aid of one of the mayor’s chosen charities, Red Hen.

The club was founded in 1919 by Professor WW Rouse Ball, a mathematician, and the members were all from Cambridge University.

The Pentacle Club was the successor to ‘The Mystics’ which was founded in 1909 and lasted to the outbreak of war in 1914.

Their first public performance was at the ADC Theatre in 1924.

Soon they developed famous tricks like ‘The Marvels of Modern Medicine’ in which a golfer had his leg sawn off, and then drilled with holes before being replaced. In another, a patient was decapitated, the severed head smoking a cigarette with the aid of a pair of bellows before being restored.

Hugh, an engineering consultant by day, is putting together a new magic show for the Cambridge Science Festival on March 17 at Cambridge Junction as part of the club’s centenary celebrations.

“I’ve done talks at the science festival before as part of my real job at Siemens, so I suggested to the organisers that the Pentacle Club could perform a magic show based on Cambridge’s scientific discoveries,” says Hugh. “We are trying to break the rules of science and have a laugh – it is going to be a celebration of all the achievements in the University of Cambridge.”