Father and son duo keep magic alive
A magic father and son duo have not let the pandemic stop them performing.
George, 61, and Alex Rowley, 30, from Halesowen, both work full time as entertainers at AGMagicians, as well as offering training in magic and performance skills.
As the pandemic hit, the pair were left without work for some time and had to adapt their business to the new way of life.
George said: "We had 12-months of planned gigs collapse around us, losing all of our potential income and throwing us into huge amount of uncertainty, anxiety, stress and depression.
"Like a lot of other businesses in the hospitality, travel and entertainment industry, we basically had to cease trading for months on end whilst the world changed around us.
"What’s more than this, magic is a highly interactive art and experience, and requires people being able to witness and believe things up close and personally.
"For the first six months of the pandemic, we really struggled to find any ways of delivering this magic experience online."
Like many others, they decided to go virtual with their performances, and have gone from strength to strength.
George added: "As well as having to work out all the technological barriers, we figured out a number of ways we could use Zoom and other streaming platforms to our advantage.
"Though this has been a challenge, we’ve also found it really rewarding to keep performing and showing people the things we love to do.
"This has also meant we’re open to virtually performing across the entire world, with audiences from America, Europe, Australia and Asia now booking us for online parties, celebrations and events.
"It’s taught us how valuable face-to-face contact is, as well as giving us another set of tools and new audiences for delivering our performance online. We’re really looking forward to returning to some sense of normality soon."
The duo hope to return to face-to-face performances on July 1.
