John Shearer was an internationally renowned magician. His smiling, outgoing personality and humorous approach to magic belied the fact that he was a highly skilled conjurer. He often joked that the best disappearing trick he ever did was at his first professional gig at a club in Kilsyth. Prior to appearing on stage he set up his props and tricks on a table behind the stage curtains, and when the compère announced him the curtains swept back taking the table and props with them.
He took his magic around the world and was equally at ease in sophisticated cabaret venues, working men’s clubs, theatres and children’s parties. The Magic Circle awarded him a gold medal and, in recognition of being the first professional British magician to tour the Soviet Union, he was made an honorary member of London’s Inner Magic Circle.
As a youngster he became aware of his dexterity with playing cards when he would join his parents in card games. He later joked that he could cheat without them knowing, adding that as a future magician he considered it bad practice but good for practising.
He added to his magic skills during the two and a half years spent doing his National Service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Tonfanau near Aberystwyth. One of the officers was Bernard Ramussen, an amateur magician who recognised young Shearer’s interest in magic and showed him a number of tricks. The officer also gave Shearer free access to his library of books on the occasions when Shearer baby-sat at his superior’s home on the base. By the time he was demobbed, Shearer had developed an act comprising close-up magic, card tricks and illusions.
Back in Scotland, he would travel by bus from his parents’ home in Denny carrying a suitcase full of props to take his act to parties, gala days, church halls and hospitals, and on Sundays he would play the interval spot at the Roxy Theatre in Falkirk. Payment for these appearances took the form of a box of chocolates or a pair of hand-knitted socks and it was not until he made his first appearance at a working men’s club in Kilsyth that he received cash. A later performance at Stirling’s Little Theatre was his introduction to working with an established Scottish act, the Alexander Brothers.
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John Shearer was born in Bonnybridge, near Falkirk. He was the only child of Hugh Shearer, a professional golfer, and his wife Margaret. On leaving school he began work as a mechanic, but after realising that his salary was insufficient to buy his own car, he became a travelling salesman; a car came with the job, letting him take his magic further afield in the evenings with his props stored in the boot.
In the mid-1950s he met Eleanor when she came to work in the same company. In 1960 they married but he continued juggling two careers. As his popularity as a magician increased, so did the pressures as a salesman and when his employer offered him an ultimatum — concentrate on your job or go — he decided to become a full-time professional conjurer, a decision he never regretted.
He began working six days a week in clubs in the north of England and the Midlands, where he quickly learnt what worked with audiences, dropping some tricks and introducing others.
One new trick was Dippy the Duck, a wooden duck which he manipulated, causing its beak to dip into a pack of cards and bring out a card that had previously been selected by a member of the audience. Often members of the audience would shout “It can see”, and on those occasions, he’d put a blindfold over its painted eyes to demonstrate that it couldn’t see. It was extremely popular with audiences and became a regular feature.
A tour of Ireland supporting Sydney Devine gave him wide exposure. He also played at Belfast’s Grove Theatre with Dickie Valentine where he was delighted to see his name on the bill for the first time, although he remarked: “The printer who printed the bills had bigger lettering than mine”. Summer seasons in Dunoon, Rothesay and Glasgow came next, leading to appearances in theatres and cabarets all over Britain, where his name was now appearing larger in the billing. Shearer’s personality endeared him to audiences and fellow performers alike. Sir Bruce Forsyth, Max Bygraves and Valentine became firm friends and the American star Guy Mitchell, who found it tiresome staying in hotels, would stay at the Shearer home in Dollar during part of his tours of the UK.
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In the early 1960s, Shearer performed at many of the Russian clubs in Glasgow and also on board Russian cruise ships which berthed in Grangemouth. This led to an invitation in 1965 to appear in the USSR. His act had to be changed to suit non-English-speaking audiences. He dropped the jokes, introduced Eleanor as his stage assistant and a visual act using Chinese rings, silk handkerchiefs and Dippy the Duck.
He often recalled the outdoor event at Moscow’s Gorky Park where the stage was in a vast natural amphitheatre with an audience of 10,000 sitting on the grass. “I often wondered how anyone could see me, let alone know I was showing the two of diamonds.”
Shearer went on to do five overseas tours with Andy Stewart’s White Heather Club performing across the US and Canada. He also toured Australia and New Zealand, and in all these shows performers had to wear the kilt. Shearer would jokingly comment that kilts were difficult for a magician because you can’t use your pockets — and it’s uncomfortable for the doves.
Stewart also booked Shearer on special cruises, billed as “Scotland Goes to Sea”, using P&O ships sailing out of Miami. The magician’s popularity was noted by agents of the Princess Line and the Norwegian Lines who went on to book him, leading to him spending 15 years cruising the world.
After 64 years in the magic business, Shearer’s last professional appearance was in 2008. He died in a nursing him in Tullibody and is survived by Eleanor, their children Keith and Gill and five grandchildren.
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Looking back on his career, he often remarked: “I just couldn’t believe my luck . . . all that happening to a fellow from Denny with a wooden duck that was blindfolded.”
John Shearer, magician, comedian and entertainer, was born on August 12, 1931. He died on July 4, 2017, aged 85.