Do You Believe In Magic? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Game of Thrones

That is a photograph of an actual place that you can visit: the dark hedges near Armoy in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.

In the 18th century, an important family of local landowners planted rows of beech trees on ether side of the approach to their home. They matured into the majestic attracting of today. In the Game of Thrones" TV show, the trees are used as an atmospheric approach tunnel.

The TV show was based on the long-running book series by George R.R. Martin. Much of the production, including the famous battle scenes, was shot in Northern Ireland. It aired between 2011 and 2019.

It has been claimed that GOT was broadcast in 199 countries worldwide, with more than 18.4m viewers. The production is also estimated to have added £148 million to the economy of Northern Ireland.

Answer: Bewitched

Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha Stevens, a seemingly normal middle class housewife, but one with a secret: she was a witch. She was married to an advertising executive, initially played by Dick York, although he was replaced by Dick Sergant in season six.

Samantha was a good witch, who could cast a spell with the twitch of her nose. Witchcraft was an intergenerational thing, not only was Samantha's mother a witch, but her daughter was one too.

In 2005, Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman starred in a movie about an actor trying out for a role in the revival of a television show..."Bewitched". The critics cannot be accused of being overkind.

Answer: White rabbit

This is not to say that none of the wrong answers have never been produced from a top hat - we are talking magicians here, after all.

The white rabbit is the animal most associated with the top hat, although white doves were also popular, as well as yards and yards of brightly coloured ribbon.

The first to pull a rabbit from a hat is thought to be the Scottish magician John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) in the mid 1800s. During a tour of America, he pioneered a trick in which he caught a bullet fired from a gun held by a member of the audience on his mouth.

Answer: Harry Potter

Harry Potter was the subject of books and movies that made the author J. K. Rowling a multi-millionaire.

The orphan boy was swept from his suburban home to a school for magic where he encountered many like-minded people, and had a great many adventures. (He also had a pet snowy owl, Hedwig.)

I am not going to give any more spoilers in case there possibly might be one or two people somewhere on planet earth who has not read an HP book or seen one of the movies.

Answer: Harry Houdini

Born Erich Weisz on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary, Harry Houdini moved at a young age with his family to the USA, living firstly in Wisconsin and then settling in New York City.

His career as a magician began in 1894 using his adopted name. Soon audiences began to appreciate his feats of escapology more than his magic.

Quite often these involved him being chained up; trapped in barrels and trunks; or submerged underwater.

He became probably the most famous escapologist of his era and he toured extensively in the USA and Europe.

This brought him great wealth and he indulged in a passion for flying. Houdini also starred in several early movies.

Some uncertainty surrounds the circumstance of his death at the age of 52 in October 1936.

The cause was given as peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. Some say that came about when he challenged a student to punch him hard in the stomach and the student did so before Houdini could set his stomach muscles. It is also claimed he was poisoned by by spiritualists angry at his denouncement of psychic mediums - a general group he believed to be fraudulent.

Answer: Siegfried & Roy

Roy Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher were involved in a 35-year residency in Las Vegas until Horn was mauled by a tiger on stage in 2003.

Their act involved live animals such as lions, elephants, and white (Bengal) tigers.

In a typical routine they would make an elephant disappear or a tiger turn into a beautiful woman.

Both Roy Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher were born in Germany. They first met by chance while working on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher was entertaining passengers with his magic tricks; Horn was a cabin boy.

Their career together built slowly util it was championed by Princess Grace of Monaco in the mid 1960s.

Their career in Las Vegas began in 1990 at the newly built Mirage casino hotel.

Horn died during the Covid-19 Pandemic in May 2020, at the age of 75.

Answer: Legerdemain

Who said all the questions have to be easy?

"Sleight of hand" is one of the most obvious synonyms.

Card tricks are the bread and butter of many a magician's act. Their aim is to ask a volunteer from the audience to pick a card and then produce it after a complicated process.

All the words used here have French origins, even if some are more obscure than others.

Answer: Morgan Le Fey

Okay, allow a little artistic licence in claiming Arthur to be a king who actually ruled. The myth and legend remain strong.

The image was by the English painter Frederick Sandys and was produced by him in about 1864. Morgan Le Fay was, legend tells us, a sorceress and the half-sister of King Arthur. The painter used a model he met in a gypsy camp in Rome.

The painting is on display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Answer: Pug of Crydee

Pug's early story of being found as an orphan by the roadside; raised in a castle kitchen; adopted by the lord; and then apprenticed to a magician, began in the book "Magician" in 1982 and ran through to "Magician"s End", 2013.

In between, Pug made appearance in around 24 books by Feist and collaborators.

"There is no magic, only tricks," was something that another of the magicians in Feist's stories - Nakor - frequently said in order to hide just how powerful he was.

Answer: Uri Geller

Uri Geller's speciality was in bending spoons simply using the power of his mind.

Geller was born in Israel in 1946 and established a career built on his ability with spoons, keys and other metal objects.

Many people have spoken and written skeptically about Geller's career.

Television made him famous and he often performed in close-up action.

In 1973 his reputation suffered a devastating blow on "The Johnny Carson Show". Carson was an amateur magician and he produced a number of spoons that Geller had no prior access to and was unable to bend. (Of course you have worked out he used sleight-of-hand to physically weaken spoons and keys in advance of his 'mind bending'.)