Bro. Raymond Christofides has been a driving instructor for 43 years, 30 of those in Cambridge which is where he joined Kynaston Lodge. The past couple of years during the pandemic has been the worst time he has ever known being forced to take a lot of time off work and reliant on his wife for support.
Ray had got involved in 2017 with the 102 year old Pentacle Magic Club in Cambridge. He slowly started to learn a little bit of magic and practiced on his long suffering wife, pupils and Brethren during festive boards and Masonic events.
During the pandemic Ray needed something else to do and decided to give himself another goal to achieve. He joined the World Famous Magic Circle as an Apprentice. Considering that many magicians started in The Magic Circles’ Young Magicians Club as children and Ray was starting as a 64 year old newbie, he had a lot of catching up to do!
During this time world famous magicians similarly had very little to do. Zoom came into play and suddenly the world of magic opened up to all aspiring magicians with lectures and talks from those magicians.
Monday evenings became The Magic Circle Apprentice Network and Tuesday evenings were The Pentacle Magic Club here in Cambridge. Ray says “We spoke to people like Dynamo (Steven Frayne), Andy Nyman, Jeff McBride, Lance Burton, Martin Daniels (Paul’s son) and were inspired by their work”.
In the mean-time Ray felt he’d been progressing too slowly with his magic. He asked Cambridge based, Three Times Magic Champion, Matthew Le Mottée, for help. Matthew thankfully agreed. Ray added “This is when my plan came together and since I’ve been working with Matthew my magic started to improve significantly”. Eventually, Matthew
felt it was good enough to take The Magic Circle Audition for Full Membership. Ray added “I am very pleased to say it was, and I passed!”
Ray concluded “My act, took a lot of time and effort to get to an acceptable standard and I’ve enjoyed every moment of learning with Matthew. I have asked him if I can stay on as his student”
Ray still finds a spell or two whilst attending Lodge meetings with his fellow Brethren. He recently proposed for membership his good friend Jeremy Bond, an entertainer and magician, and who is now also a member of Kynaston Lodge.