Deception, disguise and finally a disappearance. This might sound like the premise of a magic trick, but it\u2019s actually the story of a woman who managed to fool a male-only, world-famous magic society into admitting her, before being unceremoniously kicked out when she revealed her true identity. Now, they want her back. <\/p>\n
The women trained for 18 months in magic as well as how to act, dress and sound like a man, London said, adding that the \u201corchestrated deception\u201d was \u201cso brilliantly put together, almost like a heist.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Magic Circle\u2019s purpose is to \u201cpromote and advance the art of magic,\u201d according to its website. Magicians have to prove their skill to be admitted, and must promise to abide by the society\u2019s Latin motto, \u201cIndocilis private loqui\u201d (\u201cnot apt to disclose secrets\u201d). <\/p>\n
Lloyd, who was in her 20s at the time, managed to fool the organization into accepting her in 1990, when she disguised herself as a man named Raymond Lloyd, London said. <\/p>\n
Lloyd passed the entrance exam, which required her to perform tricks in front of members of the society, and started as an apprentice before becoming a full member of in March 1991. <\/p>\n
A campaign to admit women into the all-male society became successful in October that year, and it was after this vote that Lloyd revealed her true self. \u201cShe thought (the society) would find it funny, I suppose, (but they) <\/strong>actually were really angry,\u201d London said, adding that the Magic Circle kicked her out. <\/p>\n Lloyd continued to do magic, using it in a show to educate young people about bullying, London said. However, it has been \u201cdifficult to find her\u201d since. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to sit down and have a chat with her and see what happened to her,\u201d London said. \u201cI have a feeling she was very hurt by this and I really hope that it didn\u2019t affect her ability to continue in the entertainment industry. I hope that it didn\u2019t dishearten her.\u201d <\/p>\n London added that she would like to \u201csay thank you\u201d to Lloyd, adding that the Magic Circle \u201cwould all like to apologize. But what we would love to do is invite her back.\u201d <\/p>\n London said it has come to light that Sophie was not the magician\u2019s birth name, but a professional or stage name. <\/p>\n While they do not yet know her true <\/strong>surname, London said they believe her real first name was Sue, which she said has been confirmed by Winstanley\u2019s son and a friend of the family. London told the BBC that Winstanley had sadly died. <\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s just the most extraordinary woman to be so brave to do that, and I and many of us women in the industry are just finding this so courageous for these two to go about deliberately proving that women can do it as good as men,\u201d London said. <\/p>\n The society now has more than 80 female members, according to its website. Although, this makes up about 5% of its cohort of more than 1,700 members. <\/p>\n \u201cOver 30 years ago, our predecessors made in my opinion a faux pas when they ejected her for deception \u2013 and the irony is not lost on us about a magician deceiving someone,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome all good magicians whatever the gender and have been delighted to notice more and more women magicians join us,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Founded in 1905 in London\u2019s Soho district, the society\u2019s most famous members include magician Dynamo, actor Stephen Fry and even King Charles III, who joined when he was still a prince in 1975, after performing a cups and balls trick, according to the Magic Circle. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Deception, disguise and finally a disappearance. This might sound like the premise of a magic trick, but it\u2019s actually the story of a woman who managed to fool a male-only, world-famous magic society into admitting her, before being unceremoniously kicked out when she revealed her true identity. Now, they want her back. The women trained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} A lead in the search<\/h2>\n