Andrew Van Buren

Andrew Van Buren is a British performer who specialises in magic, large-scale illusions, juggling and plate spinning.

Biography

Van Buren spent his childhood touring the world with his parents' Fred Van Buren and Greta's magic and illusion show. He learned his trade in theatres and circus, on-stage, off-stage and backstage. During this time he teamed up with an Hungarian State Circus artiste who taught him the art of trick cycling, which led to his performing in unicycling, juggling and plate spinning.

Venues and projects

Van Buren and his team have performed at the Brit Awards in the London Arena and members of the British Royal family at World Expo in Seville, Spain. He has regularly performed with and made appear, disappear and float in mid-air the cast of Coronation Street, comedian Peter Kay and Lulu. He has worked in British venues including The Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena in London, as well as regularly performing on international cruise ships and presenting shows in the United Arab Emirates. On 8 September 2011 Van Buren presented the opening show of the New Mitchell Arts theatre in his home area of Hanley Stoke-on-Trent - the first theatre he worked on as a solo performer in 1981, returning 30 years later to present one of his illusion shows as the launch of the new £4 million refit venue. During 2013 amongst other projects Van Buren worked as Magic consultant and advisor on the show Houdini, which toured theatres in the UK - starring Stuart Brennan, Jamie Nichols and Evanna Lynch.

Magic Illusion Show spectaculars

Van Buren presented a large-scale magic illusion show called Van Buren's Abracadabra Magic Around The World in Blackpool Tower Circus during the 2007 season supported by a cast of 24 international performers and numerous large-scale illusions themed to a journey around the world. Van Buren and his team have also made regular appearances in the Middle East - UAE, Dubai, Doha, Sharjah, etc. with their themed magic illusion and circus skills shows as well as regular performances on some of the world's largest luxury cruise liners.

In 2013 Van Buren and Gandeys launched The Victorian Wonders Carnival Show - The show description is "a mixture of Victorian Steampunk wonders mixed with elements of a theatrical play, a large-scale magic and illusion show with the showmanship of the fairground". Its first performance was at the Brighton Festival before taking it on an on going world tour.

Affiliations

Andrew Van Buren is a member of the showbusiness organisation The Grand Order of Water Rats.

Andrew is also a Gold Star member of The Inner Magic Circle - Andrew Van Buren MIMC. Also Equity The Actors union and The Association of Independent Showmen.

He is known for performing large-scale illusions, including making cars appear and motorbikes disappear, often whilst completely surrounded by the audience.

Andrew also spearheads The Philip Astley Project working committee.

Television appearances

Van Buren has appeared as the plate spinner, illusionist and guest on various television programmes (& still does), shows and specials, including the opening scene of the music video of Charlotte Church's song "Call My Name". Other appearances include repeated appearances on Blue Peter, Cilla Black's Moment of Truth, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway Banged up with Beadle starring prancster Jeremy Beadle, most notably resurrecting the plate spinning challenge on Jim Davidson's The Generation Game, Noel Edmonds' Telly Years - including trying to teach Paul Ross, Marty Wilde, Henry Cooper and Noel Edmonds how to spin plates, CBBC’s children's variety show The Slammer and Best of Friends, The Des O'Connor Show and several times on The Money Programme as the corporate businessman plate spinner - using the plates to tell the story of the market crash and spin doctoring, also appearing on ITV's late night call in TV show The Mint. He providing the opening credits and various links repeatedly on the series Spin Cities with international DJ Judge Jules. Also appearing alongside "Harry Hill", "Kym Marsh", "Tim Healy", "Denise Welch" and several appearances with most of the TV soap Coronation Street's cast.

Most recently Andrew Van Buren provided pizza spinning for the superstore Morrisons ident advert "Pizza spinner" either side of the Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway TV show. 2015 Andrew starred alongside Stephen Mulhern & Sherrie Hewson plate spinning on ITV variety show Get Your Act Together. In January 2016 Andrew featured in a special 360 degree interactive film of BBC Breakfast News behind the studio scenes.

Family history

The Van Buren Story, a documentary produced by Ray Johnson MBE was released on DVD.

See also

External links & References

Books

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.