Joseph Jacobs
Born1813 (1813)
Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
Died (aged 57)
Other names
  • The Wizard Jacobs
  • Jacobs the Wizard
  • The Great Jacobs
OccupationEntertainer

Joseph Jacobs (1813 – 13 October 1870), also known by the stage names The Wizard Jacobs, Jacobs the Wizard, and The Great Jacobs, was an English magician, improvisatore, and ventriloquist.

Biography

Jacobs was born to a Jewish family in Canterbury, Kent.[1] He appeared on stage at an early age, visiting Dover, Brighton, Bath, and other provincial towns during the summer and autumn of 1834.[2] He first appeared in London at Horn's Tavern, Kennington, in 1835, where he performed the Chinese ring trick.[3] Four years later he had the honour of performing before the Princess Augusta at Brighton.[2]

At the Strand Theatre in 1841, he made a great show of expensive apparatus in imitation of J. H. Anderson.[4] He performed in 1846 the trick of turning ink into transparent water in which goldfish swam, and in 1850 he introduced the trick of producing from under a shawl bowls of water containing goldfish, afterwards throwing the shawl on the floor, and then, on raising it again, disclosing live ducks or rabbits.[2]

He appeared at the Adelaide Gallery in 1853, in America in 1854, and in 1860 in Australia and New Zealand. In 1860 he also opened the Polygraphic Hall in London.[4]

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jacobs, Joseph; Lipkind, Goodman (1904). "Jacobs, Joseph (known as Jacobs the Wizard)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 46.

  1. ↑ Prawer, S. S. (1992). Israel at Vanity Fair: Jews and Judaism in the Writings of W. M. Thackeray. E. J. Brill. pp. 206–207. ISBN 978-90-04-09403-1.
  2. 1 2 3 Frost, Thomas (1876). The Lives of the Conjurors. London: Tinsley Brothers. pp. 214–220.
  3. ↑  Jacobs, Joseph; Lipkind, Goodman (1904). "Jacobs, Joseph (known as Jacobs the Wizard)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 46.
  4. 1 2 Boase, Frederic (1897). "Jacobs, Mr.". Modern English Biography. Vol. 2. Truro: Netherton and Worth. p. 44.
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