Drummond Money-Coutts
| The Honourable Drummond Money-Coutts | |
|---|---|
 Profile photo of Money-Coutts in 2008. | |
| Born |
11 May 1986 London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Magician, Cardsharp |
| Parents |
Crispin Money-Coutts, 9th Baron Latymer Lucy Deedes |
| Website | |
| www.dmcmagic.com | |
Drummond William Thomas Money-Coutts (born 11 May 1986), also nicknamed "DMC", is an English magician and specialist card sharp. Money-Coutts is the heir apparent to the Latymer Barony.
Biography
He was born in London, the son of Crispin Money-Coutts and his first wife Lucy Deedes, the daughter of Bill Deedes. On the death in 2003 of his grandfather Hugo Money-Coutts, 8th Baron Latymer, his father became the 9th Baron Latymer, and as such Drummond Money-Coutts the heir apparent.
Money-Coutts became interested in magic in 1994 after visiting Davenports, London's oldest magic shop located on the Strand, underneath the family bank Coutts where his father worked at the time.[1] He was educated at Westbourne House School, and then Eton College, where he founded the Eton College Magic Society and also arranged a visit by Uri Geller, from whom he learned how to bend spoons. His first professional performance came in 2000 while he was still at school, at the Royal Horticultural Society.[2]
When Money-Coutts left Eton in 2004, his conjuring career was already well under way. By 2005, when he was at Leeds University, he had already performed before Queen Elizabeth II, Hugh Grant, and Michael Parkinson. Money-Coutts made two visits to Asia that year, speaking at an International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Calcutta, and subsequently spent several weeks in Bangkok learning from local professional hustlers. Also in 2005, while on a visit to New York City, he studied with the professional magicians Jamy Ian Swiss, Simon Lovell, and Billy McComb.
In July 2007, Money-Coutts published a booklet called Mr Magnificent: Highlight of the Night!, a concise guide to the professional and financial aspects of magic, written for magicians.[3]
In September 2007, an evening's magic tuition with Money-Coutts was sold by Jeremy Clarkson at a charity auction and fetched ₤5,000.
In 2009, Money-Coutts completed four months of training and qualified as a professional croupier and card dealer at the London Gaming College.
As of February 2010, Money-Coutts holds private residencies at both Annabel's Club and The George Club (Mayfair).
In 2010, Fin's shoes released exclusively the "Drummond Evening Slipper", a style of velvet shoe voted in December as Vogue magazine's "Top 100 Christmas Buys" of 2010.[4] In February 2011, ex-Baywatch star David Hasselhoff was seen wearing a pair of Drummond Evening Slippers upon leaving a London nightclub.[5]
By late 2011, Money-Coutts had developed himself as one of the country's foremost magicians, with international audiences including Jeremy Clarkson, David Haye, Pippa Middleton, Natalia Vodianova, Hugh Grant, Bryan Adams, Emma Watson, Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, Sarah, Duchess of York, Sir David Frost, Prince Harry and Eddie Jordan.[citation needed]
Film productions
In August 2007, Money-Coutts travelled to Kenya with his school friend and fellow performer Tom Lyon to film Kenyan Conjurations: the School Built By Magic, a DVD documentary released early in 2008 and sold to raise funds to build a primary school on the Kenyan coast. The project has raised over ₤17,000 to date.[6]
In August 2008, Money-Coutts travelled again with Tom Lyon to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, where the pair filmed their second DVD together.
In January 2010, Money-Coutts travelled to India to film his third film project, a work titled Hindi'licious - A Magical Mecca Unto the Taj. Produced in association with the Rajasthan charity Seva Mandir, Money-Coutts was featured on both local news channels and the national channel ETV - broadcast to over 30 million people across northern India.
In August 2010, Money-Coutts spent a month in Tanzania, both performing and investigating the widespread beliefs in witchcraft. The short film, Tanzanian Devil - The Dark Truths B'hind the African Witchdoctors, was released on the internet on 26 October 2010. In February 2011, the film was featured on Derren Brown's blog with an article detailing the witchcraft issues in Tanzania and Swaiziland.[7]
In February 2011, Money-Coutts took to Bangkok to work and study alongside the card cheats and card artists of the city. The resulting short film, Thai-Boo, Cardsharks of Sin City, was released to the internet on 9 March 2011. In addition to footage of the local cardsharks, the film also explains the story of The Expert at the Card Table, the classic card-cheating treatise written in 1902 by S. W. Erdnase.
In January 2012, following the murder and ritual sacrifice of a young girl in southern India,[8] Money-Coutts returned to the country to film the short film, Why Do We Believe?, which looked at why human beings today still believe in superstitions, rituals and beliefs in the face of modern-day technology and evidence.
In May 2012 Money-Coutts travelled to the supposed birthplace of magic, Egypt, in order to film his fifth solo short film, "DMC: What is Magic?". Staying in Cairo whilst the city was under military curfew, owing to the ongoing unrest after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution - the film seeks to find quite what magic really means today after so many thousands of years of development.
In June 2013 Money-Coutts' first mainstream television special was aired in the UK on the National Geographic Channel. 'Card Shark' follows the story of the Three-Card Monte and sees Money-Coutts travel from London to Paris and Bangkok to both perform and to meet with international card masters. The special aired in Australia in July 2013 and is set for worldwide release in September 2013.[9]
Public stunts
On 11 July 2011, Money-Coutts announced a public treasure quest to take place in London's Natural History Museum, in which over the course of one week, ten envelopes would be hidden throughout the museum - each containing a £50 note.[10] Towards the end of the week, an eleventh envelope would then be concealed somewhere in the museum by an anonymous assistant - inside which was £1000 in cash.[11] As stated by Money-Coutts in an online video - the contents and money would belong to whomsoever located each envelope. Once hidden in the museum, the £1000 envelope was not found for 72 hours - finally located by Chris Howard and Javier Trapero on the first floor of the Central Hall, on Monday 18 July.[11] Although the Natural History Museum was not made aware of the stunt prior to its launch, staff and management confirmed record admittance numbers during the week of the treasure hunt.
In November 2011, Money-Coutts spent 8 consecutive evenings sleeping rough in London as part of a wider campaign for the youth homeless charity, Centrepoint (charity) - a campaign which went on to raise over £250 000 in total.[12] The resulting video, Homeless - Where The Heart Is, included footage from the week and also the charity's main Sleep Out event in London's Exchange Square on 10 November - also attended by Sara Cox, Rebecca Ferguson and David Ginola.
In February 2013, Money-Coutts performed the climax stunt to his first television special 'Card Shark' in Bangkok, Thailand.[13] Filmed in the Rajadamnern Stadium, Money-Coutts played a version of Russian Roulette with four shot glasses; three filled with water, and one filled with 97% concentrate sulphuric acid. Money-Coutts closed his eyes and had a kickboxer throw the contents of three of the glasses into his face, the fighter unaware of which contained the acid. The stunt was successful.
References
- ↑ McPhee, Rod (11 October 2005). "Standing out from the pack". The Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ↑ Gordon, Bryony (27 August 2004). "Card Sharp". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ↑ "Mr Magnificent". Archived from the original on 2008-01-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ↑ Vogue.com, UK (1 November 2010). "100 Christmas Buys - Everything you need for the most stylish Christmas". Condé Nast Publications. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
- ↑ DailyMail.co.uk, UK (7 February 2011). "Ladies, please! David Hasselhoff runs away from female admirers after a night clubbing in London". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2011-02-08.
- ↑ Middleton, Christopher (30 August 2008). "Conjuring up a school by magic". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- ↑ Derren Brown Blog, UK (8 February 2011). "Magic meets Mysticism in Tanzania". Derren Brown official website. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ↑ The Daily Mail, UK (12 January 2012). "The murdered Indian girl, 7, whose liver was cut out in a sacrifice to the gods for a better harvest". Mail Online. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
- ↑ National Geographic Channel Internaitonal, UK (3 June 2013). "Card Shark, National Geographic International". NGI. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
- ↑ Derren Brown Official Blog, UK (14 July 2011). "Take part in a treasure hunt and find £1000". Derren Brown official website. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Evening Standard Diary, UK (12 July 2011). "Now for the Money man’s latest trick". Londoner's Diary, Evening Standard. Retrieved 2011-07-12.
- ↑ The Independent, UK, UK (18 November 2011). "Drummond Money-Coutts: Hitting the streets to raise awareness". Blogs, The Independent. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
- ↑ National Geographic International, UK (3 June 2013). "Card Shark, National Geographic International". NGI. Retrieved 2013-08-13.