Neil Kelso

Neil Kelso Magician. Musician. Writer/Director/Performer.

The kindness and generosity and TALENT in the Tarot community always bowls me over. Look at this beautiful hand-drawn ar...
08/10/2026

The kindness and generosity and TALENT in the Tarot community always bowls me over. Look at this beautiful hand-drawn artwork I was gifted tonight. And the conference hasn’t even fully begun yet. Tonight was a magical and fun teaser preview of the weekend ahead which is all angles of Tarot, but with a special through-line of The Magician card. This bunny is apparently called Ethan, and has quite a story to tell. 🐇 I am very honoured to be one of the speakers this weekend. You can get all the info and even join online UK Tarot Conference is always such a wonderful happening.

Tonight I had the huge honour of being Pi the Mime’s guest artiste, translator and co-conspirator at The Roses of Elagab...
08/10/2026

Tonight I had the huge honour of being Pi the Mime’s guest artiste, translator and co-conspirator at The Roses of Elagabalus. 🥀 It fills me with pride to see my dear friend who has made a truly exquisite show “Pivaldi: The Four Seasons”, sharing their exquisite talent, in a venue that is a true jewel in the world cabaret scene, to an audience peppered with cabaret royalty, alongside the most delicious food and cocktails. ✨ It’s Cabaret done right, and it’s so full of heart.
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You only have THREE more chances to see this breathtaking show, and tickets will sell out. Next Wednesday the guest artiste is none other than Loose Willis!!!!! The week after, on the 21st, I’ll be back again with one or two new tricks up my sleeves, and then Loose will be there on the 28th.
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AND… news hot off the press, on Wednesday 18th November for ONE NIGHT ONLY you can see A WHOLE NIGHT OF MAGIC by Neil Kelso (yes, me!) at Roses of Elagabalus. It’s gonna be a particularly special night and I’ve got exciting plans to share things that none of you have ever seen before, so come. Tickets are on sale already, just head to Roses of Elagabalus for info and the best vibes.
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Reposted • Roses of Elagabalus Join Alexander Luttley for a season of seasons with Pivaldi. A night of music, humour and everyone’s favourite mime at Dinner and a Show every Wednesday at the Roses.

Tickets available on our linktree, see you in the Cabaret 🥀

September with
October with Alexander Luttley
November with Loose Willis
December with Galore

Dinner by Flock
Photo by Kenneth Lam

It was such a joy to see the legends of Bijou Stories put on a night of proper old-fashioned musichall entertainment and...
07/10/2026

It was such a joy to see the legends of Bijou Stories put on a night of proper old-fashioned musichall entertainment and share the amazing history of Greenwich Theatre along the way. ✨ I had the great pleasure of sharing a little magic with these superstars earlier in the year and they all sparkled and shone very bright indeed. I was jolly proud of them all. Huge well done to Abigail Collins and Kit Green too who are both always the best of the best in every way. Cabaret and musichall is still bringing people together and creating brilliant memories. 🫶 What a great show! Bravo! 🥳

Every month I make a longggg list of everything that’s been inspiring me, the things that helped me crack a creative pro...
03/10/2026

Every month I make a longggg list of everything that’s been inspiring me, the things that helped me crack a creative problem, and whatever I’m currently tumbling down a rabbit hole with. Then I choose the strangest seven and email them to anyone who would like to read them. It’s called 7Secrets. Membership is free, and the only way in is via the door on my website. There’s one coming soooooon!

« Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life » - Berthold Auerbach🖤To me, music and magic are inseparable...
01/10/2026

« Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life » - Berthold Auerbach
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To me, music and magic are inseparable. Invisible forces that move us on such a microscopic level yet can completely transform our entire experience of the world. Abracadabra.
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This is one of my favorite moments in Sounds Impossible: Casefile13 because together we create something truly uniquely musical and magical that has never existed before and can never be repeated. Truly ephemeral wonderment.
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This lovely photo was captured by the excellent Dan Wynde at my recent show Hoxton Hall with thanks to Kawai Pianos UK and Ed Bucknell and Arts Council England for their support.
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There are lots of exciting happenings over the coming weeks and months. People who are on my (roughly monthly) email newsletter 7Secrets will be the first to know about them. You can join via my website www.neilkelso.co.uk

30/09/2026

« Je cherche fortune,
Autour du Chat Noir,
Au clair de la lune,
À Montmartre, le soir ! »
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[I seek my fortune
Around the Chat Noir,
By the light of the moon,
In Montmartre, at night!]
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Aristide Bruant, 1884.
I have been making cabarets with some of these legends for more than a decade, and every show begins like as Aristide describes: a room full of people chasing something they can’t quite name, by moonlight.
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« Au soleil couchant,
Toi qui vas cherchant fortune,
Prends garde de choir,
La terre le soir
Est brune ! »
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[When the sun goes down,
You who seek your fortune,
Take care not to fall
The ground at night is dark!]
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Rodolphe Salis, 1888.
Salis knew the other half of the story. In one of his tall tales the king’s page sings the above warning/rebuttal: the same night that makes the magic also hides the path. Both songs are true, and every artist knows it.
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The sun has now set on this production of Chat Noir, 2026.
For 180 nights we went looking for our fortune, and in uncertain terrain we found it in each other: performers, musicians, technicians, hosts, designers, hospitality, security, photographers, wardrobe, chefs and audience members. As you can see this final nights audience was an especially bright constellation of stars.
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Merci, mes amis. The immortal spirit of the Chat Noir never really goes away. 🐈‍⬛🖤🎩

29/09/2026

On the final day of Chat Noir, the magicians ( and .magus) conjured up a special treat for the wonderful people who brought this dream to life. ✨ We arranged for the legendary Charles Burns to visit us backstage and capture everyone’s beautiful essence with nothing more than paper, scissors, and his magnificent artistry. 🖤 130 years ago, the Chat Noir was famously home to sensational shadow puppetry shows, so it seemed the perfect way to capture these magical memories. 🐈‍⬛

On our final day, in-between shows, the magicians of Chat Noir (me and Pat) arranged a special surprise. We got the lege...
29/09/2026

On our final day, in-between shows, the magicians of Chat Noir (me and Pat) arranged a special surprise. We got the legendary silhouette artist Charles Burns to come backstage and cut everyone’s silhouettes to capture the memory of this special day in his truly virtuosic way!
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I also instigated a flashmob group photo and I’m very grateful to Skip for taking this fab group picture. It’s not quite everyone - there are some important people absent due to scheduling etc, but its very nice that some special folks came in on their day off specially to celebrate these last moments together. There have been a lot of absolute diamonds making this happen.
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The Chat Noir was famous for its shadow puppetry shows, and this seemed the perfect way to connect the past and present for the future. Thank you to everyone who added to the magic of this project. Follow my dear friend and collaborator 𝙋𝙖𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙪𝙨 and our beloved Charles Burns Charles Burns 🖤

Au revoir Chat Noir - merci et à bientôt!The show has ended, but its magic is immortal.🖤181 shows performed9412 playing ...
29/09/2026

Au revoir Chat Noir - merci et à bientôt!
The show has ended, but its magic is immortal.
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181 shows performed
9412 playing cards thrown
46 meters nitrocellulose + 6 meters kevlar burnt
905 « I remember it well » reminisced
363 moments of déjà vu
543 umbrellas appeared
8% of shadow puppetry battery expended
2896 gasps of astonishment
5 languages spoken
573 accents honoured
1 leder-hosen-clad-Austrian-bishop-sherpa
23 metric fogtonnes of smoke
43,440 chairs sat at 17,376 tables
724 hours (30.1 days) on stage
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There is a HUGE list of people who I want to thank, but two people in particular are on my mind today as I start to reflect on this journey. My eternal gratitude to my very very dear friend Joe Morrow for bringing me into this sensational collaboration with The Lost Estate . I have had the honour of sharing stages all around the world with Joe for more than a decade and Rodolphe Salis is very bloody lucky to have his story told by the legendary Joe Morose. It’s always a yes from me whenever Joe’s cooking something up. It’s always mad and brilliant and that’s what life should be.
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And by my side every step of the way has been another dear and wonderful friend 𝙋𝙖𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙪𝙨 - when the vision for this production started to form, I knew there was only one collaborator in the world with the magic, kindness, madness, generosity, thoughtfulness, skill, humour, grit and love that would be needed to join me in honouring my hero Joseph Buatier for audiences night after night. I am so glad Pat said yes! A total magical wonderful superhuman.
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This has been a rollercoaster and there are many many MANY more people I want to thank. I’m so proud of what we achieved, with simultaneously mountains of the greatest support, whilst also battling odds that were often stacked against us. Huge love and gratitude to the entire dream team. Abracadabra.

Hold down the dots and scroll.🌫️🌫️🌫️ The fumistes knew that as soon as a piece of art is completed, it must immediately ...
29/09/2026

Hold down the dots and scroll.
🌫️🌫️🌫️
The fumistes knew that as soon as a piece of art is completed, it must immediately turn to smoke.
It mustn’t ever feel fixed or contained or serious.
It’s got to be constantly bursting out of itself, constantly shifting, twisting, subverting, wriggling.
Chat Noir has now turned to smoke. Will it return? Perhaps. But a better way to look at it is to realise that it never went away. In every bit of surrealism, Dadaism, every Monty Python or SNL skit, every standup comedians crowd-work, every scrap of satire, every Natalie Imbruglia lyric, in every practical joke or gasp of wonder. There’s no smoke without fire, and no creation without a spark. It’s death and life. It’s everything.
Chat Noir lives on whether you want it to or not.
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I absolutely ADORE these photos snapped by the wonderful diamond of a human being (and a dazzlingly brilliant talented artist): the one and only Elios . It is a triptych of images of me as Joseph Buatier, wearing the top hat I have worn all around the world, about to step on stage for my last cancan and our final bow of this production. Never before have my smouldering good looks been so perfectly captured, and I love that it’s framed by details of the deeply magical world that the phenomenal Thomas Kirk Shannon conjured into being. Thank you Elios and TKS! You are both true fumistes! 🖤

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