Draft:BarrierReefyUps (Mink Thompson)


Born in Dirleton circa 1966, Mink 'Bardot' Thompson was born in the Open Arms Hotel, his middle name was chosen by his mother, as she had struck up a friendship with Brigitte Bardot who was filming Two Weeks in September and got her to draw a circle on her stomach with red paint, as she believed it would give her soon-to-be child special powers.[1]

Mink developed a love for close up magic at an early age, appearing in issue 4 of the Magic Magazine saying "my favourite trick to play on my parents is the disappearing sponge and a ball routine"[2]

He joined the College of Magic in 1987, specialising in close-up magic and mime, at the time he was the first Scottish student to enroll in the South African College. He started going by the name "BarrierReefyUps" as a nod to his love of the sea, he appeared on local television in 1988[3] performing his "Battenberg Routine". Shortly after this appearance he was expelled from the College under unknown circumstances and moved back to his native Scotland to start a career as a close up magician, appearing on local Scottish television and even an appearance on The Word (TV series) as ''Magician 3"[4] but he was constantly ridiculed and made fun of, culminating in what local Glaswegians refer to as 'ReefyUps Revenge' in 1996, where after one particularly poorly received mime show in a West-end Glasgow bar "The Alderman Arms" led to Thompson having a serious outburst, stealing a van from a local dairy farm and crashing it into the bar, pouring gallons of thick cream and semi skimmed milk on people at the gig, one man 'Keith Fenton' claims that Thompson even defecated on a pool table after being provoked by repeated chants of "Creamyups, creamyups, creamyups" [5]. The pub had to shut down as it couldn't afford the damage costs, and BarrierReefyups was jailed for 3 years.

As of 2021 BarrierReefyups resides in Welton, Lincolnshire, teaching a close up magic course bi-weekly at the town hall, and is still repaying the damages of his 96 outburst

References

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  1. ^ "In pictures: Brigitte Bardot's visit to a Scottish beach in 1966". East Lothian Courier. 2023-08-23. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  2. ^ "The Magic Magazine (all 26 issues) by Joseph Kardwell". www.martinsmagic.com. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  3. ^ Radio RSA (1988). rsacalling-1988.
  4. ^ Margetson, Andrew (1992-11-20), Episode #3.4, The Word, Terry Christian, Dani Behr, Bill Hicks, retrieved 2024-09-07
  5. ^ "Keith Thompson Quotes (Author of Angels and Aliens)". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2024-09-07.