Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper was a Welsh comedian and magician whose act was built on the deliberate, comic failure of tricks that he could in fact perform with considerable skill. A towering presence in a fez, he turned the conventions of conjuring inside out, earning laughs from the botched execution of effects that concealed genuine technical mastery.

His performances on British television made him one of the most recognizable entertainers of his generation. Cooper's lasting contribution was to demonstrate that the entertainment value of magic lies as much in character and timing as in the successful completion of the trick itself.