Saturday October 25th 2025 was Making Magic Day in London with a whole lot of Earpers and Switches. I love the name that Earpfest coined for the joint fandoms – Swearpers. This was a day of events and fundraising for Magic, with Taylor Hickson and Dominique Provost-Chalkley.
These are written from my memory and my recollections and, as always, recollections may differ.
It started at the Everyman Borough Yards cinema with a showing of the short film Magic. I really love this film.
Then we had a Q & A. This should have been with both Tayor and Dom. But Taylor’s plane was delayed and she hadn’t arrived yet. Those of us who have met Taylor several times at conventions, know that travel is always a big adventure where Taylor is concerned. She has told us many stories in the past of flights being cancelled or her luggage being lost and travel disasters seem to be very common. So some of us were not surprised at all. But at least she was on her way.
We had a short Q & A with Dom and Hayley and there would be another Q & A with both of them later.
The most interesting question, from my point of view, was the question about how Taylor got involved with the film. Taylor had been asked this at Witchbomb and at Switches Gathering 3 and had said that the offer of the part came through her agent. But we learned that there was more to it. Dom’s original idea was to use a queer actor to play Jo, but couldn’t find anyone who was exactly right. It was an essential part of the film that the character of Jo must be someone that the audience would instantly love, that they would relate to immediately. Eventually the casting director was asked to look more widely. The casting director came back with 2 names – Amalia Holm and Taylor Hickson. Dom listened to some of Taylor’s music and watched an interview where Taylor talked about queer representation and realised that ‘She really gets it’. So they had a zoom meeting after afterwards Dom knew that Taylor was the right person to play Jo. The job offer was sent to the agent and they got confirmation of her acceptance in less than 24 hours.
Dom was also asked about the film music. On the closing credits, Dom was credited with writing the songs, but Adrian (Leung IIRC) wrote the score. Dom described how working with Adrian on the score had been a real learning experience in writing music in a different way. Part of the writing process for the full length film has Dom writing the film score as well as the songs.
To make time for a second Q & A, the walking groups were rearranged, walking group 1, which I was booked onto, was split between walking groups 2 and 3 and that freed up time. We had a lunch break.
Making Magic had organised a hangout space at the Waterloo Action Centre for after lunch. So, we socialised and explored and ate and slowly made our ways to Waterloo. I am the sort of person who has maps and realised that the Waterloo Action Centre was just down the road from two of the known locations. Lower Marsh seemed as good a street as any to go and find some food. And locations.
This is The Glitch (134 Lower Marsh SE1 7AA) where the film opens. Jo is performing there and Magic walks in. Their eyes meet across a crowded bar and instant chemistry. Then we see Magic trying to chat Jo up at the bar, which is also in the Glitch.
Just down the road (132 Lower Marsh) from there is the Scooter Caffe where Jo and Magic go on their first date
Both places were decorated for Halloween. Then it was back to the Waterloo Action Centre for the afternoon events. And merchandise. This was a fundraising day after all and there was a lot of good stuff. I got a poster that had been used in the original short film.
I also got the postcard set.
And one of the Making Magic mugs.
Each of the mugs is slightly different and Dom’s father was involved in the individualisation of the mugs.
And Taylor finally arrived, having taken a car from Heathrow. Of course, she needed a cup of coffee and food. When she was ready, we had the second part of the Q & A with both Taylor and Dom. Even though this was a less formal setting, with the chairs in a horseshoe, it felt more intimate and open.
I particularly liked the question for Dom about which was the more exciting moment – the first time saying ‘Action’ or the last time saying ‘Cut’? Dom told us that with being in so many scenes, that they didn’t get to say ‘Action’ or ‘Cut’ very much. That led to a discussion of the work load, Taylor was very impressed that Dom was director and writer and star and composer and …. That was a lot.
They were asked about the scene when Jo and Magic are on the beach and getting up the stairs with the tide coming in. The speed that the tide came in took people by surprise. That was played for comedy, climbing through the railings was just funny. Dom also explained shooting the bit when the phone drops in the water. Originally the props people had created a foam phone and when they dropped that in, it just floated. So Dom found a nearby rock and they actually filmed that dropping into the water.
It was very clear that Dom and Taylor get on really well as people. They share a lot of things in common, not just acting, but a love of music, fears about live music performances etc. They both spoke about how they felt the signs were there that this was the right path, they were meant to make this film. Taylor explained her understanding of knowing the right path by the feelings of satisfaction or frustration when the path is wrong. Taylor is very connected to spirituality and they had a common understanding of how this shaped their decisions. They had clearly become good friends.
Eventually it was time for walking tour 3. We were starting at The Glitch. On our way we passed tour group 2. By the time we got there, both groups converged, so Dom told us about the venues, but we didn’t go in. We had been asked not to take photos of the tour participants, so we could look through the window of the two venues. In the Scooter Caffe, they filmed downstairs for the first date scene.
Then we went to the bus stop, which I had been particularly keen to see after Taylor told us a story about that in one of the fan meets at Witchbomb. Dom told us a similar story when we got to the bus stop.
They were filming at night, Taylor said she was able to stay on Canadian time (8 hours behind the UK). Everyone else suffered. They were filming at the bus stop in Baylis Road and worried about the light. Sunrise was coming, so they couldn‘t do as many takes as they wanted to and had to leave out some shots. Setting up the location, meant that they needed to change one of the bus stop posters for their movie poster. Taylor told us at Witchbomb, that this is highly illegal and they were worried about getting arrested. Dom told it slightly differently. Dom’s father had unscrewed one of the poster frames and put their poster in, while telling Taylor (here Dom changed to a more West Country accent) that this was ‘very illegal’. But it sounded like Dom’s dad was just winding Taylor up. And she believed it!!
From the bus stop, we went back down Lower Marsh to the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnels.
The graffiti art for these two images was done by @Voyder. The eye is still there, but the Magic image is not. The image here is a photo of one of the postcards. It was replaced by
Part of what was included in the walking tour was the chance to have a selfie with Dom and Taylor and we took these in the tunnels by the Eye art. I am not a great person for selfies, so I asked to simply take a photo of the two of them.
After that we headed for the river Thames. We went to see the beach where they had their picnic. This was Thames Beach.
This was to the west of the OXO tower. It was high tide when we were there, so very little of the beach was visible. Dom said that they had to put in an artificial wall to make the place seem more enclosed, so they would be more realistic at having no choice but to get up the stairs closest to the OXO Tower.
Close by was the pedestal where they did the White Rabbit Line, shown in the picture at the bottom right of the postcard
I am grateful to @tacosaretasty27 for the information from Google.
That ended the walking tours. Next stop on the Making Magic Day was the London Eye experience. This was very limited in numbers and was an opportunity to chat to Dom and Taylor in small groups. We weren’t able to take photos inside the pod, but the views outside were pretty special.
The day ended with the After Party on board a boat on the Thames. I didn’t go to that, I had a train to catch. But that seems to have been a great event.
I would like to extend my thanks to the team at Magic and the Earpfest team for putting this Magical day together. It was truly one of a kind. It also showed how big is the overlap between Earpers and Switches. These are two fandoms who fit together well. Yes, we need a joint convention.
Thanks to Taylor for flying from Vancouver for one night, she flew back on Sunday. (She was clearly getting tired by the evening – lots of coffee needed). I am grateful to Dom for the vision to create this for us all. I am also very grateful to all the fans who came and made it such a successful day of Swearpin’ and fundraising for Magic. We need to do this again
To donate to the making of the full length Magic film, go to Makingmagic.pictures
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