The Fan Who Watched Too Much
by Heather Magee
Damian Magee is old. How do I know this? He has seen Evil of the Daleks with Patrick Troughton three times. Not significant, you say? By the time video recorders had been invented and reached Australian homes in the early 1980s, the BBC had already destroyed most of the black & white seasons of Doctor Who. Damian had to see Evil of the Daleks when it was first run and repeated on television.
This leads neatly to my second conclusion. Damian Magee has square eyes. He watched far too much television as a child, so obviously he must have square eyes. Our parents told us that would happen, back in the dim, distant past when computers took up whole rooms and landing men on the moon was still a fantasy. How can he have watched too much TV, you scoff? Damian can give you exact details about what program was on what channel at what time and day from the mid-late 1960s onwards. He can give you vivid descriptions of what he was doing for the several days of telecast of the moon landing. I was only 4, so I have very dim memories. He can probably even tell you about seeing the reports and footage of JFK being shot, at the time it happened.
Still not enough to justify the title of this short biographical piece? Damian Magee was, (and is), an avid film buff. He started going when a Saturday matinee gave you two movies, an ‘A’ and a ‘B’, a short and a cartoon, all for 50c. His mum worked at a cinema for a while which led to Damian’s lifelong love affair with Japanese monster movies, British and especially Hammer horror, westerns, war movies, buddy comedies and musicals, and films in general. More recently, Jackie Chan, partly because he is so reminiscent of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, bringing back memories of classic American movies. One of Damian’s other great loves is Anime and Manga. Australia was lucky – we had years of Anime on our screens that the US didn’t – Astroboy, Kimba, Gigantor, and many others – which means that generations of Aussies love Jap Anime without even knowing it.
All this input sparked other interests for Damian, turning him into a much more rounded individual than you might expect. He discovered a love for history, biography and autobiography, and also a passion for opera like his dad. Damian has a truly awesome memory for facts, and on one memorable occasion, he went round the Trivial Pursuit board 7 times, (getting all his pie pieces each time), before the rest of us caught up. His major weakness is sport, so a winning quiz night table needs Damian plus a sports nut. Damian is also a closet librarian, which is why all his videos are alphabetised, and his books are arranged according to Dewey.
Damian’s saving grace is his love for science fiction. This led to his joining the Perth Doctor Who fan club at its fourth meeting, going to SwanCon since 1987, and meeting the real love of his life, me(!), also at the Doctor Who club. Damian loves H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Kafka and many contemporary writers as well as sci-fi /fantasy/horror on film and TV. He does require good scripts, direction and acting from his sci-fi viewing, though, so most recent American ‘blockbusters’ are out, such as Independence Day, Titanic, House on Haunted Hill, and Starship Troopers, which was hilarious in spots, but basically bad. Damian is also passionate about classic TV shows, so film remakes have to get it right, such as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie’s Angels, but not The Avengers, Wild Wild West, or I Spy.
Damian has been a fan since he was a kid, and his contributions to many SwanCons have been through panels and presentations rich with detail and memories, and often video clips that took hours or days to get right. More recently, he has also been presenting lectures on Japanese Anime & Manga, and on Animation at Bunbury ECU, also with video clips and props. At Confusion, which had Sylvia Anderson as the special guest, Damian appeared as Parker, and at another SwanCon, Damian was the ‘dead guest of honour’, Jules Verne. He also co-hosted the Perth Doctor Who convention in 1988. He has been an active member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of WA for many years, along with central roles in the Prisoner fan club and the Doctor Who club. Damian has written anime, a play on Conan Doyle, several spy stories, and numerous articles for various fanzines.
Damian is currently learning all the Goons and Monty Python songs backwards, and refusing to buy his wife a dog.
