I’m often asked, “Which do you prefer the acting or the magic?”

I started performing magic to support my work as an actor. Right at the beginning, setting out, between acting jobs is ROUGH. Call centres, pubs, service industry, and no way to say to your boss “Don’t worry, I’m here for the long haul.” Because as soon as you get an acting job, you are leaving town.

And so, I fell into performing magic to support me financially while not working as an actor. But I felt a bit ashamed. Ashamed that I couldn’t just be an actor, so I’d shy away from being both. I’d never mention the acting when working as a magician; I’d excuse the magic as “just something I do between jobs” when I was filming.

I did this for years. And then in 2018, I had a bumper year of acting – where I was so busy with filming, I could not do any magic bookings. Not the Christmas season, not parties, weddings – nothing. At the time I thought, “Finally, I’ve cracked it – I don’t have to do the magic anymore.”

But guess what? I missed it. I looked around my house and saw hundreds of books on sleight of hand, misdirection, the history of magic and magicians. I’d bought them. Read them. I practiced everyday – I still do. This was a major shift for me. Why was I hiding from something that I not only loved but verged on obsession? It was/is a part of me. As much a part of me as being an actor was/is.

So, the answer to that question above turned out to be: “I don’t make that decision.” Albeit, I’ll phrase it better than that in polite company.

I can promise you (and myself) I will never stop performing magic. Of course, the acting work will remain a priority. It’s rarer after all, scarcer and in the hands of fate and luck. But the magic is not going anywhere. It’s a creative outlet that I control completely – I handle the bookings, choose the material and what I say, who the magician character I’m playing is and the performances themselves.

I have a deck of cards next to me on my desk as I type this; I feel naked if I leave the house without my cards. But I guess that’s me – an actor magician…