Nothing Is Impossible: The Real-Life Adventures of a Street Magician (8 page)

Dog breeding is competitive, but rather than, say, Crufts, the dog shows my grandma competes in are more about
demonstrating the standard of your dog breeding. So although there are obedience tests and obstacle courses, the focus is on the quality of the dogs themselves. And there is rather more at stake than a rosette, as winning ultimately means you can charge more money for your dogs. Whether you breed Chihuahuas or Bulldogs, the more competitions you win, the more your dogs are worth. My Nana’s dogs have won countless awards and have even been in television adverts for things like Pedigree Chum. They are amazing.

Dog shows are a serious business and they take a lot of preparation. We’d wake up early in the morning, feed and water Nana Lynne’s nineteen Golden Retrievers, take them for long walks, groom them and train them for the shows. After our own breakfast, we’d jump in the Winnebago and roll to wherever the dog show was that day. One way or another, I was constantly covered in dog hair. Before then, I’d never been the biggest animal lover but after that I can appreciate why people are so attached to them. They’re such loving, loyal creatures.

While it might have been hairy and hard work, the experience would unwittingly yet profoundly change my approach to magic. Once again magic seemed to find me… When I wasn’t running around with dogs, or chilling with my grandparents, I was, as ever, obsessively working on my magic. Back home, I’d been getting those bookings most weekends. I was securing by financially and, slowly, my name was starting to gain some momentum, if only in local magic circles. But magic never seemed like a realistic career. I had no idea that I could make it a full-time job; as far as I was concerned, I was having a year in the US then I’d return home, go to college, and get a ‘real’ job. As it turned out, I never went back to college.

Following each dog show there would be an ‘after-party’ of sorts. It might not have been Jay-Z’s idea of VIP, but among the
tea and sandwiches, it turned out that people were always up for checking out the magic that a little English kid had to offer. The word among the dog circles spread and I performed in tents after the dog shows. I even visited the infamous Magic Castle in LA, an exclusive magic members club, where I saw lots of jobbing magicians who appeared to be making a decent living. It helped to make me see the possibility that a career in magic might not be such a daft idea. If all these guys could do it, maybe I had a shot.

WHEN I FIRST
went to the US, Nana and Martin were living in Virginia. After a couple of weeks, we moved to Memphis where there were more opportunities for dog breeders. I can’t say that I got to see loads of the city. I didn’t know any kids my own age and Nana Lynne wasn’t about to go out raving all night with me. But from what I did get to see, Memphis was a great city. It’s down in the South, in Tennessee, so it’s all slow talking, soul food and sweaty summers. It also has an incredible musical heritage. Everyone from Elvis to Johnny Cash and Justin Timberlake grew up in the city, and to this day you can always find a bar or club, day or night, pumping out live music.

A lot of magicians played in the city too. Being in Memphis was really the first time that I saw other people do magic. Over the years, I’d watched Gramps, but I didn’t go out and watch magic. I’d read practical magic books, but I had very little knowledge of the history of the art. It didn’t seem relevant to the type of magic that I was interested in. One day, Grandpa got us tickets to see David Copperfield film a TV special. Copperfield is renowned for his extravagant sets and I remember being blown away not only by the scale and spectacle, but also by his incredibly compelling stage persona. It was amazing. On a whole different level.

I bought the DVD box set at the end of the night, which was a compilation of Copperfield’s greatest moments. It showed me how vast his career was and how far he took magic. This is the guy who has made the Statue of Liberty disappear, who levitated over the Grand Canyon, and who walked through the middle of the Great Wall of China, not to mention sawing Claudia Schiffer in half. I had huge respect for David Copperfield, but for me, a working-class kid from Bradford, his world of magic seemed so far from mine. I didn’t want a glamorous assistant and a suit; I wanted to do close-up magic wearing my trainers and cap. But who would be interested in that?

While I was in Memphis, I heard that Daryl the Magician was coming to town. Daryl is a legend and an absolute genius. He was the World Champion Card Magician at FISM (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques), which is like the Olympics of magic. He has won every magic award that’s ever been created, and he continues to work as a creative magic consultant. He made his money from owning the company that makes and distributes 90 per cent of fancy-dress costumes in America. He was already rich, so for him magic was never about the money: it was his passion.

A friend of mine who was part of the Memphis Magic Ring had invited Daryl to talk at a magic night he had just started up. He rang me excitedly to tell me the news. ‘The problem is, Steven, it’s at a nightclub, so it’s for twenty-one-year-olds and over. I don’t think you have much hope for passing for eighteen, let alone twenty-one.’

I was gutted that Daryl was going to be in Memphis and I couldn’t go and see him.

The next day, I had to get up super early. It was just after seven when Nana and I left her house and got in the car. She’d asked me to go with her to someone’s house to help them with their dogs. She would drop me off, I’d do some training with them, and she’d be back later to pick me up.

It turned out to be the house of the person who’d flown Daryl to Memphis for the lecture. My Nana Lynne had known all along; it was her special surprise to me because I hadn’t been able to go to the show.

‘All right, mate, how you doing?’ This was my cocky greeting when I saw Daryl sat at the breakfast table. I was a confident kid back then, I had no fear. When I told him that I too was a magician, Daryl grinned and invited me to sit down and have breakfast. I’ve been friends with him ever since. I don’t speak to him regularly, but whenever I do, I always get so much from our conversations.

Daryl taught me about the art of show business and how to show and tell without saying anything at all. Obviously his secrets are his trade, the same as my secrets are my trade. He taught me how to keep that mystery, whilst still being forthcoming. Daryl is one of those really clever people who never actually gives you anything or teaches you anything, but he’ll speak to you and explain things to you and look at you very meaningfully. You go away feeling like you’ve gained something, even if you don’t know exactly what it is. An hour in his company is enlightening and inspirational. He also taught me that magicians don’t have to be full of themselves. You can be cool and down to earth while still putting on a show. He told me he could see no reason why I wouldn’t be able to make it. ‘Just do what you’re doing and you’ll get there.’ It filled me with confidence to know that I was doing the right thing by being myself.

WHILE I WAS
in Memphis, we had a trip to New Orleans that would further change my perspective on magic. My uncle was also visiting America at the time; he owns the biggest diving warehouse in the world and they make the best wetsuits. He was going to a diving conference in New Orleans, so my Nana Lynne and Martin and I drove there to meet up with him.

‘Stay close, Steven, and don’t look at anyone,’ Martin said, grabbing my arm as we crossed Bourbon Street. I was eighteen years old. This was the uncoolest thing ever. I tried to shake my granddad loose but he wasn’t having it.

New Orleans back in the nineties was quite scary. This was before Hurricane Katrina, before they tried to regenerate the city. For those into hip hop, this was the time of Soulja Slim, a young Lil Wayne and a fledgling Cash Money. It was also the murder capital of the USA; around the time I was there, there were around 400 murders a year. Everywhere you went, there were crowds of people: tourists, blaggers, gangstas, bums and hustlers.

We walked down Bourbon Street and found my uncle with some colleagues enjoying a beer in one of the many bars that lined the street. ‘Someone was stabbed in here last night,’ his friend said casually, as everyone shrugged and ordered their drinks.

I was spooked; everyone was carrying on as if this were a normal occurrence. I realised pretty quickly that in New Orleans, violence was a way of life. All I heard was ‘Stand next to your granddad, Steven’; ‘Where are you going? Stay with us’; ‘I’ll come with you’. My family was very overcautious with me, making sure that I kept close to them all the time. I wasn’t even allowed to go to the toilet on my own – they’d wait outside the cubicle. It just seemed odd, and I felt slightly on edge because they were acting out of the ordinary.

Looking back now, I think it’s one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to. New Orleans is a very magical, mystical city. Voodoo has been a part of New Orleans for over two centuries and there are a number of historical shops, museums and cemeteries. I want to go back there – I think it would be an interesting place to perform.

The most fascinating part of being in New Orleans, for me, was seeing street magicians do their thing. Everywhere you looked, people were hustling on the streets. This was the kind of magic Gramps had shown me, but it was out in the real world; this was the type of magic that made total sense to me. It brought magic directly into people’s lives, right there, in front of their eyes. It was magic you could touch.

I would see street magicians of all ages do incredible things with everyday objects; they’d perform close-up card magic, make flowers disappear and do the most incredible things with balloons. They were so quick. And they would make a killing from willing punters eager to place a bet on where a card or flower might end up next.

Before then, I was probably conforming a little bit more to what I thought a typical magician might do, like cup and ball routines; I was working on an act that had to be done in a specific setting, thinking along more traditional, linear lines. Being in New Orleans changed everything I thought I knew about magic. I didn’t realise that you could just do any type of magic anywhere. I didn’t have the mindset then, that if you could really do magic, you just do it. You don’t need a fancy set with smoke and mirrors – all you need is yourself and the spectator. In later years I would disregard having anything like a cup and ball routine or any type of props as such. While I always travel with my cards, I prefer to improvise with what is around me. People’s watches, phones, a drink can, an old
piece of wire, snow… it doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll always find some way to create something astonishing out of nothing. Whenever I do magic, whether it’s a booking, in front of my mates or even, sometimes, when filming my TV show, I love the art of the unexpected; I can even surprise myself sometimes.