Magic is a universal language

The UK's top comic magician Pete Firman chats to MARION McMULLEN about creating spellbinding entertainment

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What's great about magic is it’s a universal language. Even if you don’t speak English, you can appreciate what is going on.

Your new tour is called Tricks And Giggles. Does the magic or comedy come first?

Sometimes a trick will occur to me that’s just a funny idea. In a previous show, I baked a cupcake in the shoe of an audience member. I borrowed a shoe from someone in the crowd, I cracked an egg in it, poured loads of flour and milk in it, and I set the shoe on fire and, ultimately, I turned the shoe upside down and out tumbled a cupcake ... and the shoe is all fine and no worse for wear. (Laughs)

People enjoy it when you destroy someone's property as long as it’s not theirs.

It was easy to write funny lines and jokes for the trick, but sometimes I just fall in love with a card trick and then it's ‘how do I make this funny?’ I always try to balance the two and make it as amazing as possible and as funny as it can be.

When did your love of magic start?

It was always my hobby from being a kid and when I was about 16 or 17 I started to get part-time jobs in pubs and restaurants in Middlesbrough, which is where I’m from, and I would wander around and do magic tricks while people were waiting for a pizza or a table.

Then I graduated from university, I did a theatre degree, I wanted to be an actor and was going to do a post-grad, but then an opportunity came up. I saw an advert on a magic website. A production company was looking for magicians for a TV show and they were asking for showreels.