That’s it — an entire month of daily magic essays.
I hope you’re happy.
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I’ve always been a big believer in forced creativity.
When I left school, I knew I wanted to write television shows but knew no one who worked in television and no one who lived in London.
I noticed five magic television shows in production at the time. This was a lot of productions for quite a niche genre. I’d been interested in magic since I was a kid and paid close attention to TV magic as it blended my two interests.
These two young guys, Calen Morelli and Blake Vogt were only a few years older than I was. They worked as magic consultants and travelled the world on these magic shows. Doing what they did seemed more in reach than trying to find work as a production runner and working my way up the job ladder — it also seemed more fun.
I posted an original magic trick on Instagram every day. People thought I was mad. I was lucky, I might add, as it was the early days on Instagram. Only a few of my friends were on there. Videos needed to be square, twelve seconds long and with no cuts.
Short visual magic tricks were not so much of a thing back then — I looked everywhere and only found a few in the shops, like coin bites and self-tying shoelaces. I think I was praised for being early more so than being creative.
The videos of me performing stiff rope with a dog lead, turning a voucher into money in a shop and making a chocolate bar appear from nowhere would all be a bit ‘meh’ if I posted them today. But back then, they felt totally new.
After 298 days, I stopped posting daily videos and joined Dynamo’s creative team at a time when Dynamo was literally on the face of every Pepsi can. His face replaced Beyoncé on all their bottles, ads, and cans. Wild.
Getting hired had much to do with coming to London for a week to cat sit for Ollie Mealing, who I met via the Instagram magic videos, and buying everyone I could meet a meal. One of those people was Harry De Cruz, who led Dynamo’s team. Harry chose Nando’s, and so I bought him the most important Nando’s meal of my life.
