Kinda magic

DON’T admit to Philip Escoffey you’ve visited a psychic or a faith healer – or even that you’ve read your horoscope.

Even though he conjures a living from being an illusionist, making audiences believe he can “read minds” by guessing personal information such as someone’s maiden name or occupation, and performing logic-defying card tricks, he’s a firm sceptic of what he calls “magical thinking”.

“I’ve met thousands of psychics, but not one of them can do anything I can’t do, and I’m not psychic,” he says.

He dismisses horoscopes equally as quickly. “Listen, if it fills your day, go with the sign that’s promising what you want to hear,” he says.

Although during his 13 years of working as a magician he’s been labelled, or even accused of being, a psychic, Escoffey says there’s nothing supernatural about his magic.

“Could Derren Brown really predict the Lottery numbers? Our job is to create the illusion that we can do these things. David Copperfield can’t really fly over the Grand Canyon, but if you were watching it you’d come away thinking he could.

“And it’s lovely when people have a strong reaction to my work, but no matter how many disclaimers you give them, they still believe I’m psychic.

“They’ll say things like, ‘Obviously you’re psychic, but you pretend you’re not’. And it doesn’t matter what you say to them, they just wink at you. It’s like they need me to be psychic.”

The fact people think he’s got a sixth sense is testament to the power of magic, when it’s practised well – and with this power he hopes to cast a spell over a television audience with his Five show Impossible?

The magic show invites a pair of people to predict whether challenges laid out by Escoffey are possible or not. Once the predictions are cast, he then proceeds to either carry out the challenge or reveal it’s impossible.

“Possible means not only am I going to do it here and now, I could do it any time, anywhere. Impossible means not only can I not do it, no one on this planet could do it, under these conditions.”

For example, he asks one couple to pick a load of tiles from a Scrabble bag and to spell out two words, face down. He then does the same and asks the couple whether they think the words will match.

“Now, I defy anyone on this planet to come up with words that match,” he says.

Escoffey hopes the show will challenge everyday beliefs and make people ask more questions about what is possible and why.

“You get quite compelling discussions between the pair and we see them slowly losing faith in what they think. They start off confident, convinced a challenge is impossible, so when they see me do it you can see them becoming almost regressive, challenging everything they know.”

It’s a far cry from the pulling rabbits out of hats, pedalled by old-school magicians, and Escoffey thanks Derren Brown for widening the horizon of magic on TV. “He did a lot to make magic contemporary and intelligent and interesting,”

he says.

“David Blaine also did a lot. The last experience British audiences had of it was really Paul Daniels. Then Penn And Teller came along, but they were a bit anarchic and late-night Channel 4, not mainstream, and Blaine made it cool again.”

And although landing a primetime slot on terrestrial television is a real coup for a jobbing magician, Escoffey is hesitant to admit he’s hit the big time.

“I feel like we’re three-and-a-half months pregnant, so you can tell people about it, but it still might be an ugly child,” he jokes.

He admits he loved the attention he got from performing tricks for the first time as a child, but thinks any attention he gets from this show will be manageable.

“I don’t think I’m going to struggle going to my local shop to pick up groceries in the next few years,” he says. “Also, I’m lucky it’s happened to me at 40 years old. If it had happened when I was 21 it might have been different.”