NOW THAT’S MAGIC

For the Coleraine Inst pupil has been making a name for himself under his alter ego ‘Mr Abracadabra’.

He has been causing a stir at gigs up and down the country with his impressive sleight of hand magic tricks. But what’s more impressive is that Jordan only started practising magic a few months ago.

“I was working in Barry’s last summer, a magician came in one of the days and I thought it would be something I’d like to try,” Jordan told the Coleraine Times.

“So I went for it and started to practice some tricks. I set up my business once I felt confident enough in my tricks and it has been going really well for me since.”

Magic has saw something of a revival of late with the likes of Dynamo making headlines for his tricks. But it’s an older magician who Jordan cites as a major influence.

“Houdini is a major influence to me. I love all his escapology and card tricks. He really kicked magic off in a big way,” said Jordan.

“Houdini is still as popular today and people are still doing his tricks. It really has stood the test of time.

“Dynamo has become a big star of late, but once you know how he does his tricks it takes away from it a bit.”

As well as pefecting new tricks 17-year-old Jordan also has to balance his time with his studies.

“It’s been a busy last few months and it’s going to be a busy for me coming up to the summer,” he said.

“It is hard sometimes to balance things out with my school work, but I don’t do any work through the week so I can focus on my studies.

“So at the weekend I concentrate on magic and do a lot of gigs.

“At the minute it’s just a pastime for me, but who knows in the future if it still continues to go well for me I might pursue it as a career.

“I was offered a job as a Blue Coat, but I don’t have my GCSEs yet so I couldn’t take it.

“Hopefully though the doors will continue to open for me.

“I’ve worked for Hilton Hotels, Wetherspoons and the Army to name a few, it’s mainly corporate stuff at the minute.

“I also do compere work and I’m now the official entertainer for the North West 200 and for the Q97 Wedding Fair. I entertain the guests and do announcements.

“Magic is a really big thing at weddings now, you get a lot of people going to Wedding Fairs now to find magicians to entertain their guests on the big day.

“I think my age helps as a lot of people are looking for younger talent.”

Jordan’s new pastime has certainly caused a stir with his family and school friends, but he says they have been very supportive of him.

“My family have been very supportive of me and are completely behind what I’m doing,” he said.

“My friends call me the Magic Man in school, they all think it’s great though. I’ve been using them and my family to practice my tricks.

“However, I think my mum is getting a bit fed up at me coming down every night to show her a new trick!

“All the money I get at the minute goes towards more tricks and dvds and I just want to get better and better. Magic is one of those things which grabs you and you just want to get more and more into it.

“I spend a lot of time practising. I have enjoyed finding out how tricks work, but it’s like anything when you learn this it takes a bit of the magic away. But nothing beats seeing people’s reactions when you do a trick on them.

“I mainly do table magic, sleight of hand tricks with cards and the like. But I also do a lot of fire tricks too which is very spectacular to the audience.

“My speciality trick is the sponge ball trick. I put one sponge ball into your hand and when you open it about 10 appear, then the next time it turns into a square before finally disappearing.

“It always gets a good reaction.”

If you would like to contact Jordan you can do it via his website www.mrabracadabra.co.uk or via email: [email protected]