“There’s still wonder left in the world” – Pete Firman on magic, comedy, and the enduring thrill of live performance
I used to hate magic. OK, that’s a strong word, but anything that highlights my lack of imagination, intelligence, or observational skills is a big ‘No’. But, for the last couple of weeks, I’ve developed a mild addiction to Pete Firman’s YouTube videos. It’s a bright, unhurried afternoon when I catch up with the magician, whose blend of sleight-of-hand and sharp wit has made him a fixture on both social media and the UK’s live circuit.
Firman chortles at my newfound existential crisis, admitting he’s also a relative “late adopter” to the world of short-form online content. “I’ve been sort of fighting against it, you know,” he says, reflecting on his huge success on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. “But I think magic is something that transfers really well to it. Short, sharp hits… Obviously, not the larger illusions, but the close-up stuff works pretty well on that format.”
He’s in an ebullient mood, particularly excited about the mammoth tour ahead of him. Taking him across the country, including dates in London, Woking, Brighton, and Tunbridge Wells, Tricks and Giggles sounds particularly ambitious in scale.
“It’s definitely taking me through into the middle of next year, which is a big undertaking, but I love it. Of every part of this job, it’s absolutely my favourite. Nothing beats the live response from an audience… that living, breathing entity. It’s never the same way twice. The crowd always brings so much to the table. It’s quite an interactive show, so I rely on the audience as much as myself.”
Packed with impossible feats, lightning-fast sleight of hand and some big laughs, Firman’s unique style combines traditional magic tricks and quick wit. As well as scores of TV appearances, on shows including two seasons of Don’t Unleash The Beast on CITV, The Next Great Magician, BBC1’s The Magicians, and The Sarah Millican Television Programme, he has also gathered over 4.5 million social media followers.
The embracing of TV, short online clips, and more traditional theatrical live performances demonstrates his willingness to mesh the old and the new. “In the early part of the 20th century, magicians were literally the rock and roll stars of the day,” he tells me, while musing on the new breed of celebrity created through social media. “You’re only ever a thumb swipe away from someone going to the next one. So with magic tricks, if you’ve got an interesting prop or you set up a great proposition in your opening couple of lines, it does kind of pique people’s curiosity and keep them watching.”
Firman’s own performance style is a far cry from the top hats and tails of magic’s golden age. “In the late 90s, early 2000s, it was David Blaine who took it from bowties and tailcoats. He was out there in jeans and a T-shirt. I’ve kind of tried to adopt that a little bit. To a certain extent, it’s about being a real person.”
But he’s quick to point out the irony. Illusionists and magicians wore top hats and tails, because that was the outfit a Victorian gentleman would wear while holding court at parties. “It took us a while to get with the program and dress a little bit more contemporary.”
He confesses to being a bit of a “magic history nerd”. This is particularly evident when his enthusiasm bubbles up while talking about Houdini. This superstar showman was famed for impossible escapes and stage-tricks like making an elephant vanish. “There are all sorts of interesting characters from that period, and I’m really into all that stuff.”
“What you’ve got to remember is, in the early part of the 20th century, magicians would have these huge touring shows. They’d cross continents and would have wild animals and stuff like that. And Houdini was probably the most famous name from that period. He’d go from town to town, and rather than talking to journalists, he’d hang upside down in a straitjacket from the corner of a skyscraper. It would draw huge crowds of tens of thousands of people, and that’s how he would publicise his live shows.”
Since his last tour, Trik Tok (he seems unrepentant for the pun-laden naming conventions), Firman has been tinkering with a new set of ideas for Tricks and Giggles. “It’s been about going out, wiping the slate clean, and getting back to my roots. I developed my style in comedy clubs. I’ve got a lot of friends who run comedy nights in London, and I’m able to go there to try new stuff for ten minutes. Slowly but surely, that’s how I’ve been building up the new show.”
His wider practice is both collaborative and painstaking. “I work with lots of friends and colleagues. There’s one guy, who’s a little bit like a Jonathan Creek… We’ll get together, and he’ll say, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if you did this?’ I’ve got my own little notebook full of ideas, and friends suggest stuff. Of course, you then have to reverse engineer how to accomplish something. I’ve got a guy who builds stuff for me, and I’ll go to him and say, ‘Do you think this is achievable?’”
He admits to envying some of his comedian mates, just for the comparative ease of putting a show together. “For me, I have to get props made, which takes time, and those first incarnations might not be quite right, and have to be redesigned. It’s such a long process.”
Onstage, Firman’s shows are as much about laughter as they are about wonder. “The structure of a magic trick is very much like the structure of a joke. A good joke relies on the element of surprise, and a magic trick is just the same. When people are laughing, there’s a moment of relaxation, so there’s a little glitch in their attention. That’s where you can maybe get away with some sneaky stuff.”
For many, magic is just one huge riddle waiting to be unravelled. “I like to know how things work. You know, I love puzzles and have quite an analytical brain. My route into this has been fairly traditional.”
He traces his love of the craft right back to childhood. “When I was about eight, I got a magic set and used to really bother all my friends and family by doing the tricks over and over again. I’m a kid of the 80s, so there was a lot more of those variety shows, and Paul Daniels’s show was the big Saturday night programme at the time.”
As entertainment gets increasingly cynical, it seems reality shows are the only outlet on TV for variety entertainment. “I’ve been quite lucky and done things like Tonight at the London Palladium. While a few of these shows were being made, at the moment, the only outlet is Britain’s Got Talent. Oddly, the acts that go on that show, even those doing quite well, their TV output finishes at the programme’s conclusion. The channel doesn’t seem to embrace them or give them another outlet, which I think is a shame.”
You might have noticed him popping up as part of the recent Good Omens TV adaptation. Firman tells me about the casting call searching for an actor who could perform some magic. “My agent said she had a magician who could do a bit of acting! I videoed myself doing the lines… and got the gig. It was a really fun week in Scotland, and to do a scene with David Tennant and Michael Sheen was incredible.”
In an era of computer-generated effects and AI, does magic still have the power to amaze? “It offers a kind of physicality that engages with people. It can offer that sense of wonder we’re kind of losing now. We’ve all got a mobile phone. That can grant us any information we like. The things that it can do are incredible. But you can still see a show with a guy doing impossible things. There’s so little in this world that’s undiscovered. It’s nice to spend a little bit of time in a theatre and suspend your disbelief. Because it feels good to be amazed. It feels good to not know everything for a couple of hours.”
Pete Firman brings Tricks and Giggles to London’s Bloomsbury Theatre on Sat 4 Oct, Woking’s Rhoda McGaw Theatre on Sat 18 Oct, Brighton Dome on Thu 29 Jan, Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre on Fri 13 Feb, as part of a nationwide tour.
All images by Karla Gowlett
