This is a fun and informative talk combined with a demonstration of magic tricks. It covers such areas as why magic is a great hobby, how to get started in magic, a brief history of some of the great magicians and an exhibition of different types of magic styles: and of course plenty of tricks throughout.

The history bit is most certainly not boring. It includes, for instance, Chung Ling Soo chung ling soowho was shot dead on stage attempting to catch a bullet in his mouth (no, I won’t be recreating that one!). But that wasn't the end of this particular story - there was one more sensational twist to come.

Then there was the first ever book on magic, called Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft written in 1584, and considered so controversial that James I, a passionate believer in witches, ordered all copies to be burnt.

Other tricks include tearing up and restoring a newspaper to explain about the six basic magic effects; a giant version of the Three Card Trick to demonstrate street magic of the 18th century and a 'head growing and shrinking' experiment to illustrate what an illusion is.

Ian also talks about how he first got into magic and gives advice to any pupils who might be interested in taking magic up as a hobby.