That's magic

Then Richard Bellars is your man and the Bexhill magician can be seen that very night on Sky TV in a programme filmed by BBC 2 Northern Ireland.

Richard is appearing in Magic Party which was filmed in Belfast back in March and he will be showing off some of the sleight-of-hand and dazzling tricks he has been practising and perfecting since the age of nine.

Richard is still only 27 and now sparking off his professional career in Britain having spent a few years performing around the world, in glamorous locations such as Greece and Dubai.

Apart from the television work he has a live show beginning early next year in the Victoria Theatre in Southborough (Friday February 13) which he hopes to bring to Bexhill, and has made a dvd called Urban which is aimed at anyone interested in learning magic or how different tricks are actually done.

To see Richard run through a flurry of card-tricks is to see a performer at the top of his game '“ surprising, slick and enthralling, he excels in the kind of trickery that leaves his audience mystified but impressed, in the same way as a Derren Brown or David Blaine.

"What I do is close-up sleight-of-hand for adults," said Richard.

"This is not kid's magic. I don't call it mind-reading '“ mentalism is a better word for it. Mind-reading implies I can do something I can't...

"With the close-up stuff people don't believe what they see, so what I am doing is try to convince their eyes. When I'm on stage I try and convince peoples' minds but when I am performing up close I try and convince their eyes."

A former student of Bexhill High and Bexhill College, Richard was inspired to learn magic by his father who used to fascinate him with tricks.

"For some reason he had a range of professional moves that he used to do. Looking back now I realise he was doing really good stuff and I had a very good foundation to my own learning. I taught myself from manuscripts and any sort of book or dvd I could find at the time.

"But it took me a long time to realise it was not how many tricks you knew, it was how you present yourself while you are doing them.

Having settled in Bexhill after travelling and performing away, Richard hopes now to build up his stage show and start more television work '“ he has appeared on shows such as Richard And Judy, and he is waiting to see reaction to his appearance on Magic Show having filmed one programme of a series of six which will broadcast.

"The show will be good '“ I am looking forward to it. We had a good time filming it. Other people did card stuff on the series so I purposely avoided that and did some mind-freaky tricks instead. I devised stuff specially for that show."

Meanwhile he has a magic show for children aged between six-14, called The Hocus Pocus School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is teaching spells, potions and magic to youngsters, and has a three day course starting at Halloween in Frant. Those interested can look for details on the website '“ hocuspocusschool.co.uk '“ and the aim is to hold a course in Bexhill in the near future.

The website is also the place to find details of his Urban dvd which reveals how he does magic tricks and also throw cards '“ Richard has practised throwing cards so much that he is practically at world record level and can clear 50 metres with a card, as well as slice up a banana, or throw a card into a dart board.

Magic Party will be shown on Sky channel 992 at 10pm on Friday October 31.