Published: Thursday, 21st August, 2008 12:30
My new job's pure magic
By Laura Cummings
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Kevin McMahon (second from right) plays his cards right
CHANGING your career path is hardly a rarity nowadays but one Rosyth man’s extreme transformation from a physicist to a magician really turned a few heads.
Physicist Kevin McMahon (28) gave up his day job after appearing as a magician on Channel 4’s hit reality show, Faking It, in which he managed to fool star magician Paul Daniels into thinking that he too was a master of magic.
The show involves an individual – the faker – spending four weeks learning a skill well enough to fool a group of expert judges. Kevin’s mentor for the show was magician Nigel Mead.
And over three years after appearing on the show, Kevin has this week been performing in a magic show with another magician, Alan Hudson, at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Kevin, of Kings Road, had been half-way through a PhD working on a research project at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University for a forensic company when he applied for the show, after which he quit his job to enter the world of magic.
He explained, “Pretty much as soon as I finished the show I realised I couldn’t go back to what I was doing before and I had to give this a try. I quit my job because I wanted to give 100 per cent to my magic.
“I got a couple of part-time jobs doing magic at a McDonald’s in Edinburgh and TGI Friday’s in Glasgow.”
The former St Columba’s High School pupil has been performing ‘Magic to get Girls By’ at the Pleasance Zoo since Sunday. The show’s run will end on Monday.
He commented, “It’s really exciting. My normal working week I do a lot of travelling across the country performing at private parties, weddings and corporate events.
“It will be really nice to do my own thing; to show my friends and family what I’m up to and let people come along and judge for themselves.
“There’s a lot more on the line – they’re judging me.”
Reflecting back to his time on the show, Kevin said, “I had to learn how to do a 10-minute magic act in four weeks and at the end I was put on the stage among three other professional magicians, and a panel of judges had to pick which one was the faker.
“I fooled the whole panel including Paul Daniels, which was quite satisfying!”
He laughed, “They have had a burger van chef to a gourmet chef, a sheep shearer to a hairdresser and a classical cello player to a rock DJ on the show.
“There’s always some kind of lateral opposite – in my case it was breaking the law of physics by doing magic.”
Kevin also went to Las Vegas as part of his training where he worked with two professional magicians for five days.
He added, “The tricks I had to learn were stage tricks. One of them was you have a ring and you show it to someone who accidentally swallows it. You lie them down on a table and move their shirt to reveal their midriff and cut them open, and remove the ring – it’s very gory and bloody but very fun!”
And Kevin believes his time with Fife Youth Orchestra in which he played the viola has helped him with his magic.
He explained, “The finger movements associated with that helped me learn the magic tricks. My biggest hurdle was standing up on stage – it was terrifying.”
Kevin continued, “My family and friends have been really supportive – I can’t ask for anything more. They were a bit dubious to start off with – you can probably imagine the conversation I had with my mum! They have all come round now and they can see me making a success of it. I have to work really hard to do what I’m doing but it’s really rewarding.”
Kevin added that one possibility for the future would be to combine science and magic together in a show.
He commented, “If you are good at maths and science at high school they never tell you you can do anything else other than be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc.
“After years at university I realised I can do other things and if you enjoy them better, why not do them?
“I had never thought about doing magic before the show. When the show introduced me to the world of performing, I just really liked it and thought I would give it a try – and here I am now!”
Kevin appeared on an Easter special of Faking It in March 2005.
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