North London’s Pete Firman was given a magic set by his mum when he was an eight-year-old lad in Middlesborough and proceeded to wow his friends and family with his amazing cigarette trick. Now the 34-year-old star of The Magicians is coming to Radlett as part of A Night of Jewish'ish Entertainment. He talks to Rosy Moorhead about bamboozling audiences and not wearing a cardigan.

What can audiences expect from your act?

Because I’m doing magic and comedy, I’m trying to make it as funny as I can – trying jokes, tweaking jokes, getting rid of bad jokes – and then trying to make it as amazing as possible. I want the audience to be bamboozled.

You took your seventh solo show to Edinburgh last summer – do you still enjoy it?

I enjoy it hugely. That’s my main reason for continuing to do it. I’m lucky that people are still interested and want to come and see the show. And it’s great because I get to hang out with all my mates from the comedy circuit for a month and it’s a bit of a giggle.

When did you first get into magic?

It was the usual story, I got a magic set as a kid and fell in love with it as a hobby. I did it all through my teens and then I was doing a little bit of part-time magic for some pocket money when I was about 16 or 17. I always knew I wanted to do some sort of performance. I was really keen on becoming an actor, but some opportunities presented themselves to do some TV work with magic about ten years ago and one gig lead to another gig and I just found the magic work was increasing.

Can you remember your first trick?

I had this little plastic box that had a drawer that you pulled out and it looked empty and you closed it and snapped your fingers and opened it again and it was full of cigarettes. I don’t know if that’s what my father ought to have bought me as an eight-year-old! I did it for anyone who came round, they were forced to sit on the settee and watch Pete’s never-ending magic show.

How did you get into comedy from magic?

I’d always been a fan of stand-up so I thought ‘I wonder if my little magic show might play in a comedy club?’ I think from the club’s bookers’ point-of-view I was appealing as I broke up the line-up of young, middle-class, white men in cardigans!