P E O P LE
A MASTER OF
SLEIGHT OF HAND
One to one with Winchester magician Ben Hart
H
e wowed the judges of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent
with a magic show like no other, and is now a
household name, enjoying sell-out performances
across the UK. But Ben Hart says it’s in Winchester that
he’s most looking forward to performing this Winter,
with his first-ever show in his home city, at Theatre
Royal Winchester on 17 November.
It was at the tender age of five that Ben became
fascinated by magic, and after borrowing and
reborrowing the same book of tricks from Winchester
Library he began performing to his friends. “I had a very
limited audience,” he says, “and would inevitably end up
revealing how my tricks were done, so it wasn’t until I
went to Kings’ School that my performances started to
get better.”
Here the school blazer provided opportunities for hiding
props and revealing them again, and his repertoire of
tricks became impressive enough for friends’ parents to
book him for dinner parties. At 16 he won a national
Magic Circle competition and began performing in
pubs and nightclubs.
“As I grew in confidence and skill, so the opportunities
got bigger,” he says. “I remember flying back from a
booking in South Africa and then getting into trouble
at Peter Symonds College for not doing my coursework.
Magic was the only career I was even considering
by then.”
Magic has seen a resurgence in the entertainment
business, Ben says: he thinks the lack of wonder in a
digital age has boosted its appeal. “There are not many
things in life that still have that air of mystery,” he says.
Using his talents to provide special effects for the theatre
gave Ben another string to his bow, and he extended his
repertoire to create his own one-man show. “It was about
that time that I went on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent,” he
says. “Because I was so different from the other acts, I got
to the final, and, although I didn’t win, the publicity it
gave me catapulted me into the mainstream.” His touring
one-man show has now been all over the world, and has
been heralded for its creativity and storytelling.
For Christmas Ben will be in Winchester, where he’s
looking forward to catching up with friends at The
Black Boy. “I’m a bit of a Christmas grinch, because by
the time Christmas comes I’ll usually have performed at
20 parties,” he says. “What I do like about being home
is organising my life again in a city where I know where
everything is. I might work all over the world now, but
Winchester is still where I call home.”
Ben Hart comes to Theatre Royal Winchester on 17
November 2019 and 29 April 2020
01962 840440 www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk
www.winchestermag.com
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