A mother and son have recently returned to the island after a conjuring workshop in Sweden with some of the biggest names in magic.

Rosalie and Giles Beaumont, from Sulby, spent six days examining magic theories, applying them and discussing them in a hands-on course, along with 4o other magicians from 14 different countries.

Working from early morning to late night, the workshop, held at Sigtuna Folk High School in Stockholm, was free of charge as education has to be free in Sweden.

The pair are both members of Magicians of Mann, which is the only magic society in the Isle of Man, and is for people aged 16 and above who are interested in learning about magic.

Giles, aged 21, explained why he and his mother were desperate to go to the workshop, which first started in 2019.

He said: ‘It’s quite a sought-after experience for magicians , there were several people there who had made appearances on Penn and Teller Fool Us [a TV series where aspiring magicians performs tricks and attempt to hoodwink magic comedy duo Penn and Teller].

‘One example is a guy that was there called Horret Wu, we were in the same class as him as it was his first year there, you can look him up on Youtube as he fooled Penn and Teller with the trick he did, and he also won a magic competition called Fism [International Federation of Magic Societies], which is effectively like Britain’s Got Talent but exclusively for magicians and it’s global.

Giles was fascinated by magic from a young age with his mum Rosalie explaining how he began to like it.

She said: ‘Giles was about eight at the time when a magician called “Scoop” was selling DVDs on holiday, and on it was about four tricks, Giles begged to use his holiday money for it which was £5, so we got it for him.

‘He perfected the tricks and was going around showing everybody and anybody that would watch him.

‘It would so happen that he showed Mike Clague, who was in charge of Young Magicians of Mann on Tynwald Day, and Mike invited him along to join a year before he should have been eligible because he performed this trick.

‘Once he was in Young Magicians of Mann he performed in the Magic Circle, as the representative for the Isle of Man.’

Young Magicians of Mann is no longer running after Mike Clague retired after 29 years of service to the society.

To join the senior Magicians of Mann you have to be 16, and Giles was just 14 when the young society stopped, but after his 15th birthday the society made him its first honorary member.

Since then he has performed a magic trick to Hollywood actor Channing Tatum in the Ginger Hall during TT week.

card

Giles performed a trick that made Channing Tatum sign the back of a playing card, which he kept.

Rosalie joined Magicians of Mann seven years ago, joining as it had got to the point where Giles needed to spend a lot more money on tricks.

She said: ‘It’s quite expensive, and the most expensive tricks are the ones that only last ten seconds with an audience. I just kept going along and learning about magic and seeing all these professional magicians they were bringing in, such as Shawn Farquhar, Tom Stone and David Stone.

‘I knew that I would enjoy it, but I didn’t expect that I would like to perform.

‘I didn’t perform my first magic show until about four years ago, having done magic and been at the magic club already for three years, and then it was December 2022 I did my first solo performances.

‘I was booked for an hour and stayed for two!’

You can follow both Rosalie and Giles on Facebook at ‘Giles the Magician’ and ‘The Purple Haired Magician’ and they’re available individually for magic shows at any events.