A MACCLESFIELD double act were showing off their trickery at last night’s World Junior Magician Championships.

Douglas Tilston and Jake Barlow may only be 16 and 14 respectively – but they have more hocus pocus skills than you can shake a wand at.

The young illusionists were two of the 13 international competitors selected by a panel of top magicians for the championship, held in Blackpool.

Douglas, who lives in Goostrey but attends Macclesfield’s King’s School, has been practising magic from the age of 11, inspired by the fact his dad is a magician too.

He said before the competition: "My specialist category is card magic and I have to present an act of five minutes minimum and 13 minutes maximum.

"I am nervous now – if it goes wrong then you know before the audience and have to think of a way of getting round it so that the audience doesn’t suspect.

"I have been in tricky situations in public before, but not in a competition. The judges are looking for little things that an audience wouldn’t usually notice."

As the winner of the Manchester Circle of Magicians Junior Club award, Douglas already performs at children’s parties and he hopes to take a gap year before university to bewitch cruise ship audiences and perfect his art.

Douglas attends the same magic club as Jake, who was featured in The Express last July after becoming one of the youngest paid magicians in the country.

He said: "I am more experienced now. Magicians have ways of getting round when a trick goes wrong, so the audience are fooled."

He won Poynton’s Got Talent and The Manchester Circle of Magicians under-16s title.

Jake, of Sutton Road, Poynton, entered the close-up magic section of the championship.

He said: "I’m nervous, but quite confident because I have my tricks ready to go.

"For part of the act I do a Rubik’s Cube trick where I throw it up and when I catch it the puzzle is done. I don’t like to prepare much. I improvise quite a lot and that makes it entertaining."

The championships took place at the Opera House, Blackpool, and were ongoing at the time of going to press.


* To find out how our magic boys did, read the Express next week.

More about Jake can be found at www.magicmyway.co.uk .