Profiles

Alex McAleer

Alex McAleer is a 20 something living in Ipswich. His day job involves design and working with websites, but much of his spare time is dedicated to learning and mastering magic tricks which he can then use to baffle and entertain the public.

Alex brands his craft as psychomagic, "it's a combination of two words, psychology and magic," but admits that it's often easier to call himself a magician.

The words 'Derren Brown' would be given for anyone wanting a quick reference point to the kind of tricks Alex performs, but these are muttered cautiously around Alex in case he's tired of people asking about Britain's most notorious illusionist.

"Ah, that Darren fella," Alex says. "It was after seeing him in 2000 that I thought 'that's cool, I want to do that'.

"But I always used to be into magic. I'd stay up to watch Penn and Teller and before that I had a Paul Daniels magic kit - with a little wand that shrunk, but it was a bit rubbish."

Clap your hooves for the magic horse

Alex's interest moved up a gear when he started to look deeper into the skill of reading human behaviour, which strangely enough lead him to a four-legged role model from the early 1900s.

"There was a German horse called Clever Hans that could do mathematics and read minds.

"They had no idea how he'd do it - they'd go '2 times 2' and the horse would tap its hoof four times. They were baffled.

"They thought maybe the trainer was signaling it so they got the trainer to go out of the room and he could still do it.

"What the horse was doing was reading people. They'd go two plus two and everyone would be quite tense. It would tap its hoof once and everyone would still be quite tense, then two, three, then it did four, there was a bit of a pause and everyone relaxed because he did four.

"It would see everyone relax and would just stop. I love that kind of thing because you can do it with people."

Thankfully Alex's tricks are more complex than Clever Hans', with his stage shows and personal appearances including several mind reading demonstrations as well as card tricks.

On a visit to BBC Suffolk Alex asked presenter Graeme Mac to recall his first kiss, and to write down the name of the lucky girl.

Graeme's first (successful) crush

Alex asked Graeme to concentrate on the middle letter of the girl's name, asked if there was a Y, which there was, and then an N, an O and finally asking if the girl's name was Sonya.

It was.

"It has to be the right kind of person," Alex says when asked if he could do this with anyone. "It's a back and forth game."

For Alex's second demonstration I was asked to draw a simple object whilst Alex had his back turned. I worried that my drawing of a spade needed explanation, so I even titled it.

My drawing of a spade

Alex asked me to think about my object, and to then break it up into simple shapes. Staring at me he began to try and recreate the drawing but admitted to having difficulty.

Perhaps it was my rubbish drawing, or maybe I'm not the right kind of person. Alex's drawing was close - almost like an abstract interpretation of my spade - but he admitted to it not being his best effort.

I asked how he works on his tricks.

Alex's interpretation of my spade

"I get an idea in my head and try and work towards it. The drawing thing for example is a test they do on psychics, so there's lots of research. They also pick out a random card and get proclaimed psychics to reveal what it is.

"Reading things like that inspire me. Like drawing things as a group - I don't look at them, they all get mixed together and I try and work out who drew what. It's the same kind of technique."

Making money from magic

Alex originally contacted BBC Suffolk commenting on the difference between aspiring musicians and other types of entertainers looking for shows.

"There's loads more musicians, and they can do gigs easily and kind of be in the background.

"But I demand attention. People say it sounds interesting but say 'how will that work in our venue'. It's a bit frustrating."

But Alex isn't deterred by these hurdles and is buoyed by the success of some of his local colleagues.

"It's like with muscians where you have to get a big break. I've got a couple of magician friends who are very successful but you will have never heard of them.

Graeme and Alex

"One is very successful - he'll do corporate shows, a few performances a week and gets paid quite a lot of money. But it's breaking into certain areas.

"I get a lot of work through agencies - I also get weddings, parties, bar mitzvahs. I haven't done a funeral yet."

Alex's final trick left both myself and Graeme dumbfounded and questioning how he'd achieved it long after he'd left the studio.

Producing a pack of cards with just one turned face down, Alex asked us in turn to eliminate colour, suit and finally to decide what number it was.

Graeme admitted to having the three of clubs lodged in his mind from the start, whilst I had instantly thought of the seven of clubs. It seemed the obvious answer to go for the middle ground and opt for the five of the clubs.

The pack of cards had remained in view the whole time so we couldn't comprehend that any shuffling or manipulating had gone on without us noticing. But when we turned the card over it was indeed the five of clubs.

How did he achieve this? We had no idea but agreed it was something special.

"I'm not special," Alex said. "I'm a bit odd."