When I first started working as a magician’s assistant in a late-night cabaret show in a small central-London theatre, I couldn’t have anticipated just how much it would change my performing life.

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Sealed Good in a Can: When Shandu is trapped in the vortex, he appears in a reflection to advise Todd. While eminent conjurer Shandu the Magnificent knowingly keeps custody of a genuine magic wand, he warns that actual use of the wand can summon evil. If it is hard not to squint at some of the flashy paradoxes Patchett uses to construct her narrative, then perhaps a struggle with credulity is precisely what she wants to encourage. Marker asks Todd what happened to the potted plant, but as he fumbles an explanation, he sees a note on his mother's desk thanking him for the illustrations, which she has taken to the office immediately - and he realises Nazrak has taken the form of his mother.

This curiously fraught situation becomes more so once it is revealed that Parsifal had a secret history. In the climax, Todd uses this rule in conjunction with Rule Number Two ("Only let them see what you want them to see") to defeat Nazrak by standing in front of a mirror when Nazrak casts a spell to banish him to the vortex; as soon as the spell is cast, Todd steps aside to reveal the mirror, which reflects the spell back to banish Nazrak instead. When Nazrak agrees and Todd hands over the wand, the demon points out that he never said he would leave Todd himself alone, and he prepares to banish him to the vortex with Shandu.

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She is also the reigning winner of the New Act of the Year at the NATYS and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year. For readers who have had similarly disappointing experiences with Ann Patchett’s novels, The Magician’s Assistant is different enough that I’d recommend it as a nice change of pace. She tells Todd the wand has special powers - contrary to Shandu's instructions, he can use it whenever he pleases. Marker stops by the supermarket, and we see her walking down the alleyways toward their apartment building with a single paper bag of groceries that includes a baguette, a bunch of celery with leafy green tops, and an assortment of oranges and grapefruits that have not been put in a produce bag, so they spill out of the paper bag when the bottom inevitably tears.He angrily dismisses Todd, who rides off on his bike before realising he still has Shandu's bow tie. Nazrak sheds the disguise and demands the wand; Todd tries picking up the phone, but only hears Nazrak's voice at the other end.

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The latter can be achieved through non-verbal signals such as subtle changes in body language, posture and gaze.or that by posthumously reuniting Parsifal with his mother and sisters, she helps unchain them from a painful past. This is often reinforced visually and verbally, with hyper-feminised and sexualised costumes that draw the eye to her body rather than her face. Stage magic and illusion had not, unsurprisingly, been part of my training at university and drama school, but they opened up a whole new world of stagecraft, audience interaction, pacing and physicality that helped me unlearn and relearn ways to be and communicate on stage, as well as to direct and focus the attention of audiences.