the goldfish trick…
Pete Firman performs his Goldfish trick on Channel 4’s Dirty Tricks
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“One of the top magicians in the country” (XFM)
“The bastard child of Jackass and Paul Daniels” (Metro)
Pete Firman is regarded as a uniquely gifted magic entertainer, gleefully injecting the genre with his anarchic, off-beat humour and dazzling array of skills. He starred as cheeky northerner ‘Tufty’ in Five’s anarchic, hip magic show Monkey Magic, and is re-defining the rules of magic
entertainment. Since then he has made numerous series for British television, most recently Secret World of Magic for Sky One.
Pete is Middlesbrough born and bred, although his Grandmother hails from Italy. His parents run a used car business, which is where he learnt the gift of the gab, inheriting his dad’s silver-tongued technique to help shift the odd motor. He started dabbling with magic when he was given a magic set on his eighth birthday. He soon developed a liking for deception and fooling people. In his teens he got into cards and gambling. This gave him a bigger buzz than chasing girls and football. At school he ran a shadowy card syndicate and won the yearly talent show for two consecutive years (’91 - ‘92). At thirteen he joined the Middlesbrough Circle of Magicians.
After ‘A’ levels he went to Scarborough to do a theatre studies degree, earning beer money doing magic gigs in local bars. After graduating in 2001, he had planned to pursue a career in acting, but the magic bug persisted and the gigs got bigger and further afield. His big break came in 2002. Responding to a ‘wanted’ ad from Objective Productions, who were searching for new magicians for Monkey Magic, he sent in a tape of himself in his underpants doing a routine in the snow in his parent’s back garden. Pete was in a doughnut shop in Toronto when he got the call. “The producer first had to check to see if I was just a nutter”.
Monkey Magic, broadcast on Five in 2003, became an instant cult hit with items such as “Snuff magic” and “Nothing Up your Sleeve” (naked magic). Pete was in his element, helping to create brand new magic stunts such as playing the ‘pick-a-card trick’ with maggots and hypnotising a cow to think it’s a mini-bar and then offering passers-by a drink of their choice by pulling the udders.
Pete then made a guest appearance on Celebrity Five Go Dating (Oct 2003, E4) where the offer of sumo wrestling with model and Honey Trap presenter Angel Bell proved too alluring. He then teamed up with the Monkey Magic guys to present the ratings-hit The Greatest Magic Tricks in the Universe - Ever a six-part series on Five.
In 2004 Pete was re-united with his fellow magicians from Monkey Magic for Monkey Magic: Britain’s Maddest Magicians, which aired on Five recently. Pete has just completed filming on a major Channel 4 show, Dirty Tricks. He co-presents the irreverent magic show, which is due to air at the end of 2005.
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