FIRST there are two elastic bands. The teenager loops them round his fingers and begins some deft moves, making them link, then separate, then with a shake of his hand they suddenly weave through his fingers. At the next shake, they disappear completely.

Meet Matt Woollons - North Yorkshire teenager, A-level student and young magician.

And not any young magician. Matt was a finalist in the Young Magician of the Year 2013, a biannual competition run by the Magic Circle, has won Malton & Norton's Got Talent and in 2015 was named York's best card magician of the year.

He also performs professionally for a handsome fee, has his own slick website and is the star of a new short film all about a young magician.

"I started when I was five years old," begins Matt, of Foston, who says it all started when his grandad Maurice used to perform a trick on him. "He used to make a coin disappear then reappear from my ear - and give me it as pocket money."

Maurice had learned the trick from a veteran magic star, Dante, after meeting him in the 1930s. It was the only magic trick Maurice, now aged 92, could do, but it introduced Matt to this intriguing new world.

"I got a box of magic tricks one Christmas when I was about six or seven and learned from the instructions," says Matt.

When the York Young Magicians Club was set up in 2008, Matt was its first member. Now, he is in the senior branch but attends the monthly meetings of the junior club to teach the young hopefuls.

Matt's dedication to his art was such that he would practise five hours a day to perfect his tricks. Aged ten, he attended his first magician's convention in a village hall at Ferrybridge. "I'd never seen other magicians live - I'd only ever seen them on TV. The hall was packed full of magicians and I learned a lot of techniques and how to perform."

The next convention he attended was bigger and better still - a four-day affair at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, which attracts talent from all over the world. Matt attends every year and says they really help hone his performance skills.

"The main thing I have learned is to be funny and tell jokes. If you watch my stage performance you will see that. Magic goes down a lot better when you are funny than when you are serious."

The reverse is true for close-up, more intimate performances. "Being serious then makes it more impressive," he says.

Matt prefers to learn his tricks from books rather than from DVDs or the internet. "Books are really good because they purely teach you the trick and not how to perform it - forcing you to think up your own way. If you learn from a DVD or video, the natural instinct is to copy that performance."

Matt's act mainly uses playing cards and coins, as well as elastic bands and ropes, although he admires star illusionists such as David Blaine, known for his daring tricks, and "mentalist" Derren Brown, famous for his skilful psychological manipulation.

Matt doesn't have a favourite trick of his own: "Every trick I do is my favourite. If there is a trick I don't like, I won't perform it."

In the run up to Christmas and New Year, Matt was busy with bookings. "I had about two a week," he says.

Things will quieten down in the next few months as he concentrates on his A-levels. He is studying maths, biology and chemistry at Malton School and is hoping to get at least an A and two Bs to take up a place at university to study geology.

Despite also being a talented juggler, unicyclist and beat-boxer (who regularly busks near Parliament Street), Matt says he is unlikely to pursue a career in the world of entertainment, particularly not as a magician.

He plans a gap year before uni, heading off to Taiwan to teach youngsters magic with David Wu, fellow magician and film student at York University, whose short film, Dream In The Dream, features Matt in the lead role. It is hoped it will be released on YouTube this year.

Matt is looking forward to studying geology. "I like science and the outdoors and this combines the two. I really like magic, but I wouldn't want it to turn into something I had to do if I did it professionally."

Meanwhile, Matt is encouraging the next generation of talent through his work with the York Young Magicians Club, which meets one Saturday a month.

The club has just won a £500 grant from Skipton Building Society, which will be spent on props and hiring skilled magicians to come in to teach the members, aged from 10 to 16. Some of the members have also been invited to perform at one of the company's events later this month.

Just because Matt doesn't foresee a career in magic, this doesn't mean his passion is on the wane. Far from it. Magic, he insists, is a universal tonic, more important than ever in these troubling times.

He said: "Despite all the things going on in the world and the stress people are under, a moment of magic can completely take their minds off everything because magic seems completely impossible and people have no idea how any of it works."

(BLOB) See Matt perform one of his tricks online at thepress.co.uk and check out his website for more: mattwoollonsmagician.com

(BLOB) The York Young Magicians Club meets at the Dringhouses Sports Club, York, one Saturday a month at noon for two hours. It costs £2 a month, just bring along a deck of cards and a notepad. If you are aged 10-16 and would like more information or to become a member, please contact Paul Woollons at p.woollons@btinternet.com. Find out more about at yorksocietyofmagicians.co.uk/juniors