CHAMPIONS Of Magic brings together two British acts, mind reader Alex McAleer and illusionists Young & Strange, and North American magicians Kayla Drescher and Fernando Velascola at the Grand Opera House, York, tonight and Saturday.
The tour opened in McAleer's home city of Norwich at the back end of last month and finds latest additions Drescher and Velascola settling in well. "We've been touring the show for a few years now, and Kayla and Fernando joined us when we were in the [United] States last autumn and then for a few shows in January and February," he says. "I've been involved since 2014, with the line-up changing with the producer working out what he wanted."
McAleer's role involves his tapping into audience members' minds and reading their thoughts at will. He does not pretend to be a "psychic" who reads fortunes or talks to the dead; instead he talks to the living.
"Magic was one of my many hobbies when I was growing up as an only child," he says. "I was into art; I was into special effects as it was the era before the Star War movies had all those CGI special effects; I was into ventriloquism, so I was always interested in entertainment. I just liked entertaining people."
After his mother died when he was 14, he turned his attention to studying the manipulation techniques of psychics, mentalists and hypnotists. "I was given a book called Maximise Your Memory around that time, which took a step by step guide to memorising things with a recommended reading list," Alex recalls. "It recommended books on mentalism and magic tricks, and it did actually help with memorising things for my GCSEs!"
Alex grew up in the Suffolk village of Debenham, where his parents were members of the local amateur dramatics society, the Debenham Players, and he followed suit. "Before doing my mentalism shows, I'd already got used to being on stage, remembering things and learning lines, and I was into writing as well, putting on a one-act play."
"Mind-reading is not a gift, a power or an ability. It's something that I've taught myself," says Alex McAleer
McAleer was interested in people watching, never in talking to the dead. "I had a fascination with psychology, and though I was also fascinated with the paranormal and aliens, I'm now much more sceptical about them and more interested in the story behind what someone thought they saw," he says.
He studied art and design at Suffolk College, but dropped out part-way through. "I wanted to be a performer more and my tutor encouraged me to do that," recalls Alex, who was 19/20 at the time.
"I remember reading that Dynamo [the magician] got a loan through the Prince's Trust, so I applied and got £900 and that money got me the suit to look smart in and let me set up a website."
He started to perform his mind-reading act at wedding receptions, and from there his career has blossomed as a "professional interpreter" of what people are thinking. By 2014, this self-styled "lapsed introvert" took his first show to the Edinburgh Fringe, and the Champions Of Magic has ensued.
"Mind-reading is not a gift, a power or an ability. It's something that I've taught myself, a bit of psychology, a bit of nudging people, a bit of showmanship, but I couldn't ever be the world's greatest detective," says Alex.
Champions Of Magic, Grand Opera House, York, tonight and Saturday, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
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