I have finally got around to doing something I have been talking about for a while – trying to organise a magic club for North Essex. I have imaginatively called it ‘Colchester Magic Club’ and it is for anyone interested in performing, learning, sharing and improving magic tricks. The Facebook page is here

The response I have had to my magic tricks is interesting. Some people get hung up on the word ‘magic’ – but it’s not about special powers or dark forces, it’s all about illusions and how you create them. I never went to Hogwarts and have no special powers: if a trick works it’s all skill (usually the skill of the trick designer rather than me!)

Other people have said that it’s wrong to trick people – but it’s a performance as much as any play or TV soap opera, and people buy into that.

Children at the local schools I visit love them. They ask me if I am doing any tricks at the next assembly when I see them. It can be awkward when, as has happened to me in a local shop or street, a child from one of those schools out with their parents says ‘hello’ and asks if I am going to do any tricks… a very swift introduction and explanation to parents is called for at those times!

But the child-like response to such things is surely what Jesus was talking about when he said we should receive the Kingdom of God like a child. Awe, wonder, laughter, joy, delight, anticipation, openness, excitement, giggles, glee… how many of these words have we banned from the Christian life and in doing so have failed to understand what Jesus was saying? In The Name of The Rose, Umberto Eco wrote a story of monks who had discovered a book that spoke of God as the source of laughter and humour and had tried to suppress it. I fear that many churches have managed to do this…

Be blessed, be a blessing, have a laugh!