David Linacre, known to many as Magikman, is one of Yorkshire’s most sought-after close-up magicians and a member of the prestigious Magic Circle. For over 25 years he has been turning ordinary moments into the kind people talk about for years afterwards.
David’s love of magic began in childhood. Growing up in Sheffield, he would sit spellbound in front of the Paul Daniels Magic Show on Saturday nights, and by the age of six he was already putting on magic shows for his family. That early fascination never faded. He turned professional at just sixteen, around the year 2000, and built his early career across the city, including a teenage residency at the Republic, later the legendary Gatecrasher One, and performances for the likes of Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield Star. He went on to spend around a decade in Leeds, entertaining at weddings, corporate events and parties across West Yorkshire, before returning home to Sheffield in 2019.
David specialises in close-up magic, performed inches from his audience and often in their own hands. He blends sleight of hand with mind reading and a subtle understanding of persuasion to create a style that feels less like a trick and more like the impossible unfolding in front of you. It is magic for grown-up audiences and mixed crowds alike, equally at home at an intimate dinner or in a room of two hundred guests.
As seen on the BBC, where Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw and Alice Levine called his work “the best magic we have seen”, David has performed for some of the country’s best-known companies, including Burberry, Tesco, O2, Capita and the law firm DAC Beachcroft, alongside hundreds of weddings and private celebrations. He holds more than 150 five-star reviews across Trustpilot, Google and Facebook, and is rated Excellent on Trustpilot.
A full member of The Magic Circle, David takes as much care over the planning of your event as over the performance itself. He arrives early, dresses for the occasion and tailors his magic to your guests, often weaving in personal touches for a guest of honour. There is no stage to set up and nothing required from your venue, just astonishing magic and a room full of people wondering how on earth he did it.
What guests talk about afterwards is rarely just the magic. It is the way David reads a room, the warmth and quick wit he brings to every group, and the feeling that the performance was somehow meant just for them. He takes the time to involve everyone, from a nervous child to a sceptical grandparent, and to make each person feel part of the moment. It is a skill honed over more than 25 years and hundreds of events, and it is the reason so many of David’s bookings come from someone who first saw him at another person’s wedding or party. For David, the magic has never been about catching people out. It is about giving them a few minutes of genuine wonder, the kind that is increasingly rare and all the more memorable for it.
More recently, David has brought his understanding of attention and influence to the stage, with a keynote, “The Hidden Mechanisms of Influence”, that blends real behavioural science with live mentalism for professional and legal audiences. (See Speaking.)
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