Ian Hirst – Profile

The Hirst Hypothesis A lecture By Magic Ian
Ian Hirst – Thaumaturge
A maker of the impossible. A dreamer. A schemer. A Teacher

Tuesday 25th November 2025 – 7.30pm – IWHCC

Ian started his magical journey at the tender age of 8. Performing for family and friends such miracles as the escaping polo mint from a rope. The growing arcs. Vanishing rabbit cabinet (not as exciting as it sounds as this was a small plastic device with a door on the front and back and a plastic sheet with a rabbit on either side. The clever mechanism did all the work). Vanishing coin in water. And the finale of the act the psychic banana slice (a fresh banana is peeled and seen to be already sliced as if by magic). All learnt from a very old children’s magic book. Apart from the odd packet trick and the random magic set for Christmas this was about as far as it went.

And then an epiphany. Ian’s younger brother came home one winter from working as a croupier on cruise ships around the Mediterranean Sea and brought with him a trick he had learned form one of the resident magicians.

Crazy Mans Handcuffs, it literally blew Ian’s mind, he was hooked again. After his brother taught him the trick. he still performs it as part of a longer elastic band routine in his working set. It turns out that kid’s mum in Salford was wrong!

A trip to the library brought the first real discovery of what a magic book could really teach, Mark Wilsons’ Course in magic. From this book Ian learned about the Tarbell course in magic and the supreme magic company. He became a machine, devouring everything he could lay his hands on. He was well known for performing magic, at the time, in the British Aerospace factory in Chadderton; spending more time wandering the factory showing anyone and everyone magic tricks, much to his foreman’s dislike. These formative years culminated in several children’s shows performed mainly for Ian’s Bae colleagues. As his magic matured so did the paid gigs where he started to branch out into table hopping at restaurants and corporate functions.

A failed attempt to gain entry to the Magi saw him redouble his efforts and applied for membership again. This second audition blew the panel away with a stunning animated sword card location. Not long after joining the Magi, Ian took early redundancy from BAe (encouraged by the grumpy foreman, who clearly didn’t like magic). Ian used his redundancy money to open the Manchester Magic Castle in 1992.
Fast forward to 2025 following a short hiatus from magic to concentrate on his teaching career. Ian has returned to magic with gusto formulating a new hypothesis for his performance along the way.

The Hirst Hypothesis – Not merely magic tricks only moments of wonder. Mysteries to be experienced not puzzles to be solved. Ian’s updated lecture brings a combination of his old classics and some new updated material.