'I had some sort of gift, but I didn't realise it was magic'

A man from Toxteth knew he had a gift but 'didn't realise it was magic'

Don Neufville grew up on Upper Parliament Street, Toxteth. He attended Windsor Street Primary School and then went to Arundel Comprehensive School.

Throughout life he toured the UK as a DJ, played in Liverpool Clubs; Saturdays, Kicks, Quinns and more, and wrote newspaper columns on showbiz in Luton after the family moved there in the 1970s. In 2016 Don became a professional magician after years of practice after seeing her first magic trick as a child.

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Don told the ECHO: "I was late for school one morning, eight years of age, and another kid showed me a magic trick. He had this pin and the pin disappeared. It blew my mind.

"I said at break time, how did you do that? He showed me, and some magicians to this day do that same trick. I learnt it and that got me into magic".

He spoke fondly of the shop The Wizards Den in Liverpool City Centre where he purchased tricks as a child. He said: "I would go there and was intrigued by the tricks they used to have. Magicians from all around the world would go to buy tricks".

Don described the shop as "the oldest and the best magic shop in the world". He would buy: the nail through the finger, the electric hand shake and all sorts of things.

He said: "The problem was, when I used to go to The Wizards Den and buy things, other kids never respected me because they knew where I got the stuff. They didn’t really believe in magic, so I thought what I've got to do is really up my game".

"When I was about nine, everyone had football cards at school or whatever, there could be up to 500 in a set. I said to people, spread the cards out and I would be able to tell them what's on the back of that card.

"I learned that, then learned to stop at any page in a comic and would tell them which page they stopped on. I realised I had some sort of gift, but I didn't realise it was magic".

Don could watch all the football results on a Saturday and then tell anyone what score each match was when they named any team. He could tell someone what they were holding when speaking to them on a mobile phone without seeing them and said: "I'm more of a mentalist (meaning a mind reader etc), but I can do ordinary magic as well".

He returns to Liverpool to visit and loves to shop in the vintage shops on Bold Street which he says are "much better" than London. He added: "I am often described as the best dressed man in magic".

I met Don a few weeks back in Liverpool after not seeing him for a long time. He did a magic trick on a friend of mine, which left me totally amazed.

I’ve seen similar on TV but there’s always that scepticism that it's staged. He picked a card at random from a deck of cards - the seven of hearts. He then produced a coin and invited my friend and I to check it over. He then placed the coin between the palms of both hands, and when he opened them the seven of hearts was punched through the coin.

Don's dream is to perform in his home city in the Philharmonic or St George's Hall. If he realises his dream, he wants to "put on the most amazing magic show, headlining it with other magicians.

He said: "The Caribbean Centre I would love to do. I come from there and I never forgot where I come from".

Don said of his best memory is performing on "one of them cruise ships in Dubai, just before Covid, that's one I want to go back to. On the cruise ships I achieved a dream there.

"My plan is to go to America, I keep getting invited by Anthony Darkstone, he’s one of the biggest names in America. I tour around the UK; I’m going to Italy in September and after the Blackpool Magic Convention in February I plan to go to Dubai and then straight to America".

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