Magician R Paul Wilson is a professional con-artist, film-maker and star of TV’s The Real Hustle.
He tells Scottish Field how he gave up his life as a computer programmer to make films and trick the eye.
I was born on an RAF base in Akrotiri on Cyprus and raised in Singapore. My parents and Scottish and we came back to Scotland when I was eight years old. Now I spent half my time in Scotland and the rest travelling and working. I go wherever my next job takes me. It’s usually the USA, but recently I’ve been to Japan, Russia and Canada.
When I’m travelling I’m working on film and TV projects, performing magic and lecturing. I always try to ensure I have enough time in the places I work to really see them – otherwise it’s like you’ve been to Hanoi and all you know is that the airport is nice. I’m guilty of this in Scotland too. I can walk around Glasgow and not know who half of the statues are or why they are there.
Skye is one of my favourite places. I haven’t been to Stornoway since I was a child, but that’s up there on my list too. I like the north, though I wouldn’t describe myself as the hardy type. Ideally, I would be sitting by the fire in a nice warm cottage watching the rain come down outside.
My grandfather had a sneaky way of knowing more than he should when playing gin rummy. He showed it to me one day when I was staying with him. I think he just wanted to amuse me for five minutes, but 40 years later it’s still an ongoing obsession. The idea that you could manipulate things secretly caught my imagination. Then I saw Doug Hemmin and Paul Daniels doing magic and I’ve never let up. I started with sleight of hand, then coin magic and illusion.
When I was a child I always wanted to make films. But there was no Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, or even a film course that I could go on. The idea that I wanted to be a film-maker at the age of 16 was kind of crazy. When I said that film was what I wanted to do at school I was offered counselling and told to get my head out of the clouds.
I was in the army for a bit. It was an act of desperation. Then I became a computer programmer. I did well and made some money as a Y2K guy. I quite to pursue a career in film, going from making very good money to making almost no money. Then I got my break and became a magic consultant on a film called Shade. I’d message home saying I’d spent the day with Sylvester Stallone or had dinner with Gabriel Byrne. My wife didn’t believe me until I faxed her pictures of me with Sylvester and Jamie Foxx.
I used to advise companies on how to secure themselves against deception. Hackers use a similar thought process to magicians.
People in America say they don’t understand the Scottish accent when I use Scottish actors in my films. It gets my hackles up, to be honest. It’s Glaswegian, but I make sure no one goes full Weegie.
I’m not a religious person, but I try to respect the right of other people to have their own beliefs. That’s not to say that I respect their beliefs, because frankly some of them are crazy. I grew up around some wonderful religious people but none of them had extreme ideas.
I don’t believe in ghosts. I think it would be an indulgence for a magician like me. I’m an evidence-based person, so if you’ve got a haunted house I’d love to go, or if you can read minds I’d love to see that tested. And if you could, what a massive leap forward the universe would take. Jest because I don’t believe it doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s a conversation, not a conversion.
George Clooney would play me in the movie of my life. The make-up job would obviously be very expensive.
For more information visit R Paul Wilson’s website, www.conartist.tv.
(This feature was originally published in 2016)
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