Civil servant chooses life of magic over the MoD

11:35am Tuesday 22nd July 2008

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A MAN has swapped his desk at the Ministry of Defence for a magic wand in an extraordinary change of career.

John Elliott, 57, of Swinburne Place, Wootton Bassett, was a long-serving employee at the government department and has received a prestigious medal for a career spanning 34 years.

I decided to take the plunge and do what has always been my first love

John Elliott

However, he could not resist an opportunity to return to his first love.

He said: "Where in the world would we be without a laugh?

"Magic gave me confidence and I overcame a lot of my problems."

Magic has always played a role in John's life - in fact it is in his blood.

John's father Dan was a semi professional magician and president of the British Magic Society.

John, who has lived in Wootton Bassett for the last 15 years, became a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Bath Magic Circle.

However, his first taste of success was when he won the Butlin's talent competition aged 12.

"That started the bug," said John.

For John performing magic is more than just a hobby and throughout his life it is something that has given him confidence and earned the respect of others.

Following again in his father's footsteps John spent the majority of his career with the Defence Communication Services Agency within the MoD.

This involved administrative and financial work and providing equipment for overseas MoD sites.

Vice Marshall Bob Allan recently presented him with the Imperial Service Medal for his loyal service.

The award is only given to those who have served for over 25 years and on the special recommendation of the senior line management.

People from current conflicts were also being honoured at the ceremony.

John said: "I was rubbing shoulders with sergeants and I felt a bit humble.

"They'd been in those hell holes of Helmand and Iraq and Afghanistan and seen really hard service."

However, John's career took a dramatic turn when he realised the MoD could not offer him a part time job.

"I decided to take the plunge and do what has always been my first love," he explained.

Over the years he has met the likes of Paul Daniels and David Nixon, but many artists have inspired him, his idol being David Copperfield.

More recently John performed at the Purton Talent Show, but one of his best experiences was in the 1980s, convincing popular model Sam Fox to be his assistant in a levitated table trick with her on top.

Years ago John saw a magician from overseas perform a dancing cane trick.

"I thought I have got to get that," he said.

"I spent hours and months and months doing this one trick and getting this dancing cane working."

However, John says magic is not about the tricks - it is the performance that counts and therefore timing is everything.