Britain's Got Talent's Mandy Muden brings magic to Swindon

Q: You were a huge hit on Britain’s Got Talent this year. On the back of that, you are now embarking on your first ever national tour. What made you want to apply for BGT?

A: I had a cowboy builder who smashed my house to smithereens and took all my savings. So I had to take out huge loans to get the house back to a liveable state. I had been working abroad a lot and needed to rekindle my work here so I could sort out the house. So I was thinking, “What am I going to do now?” Then, thankfully I had the brilliant idea of going on Britain’s Got Talent.

Q: How did you feel before your first audition?

A: Absolutely terrified! When the bloke before me went on, all I could hear was buzzers going off. They are so much louder than they sound on the telly. I thought, “I can’t do this.” Then this lovely producer came out of nowhere and gave me the biggest cuddle. That gave me the strength for the first audition.

Q: How did it go when you went on stage?

A: It was brilliant! I loved it. The audience was amazing, and the judges were so nice to me. I was gobsmacked. I thought Simon would rip me to shreds, but he was lovely. He said, “You’re the best witch we’ve ever had on the show!” At one point during my act, I produced a melon, and Simon said, “Any woman who can lay a melon deserves to go through!”

Q: What did the other judges say?

A: David said he couldn’t believe I wasn’t a huge comedy star already, and Alesha called me a comedy genius. At the end, I got a standing ovation from everyone in the theatre. That really took me by surprise.

Q: How would you describe your experience on Britain’s Got Talent?

A: I loved every minute of it. The whole production team are sensational, from the runners to the top producer. They are a real credit to the programme. They really made the whole experience for me.

Q: Did anything go wrong on BGT?

A: Yes. One trick involved Amanda levitating on a stool. Amanda’s beautiful white net dress got ripped on it. I don’t want to think how much that dress cost. There must have been a dirty great hole in it. But she was lovely and laughed about it afterwards. Sadly, that trick was cut from the finished programme!

Q: What effect has your success on Britain’s Got Talent had on you?

A: It’s been life changing. Before Britain’s got Talent, my confidence had gone after being ripped off by the builder I trusted. I had really lost my faith in people. I couldn’t believe that someone could destroy your home, take your life savings and have no remorse about it. I’d put on loads of weight – I was eating my way out of misery. I would look at my smashed up house and go and comfort myself by eating an entire box of chocolates. I wasn’t getting enough work to repair the house and everything I was earning was going straight into paying back debts. But Britain’s Got Talent, has turned everything around for me.

Q: How have you done that?

A: The amazing reception and feedback from Britain’s Got Talent gave me such a buzz. I’ve laid right of the chocolates and lost 20 pounds. I’ve got loads of work and I’m appearing with Brendan Cole in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the Swan Theatre in High Wycombe. I am playing the Sprit of the Mirror, and I’ll be flying around the theatre. I am scared of heights, so I’ll have to have a bit of ‘Dutch Courage’ before I go on!

Q: And thanks to your popularity on Britain’s Got Talent, you’re now setting out on your first national tour, aren’t you?

A: Yes. I really wanted to do my own show. I wanted to do the whole evening, rather than just a 20-minute slot in a comedy club. “Cunning Stunts” will feature the very best of my comedy magic. I can’t wait to get out on tour. I’ll be travelling round the country in my Fiat 500, so it will be a case of pack small and play big! The tickets are already going really well – I can’t believe it!

Q: What do you hope people will take away from “Cunning Stunts”?

A: I want people to have great fun, see some good magic and have a bloody good laugh.

Q: Is it OK if tricks misfire sometimes?

A: Yes. I once set myself alight on stage. There was a gorgeous Italian man with green eyes in the front row of the audience. I was so fixated on him that I set my hair alight during a trick. The waitresses had to douse me out with wet t-towels. I ran off stage to the ladies and saw in the mirror that I had lost half my hair. I put a comb through it and went straight back on stage and finished the act. The show must go on!

Q: You are the country’s leading female comedy magician. Who first inspired you to go into this field?

A: Tommy Cooper. I choose to go down this route because as a kid I absolutely adored him. He had this wonderful comedic persona. You were always praying that the magic would go wrong because it was so funny. He was a proper clown. So many people have tried to rip him off, but they can’t because he was simply a one-off. As a child, I watched him on the telly and thought, “I’d love to do that.”

Q: So how did you try to break into the world of showbiz?

A: I started out studying to be an actress. My first job after leaving drama school was as a magician’s assistant at a circus in France. Unfortunately, one day I set fire to my caravan when my chip pan caught light during the show. I rushed out of the caravan and bumped into a bloke with a boxing kangaroo on a lead waiting to go on. He said, “I will sort out the fire. Just hold onto this and don’t let go!” As I was standing there, the kangaroo kept hopping around hitting people who were passing by. But fortunately, it didn’t hit me!

Q: Did you run away to the circus for long?

A: No. I got sacked. I went into the ring with a big feather headdress on. Unfortunately, it fell off, and I had to crawl out of the ring on my hands and knees, which didn’t look very cool as I had my hair wrapped up in a pair of tights…So I looked bald to the audience. It got a huge laugh. Too be honest I was a pretty, crappy assistant!

Q: Was it then hard to move into magic in the UK?

A: Yes. I’d always loved magic and was desperate to become a magician. But there were no female comedy magic role models back then – it was such a sexist world. Woman were basically the assistants wearing next to nothing and been shoved into boxes and having swords driven into them. I couldn’t bear it.

Q: Could you get into The Magic Circle at first?

A: No. At the time, women were not allowed in the Magic Circle. They said they wouldn’t let women in because they talked too much! But they’ve since found that the arrival of women, in The Magic Circle, 26 years ago has been a great thing. I was the 13th woman to join the Magic Circle, and I’m still the only woman to get an award from the Magic Circle.

Q: Tell us more.

A: People have a fixed idea about magic because it was the last art form to become modernised and for so long women in magic weren’t equal. Men ran magic, and nobody challenged it. I remember as a kid watching a magician’s assistant on TV wearing virtually nothing. I asked my mum, “Why is she dressed like that?” and she replied, “Because men like it.”

Q: Does that still exist?

A: A little. You still sometimes see women assistants in magic who look like something out of Readers’ Wives. I know one magician who does a thimble routine. He must have spent years working on it, but when his wife comes out on stage in a G string and nipple tassels, she completely pulls the focus. He hasn’t worked out that that is probably not the best outfit for her to wear. He’s doing a terribly complicated routine and no one’s watching him! It’s actually very funny to watch but for all the wrong reasons.

Q: How did you start up in magic, then?

A: I just worked my backside off. Early on, I got a magic teacher. He was one of the biggest mentors in magic. For a long time, he didn’t want to teach me, but I kept on pestering him and eventually I beat him down. I took on work wherever I could find it and most of the time worked for nothing or very little money. I was constantly driving up and down the country in a beaten up old mini. It seemed to run on thin air.

Q: So how did you build up your career in magic?

A: I worked hard and stood up for myself. I had to stand up to some incredibly sexist guys. I still get the odd bloke saying to me, “You only got that job because you’re a woman.” But I broke through, and along the way I have hopefully created a road for other women. It’s a lot easier for women in magic now. There are some great woman magicians out there.

Q: What sort of venues did you play?

A: There was nowhere to be a magician, so I started doing open spots in comedy clubs. I remember being terrified before my first gig at the King’s Head in Islington. I spent the whole day leading up to the gig thinking, “I can’t do this.” Then on the night, it went really well, and I’ve never looked back. I’m very grateful to the comedy circuit. It’s given me the grounding to have a great career.

Q: What did working in those clubs teach you?

A: It taught me not to take myself too seriously and that it’s OK to die on stage! It is in fact important to die on stage and that is the only time you truly question yourself. I also learned how to work an audience. They can sometimes be very vocal. Because I have been doing this so long, there is not much I haven’t heard or experienced. I know that if people heckle you, you have got to deal with it. If you don’t, the audience will turn on you. That taught me to be totally fearless.

Q: One of your great strengths is your brilliant rapport with your audience. Did you pick that up when you were working on the comedy circuit?

A: Yes. Now the audience is my favourite part of the job. I love bouncing off them. Sometimes I don’t do what I planned because something happens, or the audience are just so funny, and we all go off on a complete tangent.

Q: Have you had a lot of embarrassing moments with audiences over the years?

A: Definitely. I remember one night hearing someone in the audience talking the whole way through my act. Eventually I said to him, “Can you come out and on stage please?” He replied, “You don’t want me to”. Then I heard, “Click, click, click.” He was blind. I asked him, “How blind are you?” “Completely.”. “That’s perfect because I’m not very good at this trick!” Another night I brought a bloke up on stage as part of the act, I jumped into his arms and immediately slid off them. That’s when I realised he didn’t have any hands.

Q: Have those difficult nights benefited you in the long run?

A: Yes. You only learn from tough gigs. At easy gigs, you come away thinking, “Look at me! I’m Madonna!” But you don’t learn anything from them. When you die on your stage, you think, “How can I be better?”

Q: How is magic perceived in the UK now?

A: For a long time, people have had a love-hate relationship with magic. For years on BGT, Simon hated magicians. People didn’t like the smugness of some magicians – it irritated them. There was also an old-fashioned tinge about it. However, since then there have been some great TV magic shows, amazing magicians have broken through and there has been some fantastic magicians on BGT.

Q: With your enormous success, you can help change the perception of magic, can’t you?

A: I hope so. Now people come up to me and say, “I hate magic and didn’t want to come to your show, but I loved it!”

Q: Since shining on Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year, you now have a whole army of new fans. What do they say when they come up to on the street?

They are just lovely and so kind. I really didn’t realise how many people watch Britain’s Got Talent. I flew into Malta and was asked for a selfie by some locals who had watched it there. I was in Lisbon and an Australian man had seen me on the show in Australia. I’m loving the attention to be honest. I’d like to do it all over again.

The show comes to Swindon’s Arts Centre, Devizes Road, Old Town on February 12. Tickets from 01793 524481 or www.swindontheatres.co.uk For dates and ticket details www.mandymuden.com