“ I’m fortunate to call Stephen one of my closest pals. He’s brought just as much joy to me as a friend, as he has as a magician, theorist and creator. His infectious passion, care and dedication to the art is both highly admirable and influential. His boundless understanding on the construction and delivery of strong magic, reflects the bottomless depth of his interest and experience.

Stephen’s philosophies, ethos and attitude within magic, provide a refreshing ray of invaluable light. Furthermore Stephen is an exceptionally skilled performer, capable of deeply touching the hearts and minds of his audience. In part, this is due to his extraordinary talent for story-telling, rapport-building and sublime acting – amongst the finest I’ve seen.

To me, this represents the importance of consciously designing all aspects of the audience’s experience, recognising that for them, their journey of wonderment involves much more than just tricks. As magic’s consumerist era marches on, the adage ‘sometimes you have to step back in order to move forwards’ is becoming increasingly essential.

We must regularly remember that as a performance art, it is not what we do, but rather how we do it that counts – a magician should be captivated not by the desire to fool, but to profoundly entertain. Stephen’s work is masterfully produced from the ground-up and in turn, leads to phenomenally surprising, emotive and memorable results.

As the sum of our mentors, we must choose them carefully. I would highly recommend any opportunity to spend time amongst Stephen’s wisdom – I envy all students who begin their journey here. ”