THERE will be magic in the air tomorrow (Friday) when 15-year-old prestidigitator Ollie Mealing presents his first full-length show.

Already a member of the Young Magician's Club, the junior section of the Magic Circle, Ollie has been amazing friends, family and a growing circle of admirers with his close-up magic since he was just five years old.

"I was given a magic set for Christmas and I was hooked straight away," he remembers. Unable to read the instructions, his dad Adrian had to show him how to do his first trick, but there was soon no stopping him.

"The first trick I was able to do was the one where you stuff a hanky in your fist and it vanishes."

Nowadays, Ollie's great love is card tricks. "There is so much more you can do with cards than you'd ever imagine. You learn the building blocks and then start creating your own moves."

Whenever he has an idle moment, Ollie practises. "I practise on the bus, while I'm watching TV, even while I'm waiting for the toast to pop up," he says.

"I am absolutely certain that magic is what I want to do as a career," says Ollie, who sits his GCSEs this year and plans to take French, psychology and drama at A-level at John Masefield School.

"Psychology should prove very useful," he says.

Close-up magic offers no place to hide, though Ollie maintains that close-up magic presents the best opportunity to control an audience: "Everything happens under your audience's nose so you have to be more secretive and employ a lot more misdirection."

Ollie's first full-length magic show - The Bizarre Ollie Mealing - premieres for adults and over-12s at Colwall Village Hall, tomorrow (Friday) at 7.30pm.