Britain's Got Talent victor Richard Jones: I'll be back – you're all magic (with video)
A Shropshire audience has been getting the royal treatment with a performance from a Britain's Got Talent winning magician.
Lance Corporal Richard Jones is a soldier in The Band of The Household Cavalry, but he was also the first magician to win Britain's Got Talent last year, going on to show his tricks at the Royal Variety Performance.
The magician wowed a packed audience at Market Drayton's Festival Drayton Centre on Monday, and revealed he hopes to add more Shropshire dates to his Power of Imagination tour later this year.
He said: "This venue sold out really quickly, hopefully we'll be back to Shropshire in the summer."
The magician lifted the lid on his beginnings in the entertainment industry, revealing that he received a magic set as a young child, but did not start magic properly until he joined the Army as a teenager.
Lance Corporal Jones said he tries to feature the Army in his performances, especially on TV, and spoke of the emotion he felt after the Royal Variety Performance.
He said: "In all the TV performances I try to incorporate the Army so I get a lot of them on the shows.
"When I did the Royal Variety Performance I got 30 of them on stage with me.
"It was really great, it couldn't have gone better, we had a standing ovation at the end, it was really emotional."
The 26-year-old said he had the chance to perform in Shropshire as the Army had given him some annual leave.
He added: "I'm trying to get to as many places as possible in the next few weeks.
"I've never been to Shropshire but it's great so far and the show was a sell-out."
Lance Corporal Jones said the show was designed to get the crowd involved.
He said: "It's very much fun magic, comedy-style fun, getting people involved from the audience in a light-hearted way."
He has recently been invited into the Inner Magic Circle, the most prestigious honour in the Magic Circle.
He said: "The Inner Magic Circle only has about 200 members at any one time, so I was very happy to be invited by the president.
"It takes most of the people years to be invited into the Inner Magic Circle."
For more information visit richardjonesmagic.co.uk
