Our twentieth Twitter Talk column is a rather special occasion, and to mark it we’ve found a suitably extraordinary twitterer.

Lilleshall-based Rob Chapman, who tweets from @T_heMagician, has spent most of his professional career playing acoustic music at weddings, local events and pubs, but three years ago, a chance conversation took his career, and his life, in a very different direction.

“Some friends who were storytellers were part of a Harry Potter themed tour run by an American company, and they asked me to help them figure out a magic set they’d bought for the tour.

“I’d always been fascinated by magic and had practised it in my spare time, so I was happy to help, but the following year I ended up joining the tour myself.

Rob then spent four days touring the Scottish Highlands, taking hoards of Harry Potter fans around sites from the movies like the Hogwarts Express train at Fort William and the big banqueting hall of Edinburgh Castle.

“It was such good fun!” he says. “And after that, I realised I could earn much more from doing magic than I could playing music, so it became a full-time profession.”

Rob’s magic shows feature close-up tricks with cards and coins, as well as Derren Brown-style mindreading and illusion.

Twitter has put him in touch with fellow magicians, including the legendary Paul Daniels, as well as new clients – he recently performed magic at a fun day in Shrewsbury, which came about through the site.

“My shows are slightly different to most as I incorporate a certain amount of storytelling and try to relate the magic to life experiences, so it can be quite motivational at the same time.”

But his talents don’t end there.

As a trained meditation teacher, counsellor and long-practicing Druid, Rob has been running retreats, camps and discussion groups based around Druidry for years.

The workshops aim to give participants a framework to explore themselves and their spiritual beliefs through mythology, meditation, dance and drama, ultimately enabling them to find out more about who they are.

“I’ve always been interested in religion, philosophy and, to an extent, paganism, but it was really my love of music that got me into Druidry.”

The next few months will be a particularly exciting time for Rob – he has recently decided to leave Shropshire for Cornwall, land of Arthurian legends, where he plans to explore and publicise the area’s long links with magic and mythology.

“I’d really love to create an hour-long show for the tourist season, which brings together Cornwall’s spooky, unnerving and fascinating myths, customs and beliefs.”

He’s also hoping to set up a small magic theatre and could soon be spotted storytelling at the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle and King Arthur’s Great Halls in Tintagel Castle.

“In a world where science has stripped out so much mystery, I think it’s important that we hold on to a degree of the unknown,” says Rob.

“If all the mysteries in the world were solved, it would become a very boring place.” 

By Lara Page