Education
University of Exeter. City University London.
University of Exeter. City University London.
He was born in the East End of London, England to Jewish parents. He began conjuring at the age of 11. He reached the semi-finals of the Butlins national talent contest.
Becoming interested in theatre, he studied Drama at Exeter University.
He toured with the political theatre group Broadside, as well as working in community theatre. He cites Bertolt Brecht as a major influence, and one of his shows features a ventriloquists" dummy of Brecht.
He has collaborated with left-wing folk singer Leon Rosselson in two shows. Two of his standard "tricks" are "The Class Struggle Rope Trick" and "The vanish of the military-industrial complex".
In 1990 he received a Doctor of Philosophy from City University, London for his thesis on political theatre in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s.
He currently teaches part-time on theatre courses at Middlesex University. In August 2013 he visited the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a free show about money - the Free Money Magic Show.
His performance is distinctive primarily for the fact that it is geared towards a comic form of socialist propaganda. In 1979 he started developing his "socialist magic" acting
He says of his act, "whereas David Copperfield is content with little tricks like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, I aim at the much more ambitious goal of making International Capitalism and exploitation disappear" although he has not yet succeeded.