Fringe benefits

“I’ve done eight years at Edinburgh and my work begins at the festival, where, at the moment, I’m jotting down ideas for next year in a book,” explains the man who is busy with a production called Trickster.

“I go with virtually everything I’ve written down and because I now live in London and have a lot of little comedy clubs nearby it’s a slow process and I go through one routine at a time. I see if the audience respond to it and build up a new show incrementally like that. I don’t think I could sit down and write an hourlong show, it’s always piecemeal.

“The audience always lets you know if whatever you’re working on is funny and baffling and if it fails on either of those counts – I’ve had great tricks that I feel haven’t had enough meat on the bone in terms of laughs – then it doesn’t make it into the show. This year, I’m really pleased because I’ve been critically well received, but that’s not as important as the audience response. If the audience outside say they enjoyed it then that’s what means most to me. The biggest compliment you can pay a performer is to go out and see them live because not only does it involve paying money but it means giving up an evening of your time.”

Asked about whether he favours tricks with gadgets or the traditional “pigeons up the sleeve” routines, Firman says he could never do anything with pigeons because if would involve too much upkeep. “You don’t want to be in a Travelodge with a coop full of pigeons.

Hi-tech is an interesting point but in 2014, when you have things like smartphones, I think that magic sits in a place where you can find moments of astonishment in a world of cynicism. I do the stand-up stuff as well, so I haven’t got a jumbo jet to make vanish like David Copperfield. I want to have the credit myself for making amazing things happen rather than suspecting someone is operating a secret compartment in a sparkly box. I like doing magic with everyday objects,” he explains.

Previously Firman staged a trick where he managed to read the mind of someone in the audience.

“This time I wanted to do something similar but wanted to ring the changes and felt it would be great if I got two people up from the audience and one reads the other one’s mind.

So, now I’ve got a totally new concept. It’s thinking laterally all the time,” he says.

“I don’t think that Stockton would stand for someone like David Blaine (and being suspended for days in a box). I think they’d rather see him do a card trick,” Firman jokes.

Asked if he worries about returning to his Teesside roots with a show, Firman feels it’s more about keeping the audience interested.

“It’s a total cliché, but there’s nothing like a home turf gig because there’s a warmth you feel from the audience and there are family and friends watching which makes it a throwback to the days when you were first starting out. Then I was doing a show with my Fisher Price magic set and fast forward 25 years and Pete’s doing his magic show on stage,” he says.

I tell him that Firman is seen as bit more than that, with some critics rating him as the poster-boy of comedy magic having come through BBC1’s The Magicians after appearing on Monkey Magic, Derren Brown’s 3D Magic Spectacular and The Secret World of Magic.

“It’s very nice when people say things like that. I get the best of both worlds because there’s nothing like hearing waves of laughter for a gag and then a few slack jaws with a magic trick,” says Firman, who reckons he’s never been a person with a five-year plan.

“I’ve always got stuff on the boil. If I’m not working on a live thing, then I’ve looking on a TV idea while jotting down ideas. I’m a bit of a workaholic and always like to be doing something. But I’m not organised enough to have a plan. So, I’ll just go from gig to gig.”

Firman has been involved in what he sees as street magic on TV and has also done the “shiny floor spectaculars” and doesn’t prefer one over the other.

“I’m not quite where TV magic is going to go next, but the actual nuts and bolts change very little. You’re talking about the framing of the format really because magic is magic. You’re still sharing an impossible thing with people.

I don’t know where magic is going, but I want to stay involved. I think the need to have a reality element in most mainstream TV shows where we’re judging someone on their singing or dancing, and needing to know he or she has had humble beginnings. Let’s just appreciate the act. Let’s just let us see the guy juggling his balls, if you’ll pardon the expression,” he says.

Firman took part in a panel discussion for the BBC about the future of magic and was asked by youngsters about getting started.

“You can buy a decent camera for very little money and put some amazing footage on YouTube where there are some real stars with millions of followers. It will always be a mystery to me how someone can make millions doing something like that.”

• Tour dates: October 7, Stockton Arc, Box Office: 01642-525-199 arconline.co.uk October 9, Harrogate Theatre, 01423-502-116 harrogatetheatre.co.uk