Tom has been a keen magician for four years now.
By Tom McGlynn
AN ASPIRING Yorkshire magician is the subject of a new online documentary that explores his career and how it helped improve his mental health.
Tom Daws, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, has been practising his magic act since 2013 and has performed for the likes of comedian David Mitchell and fellow magician Dynamo.
Tom met David Mitchell at a book signing where he performed magic for him afterwards, later receiving praise from the star on Twitter.
Tom, who currently works full time at CeX gaming and electronics store in Northallerton, was inspired to start practising as a magician when he fell in love with the film Now You See Me (2013) at the cinema.
The documentary is titled Above the Water and was made by young filmmaker Adam Watson from Ginog Media.
Above the Water focuses on Tom’s history with depression, and how performing magic for people helped get him through it.
Tom said: “When I perform magic for people, their happiness makes me happy, and the documentary focuses on that a lot.
“The film is laid out in a way that you’d feel sympathetic and then everything turns out okay in the end.”
Although Tom prefers to perform tricks with playing cards, he is working on expanding into other areas of magic, with a view to eventually mastering hypnotism.
Adam Watson, 19, who made Above the Water, said: “Tom has been a good friend of mine for a long time now and we have had some really fun experiences filming short street magic videos together. However, we’d always focused just on the tricks themselves and never the story behind it.
“As well as the upbeat magic side of the documentary, there was also the emotional aspect of it, but once Tom started talking it became a lot easier.
“Creating the documentary was a great experience, I had a lot of fun working alongside Tom again and I am sure it is not the end of our work together,” he added.
The majority of the documentary was filmed in Durham, where Tom shows his favourite tricks to passers by.
“Parts of Durham just have such a magical feel.
“They filmed scenes of Harry Potter there too, which I think adds to that feeling,” said Tom.
The documentary was officially released to Ginog Media’s YouTube channel on January 22 and Tom shared it to his channel soon after.
Above the Water is available to watch now on Tom and Adam’s YouTube channels.
Tom’s favourite tricks
Ear buds – Tom asks the spectator to pick a card, which is then threaded onto a pair of headphones. He then rips the headphones through the card, with the card remaining intact.
Angels – Tom asks the spectator to sign a particular playing card, which has pictures of angels on the back. He then makes it appear as though the angels are moving around the chosen card.
The imaginary deck – Tom asks the spectator to imagine an invisible deck of cards. He then gets them to pick a specific card from the deck. The spectator then tells Tom the colour, number and suit of the card they chose, and Tom reveals to have those details already written down with their card in his hand.