There are some who can perform magic tricks while others cannot even shuffle a deck of cards. For my next assignment I was to learn into which category I fall as I became a sorcerer's apprentice ...

When this assignment was first suggested I must admit I had little interest in magic.

As a child I loved the wow-factor of magic tricks but I had become an aged sceptic so, as I visited 14-year-old magician prodigy Daniel Lester, I was not holding my breath.

Before he got down to teaching me, Daniel, of Orchard Road, Bromley, performed a home-made levitation trick on his eight-year-old brother Jamie.

As his brother hovered four feet above the ground it was becoming apparent Daniel had different blood flowing through his veins to mere mortals.

But I was there to learn and Daniel introduced me to the egg-in-the-bag trick.

He put the egg in the bag and made it disappear as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

Upon seeing the empty bag Jamie said "It's in your pocket" but of course it wasn't and with a flick of a finger, the egg was back in the bag.

Then it was my turn and it was just as well the egg was false given the number of times I dropped it News Shopper would have been faced with a hefty cleaning bill.

The look on my audience's faces, Daniel's brothers and mum, suggested I needed more practice. This magician lark is not easy.

Next up were the steel rings. Daniel separated and re-connected them with consummate ease and even knowing how it was done I got into a tangle much to the amusement of the audience.

I even managed to make the rabbit-in-the-hat trick look complicated so I decided it was time to leave the magic to the professionals.

Up to this point I had been slightly impressed but when Daniel moved onto his card tricks I took off my sparkly hat in admiration.

We all know card tricks are about the speed of the hand beating the eye but Daniel is an expert in the art.

He told me: "I have kids following me around at lunch breaks asking me to do card tricks." I can well believe it.

"Pick a card, any card," he told me. It was the five of spades. "Put it back in the pack," he said. He shuffled the deck and then hurled them at a window.

And there, on the outside of the window, sat the five of spades.

I stared, disbelieving. "How did you do that?"

"Can you keep a secret?" He asked.

"Of course."

"So can I."

I grudgingly accepted his answer for I had come to realise I was more likely to drop the cards than pick out the one chosen and, as for being the sorcerer's apprentice, I decided I was better off disappearing into thin air and leaving it to the experts.

Daniel's a magic man

Daniel, who attends Langley Park School for Boys, Hawksbrook Lane, Beckenham, got his first magic set when he was five and he is a member of the Junior Magic Circle.

This year he reached the finals of the Young Magician of the Year where he performed in front of Circle president Ali Bongo.

Daniel is a big fan of American magician Lance Burton saying: "He produces doves from nothing, it is so perfect and really well done."

On why he loves magic, Daniel, who can take your watch without you knowing it, said: "I like the look on people's faces, the shock and the surprise."