MAGIC is a family affair for Steve and Victoria Gore and their children, who have been performing mind-boggling illusions since they were toddlers.

The couple and their daughters, Deanna, 12, and Jenna, nine, perform together as an illusion act called Genetics, and their dazzling show involves levitation and floating household objects...

Next month the Wilsden family will join illusionists and magicians from around the UK in the Hey Presto show celebrating the 70th anniversary of Bradford Magic Circle.

“I wanted to create a really original illusion act featuring an ordinary family with extraordinary powers,” says Steve. “Our act doesn’t involve the usual magic boxes that illusionists use - instead it’s set in a typical household, with the family sat on a sofa and performing illusions with the TV, vacuum cleaner and ironing board. Household objects float, wires are cut then restored, and the children are levitating all over the place!”

Steve has been a professional magician for more than 25 years and is a former president of Bradford Magic Circle. He recently performed at the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, a private members club where only a handful of acts from around the world are selected to perform for A-list audiences.

Steve’s children have inherited his gift for magic and illusion. Deanna started performing magic tricks at the age of two, practising with Steve at home. Soon she was joining him on stage and wowing audiences with illusions such as escapology and sawing her dad in half. Aged three, she was invited to perform at the Northern Magic Circle’s Best of British gala show, and she and Steve have been in Bradford Magic Circle shows. “When she was four we did a mini cube zag illusion, where I ‘separated’ her into three parts - then restored her, of course,” says Steve.

Two years ago Deanna performed in the Stars of Tomorrow show at a Society of American Magicians convention in Philadelphia.

From the age of two, her sister Jenna has been getting in on the act too. When Bradford-born magic star Dynamo brought his spectacular sell-out show to Leeds First Direct Arena in 2015, Jenna joined him on stage to help him with a helium balloon trick.

“We’re doing our own version of that trick,” says Steve. “We develop the act together. The girls suggest ideas and they tell me what doesn’t work - and what’s not cool. We try and keep up with changing trends in magic, and put our own twist on illusions.”

Not to be outdone, Steve and Victoria’s three-year-old son, Emerson, is also a budding magician, and performs an act which involves hiding inside a paper bag.

Steve became hooked on magic as a boy, watching Paul Daniels on TV. He joined Bradford Magic Circle aged 18. “My parents had fish and chip shops and the man who sold the paper wrapping did tricks for me. It wasn’t long before I was doing my own tricks, starting with three plastic cups hiding a pea,” he recalls. “I got a Paul Daniels Magic Set - I met him once and he signed it.”

The global success of Dynamo - a former member of Bradford Magic Circle - has brought magic back in vogue. “There are quite a few young magicians on TV; they’re inspiring a new generation,” says Steve.

The Hey Presto show, at Bingley Arts Centre, follows a one-day magic convention open to anyone with an interest in magic, or wanting to develop skills. There are lectures by American magician Gregory Wilson and British illusionist and escapologist Danny Hunt, and on display is the 18th century Fenton Lock, a giant mill lock which Houdini was challenged to unpick. The three-lever lock, made in 1750 by the Fenton family of locksmiths, was used for many years on a Bradford warehouse door. In 1910 Houdini performed at the Bradford Empire, and handcuffs were placed on the top of the lock for him, but he turned down a challenge to unpick it in front of onlookers. In 1972 the lock was loaned to Cartwright Hall, and was later moved to Bradford Industrial Museum.

Other acts at next month’s Hey Presto! show include Destiny, recent Young Magicians of the Year winners; Amethyst; Gregory Wilson; and local magicians Ray Roberts and Simon Hannah. The show will be compered by Britain’s Got Talent finalist, ventriloquist Steve Hewlett.

* Hey Presto! is at Bingley Arts Centre on Saturday, April 28 at 7.30pm. Tickets on (01274) 567983 or bingleyartscentre.co.uk

* The Magic Convention is at Bingley Arts Centre earlier on the same day. Call (01274) 447315 or email convention@bradfordmagiccircle.org.uk