Magician put out by smoke ban stunt

Magician John Milner is feeling put out after being told he cannot demonstrate a trick using a lit cigarette to customers in his own shop because of the smoking ban.

Mr Milner has been waiting 10 months for a ruling on whether the Vanishing Cigarette Trick can still legally be performed indoors.

But although it has been decided the trick can be performed in shows and cabarets at halls, pubs or clubs, demonstrations cannot take place in front of customers inside his House of Magic shop, Brook Street, Stourbridge.

This is because the rules have an exemption for performances, if venue owners agree, but do not apply to demonstrations. But Mr Milner today said he could see no difference between a performance and a demonstration.

"This makes no sense to me," he said. "When I am doing a demonstration I have to be performing the trick to actually show people what it is.

"It is also taking place in front of an audience – the customers. So what is the difference between the two?"

He added: "At the moment if anyone wants to see the trick we will have to do it on the pavement outside the shop. It is just madness."

The trick involves an illusion where the magician makes a hole in a coat borrowed from a member of the audience. A lit cigarette is placed inside the coat so the audience can see smoke rising from the hole. But both the hole and the cigarette then disappear.

Mr Milner said he would now be seeking further guidance but was pleased the trick could still be performed in cabaret and shows.

The magician, who is a member of the Inner Magic Circle and International Brotherhood of Magicians, first asked Dudley Council whether he could continue his vanishing lit cigarette act legally in July 2007.

Officers decided to refer the matter to the Local Authorities Co-ordinating Body on Regulatory Services. The body decided not to issue any national guidance on the matter and Dudley Council then ruled the trick could still take place under the exemption for performers.