Simply Magic /

Meet the man behind our most loved magician, Greg Britt aka Elgregoe

There will be few New Zealanders, young or old, who have not been charmed by master magician and ventriloquist Greg Britt, aka Elgregoe. We meet the man behind the magic.

Parrots are calling outside in garden aviaries and there are boxes of magic tricks stacked in the study at Greg and Sue Britt’s Halswell home. As we begin our interview, Greg explains that he’s just back from Australia and the boxes are from a deceased estate over there. ‘Sue allowed me to bring two suitcases back,’ says Greg, noting that all the magic tricks and props he’s collected over the years now fill an entire double garage from floor to ceiling.

The main reason for the trip was to visit their son, Nick, who is also a full-time magician. The 32-year-old, who performs as ‘Nickleby’, has a busy career of his own, doing shows on cruise ships and at venues all over Queensland. He and Greg did a few shows together in Australia last year. This is not out of the ordinary for these two.

‘Nick was always keen to help out at shows during school holidays. When it came to leaving school, he didn’t know what he wanted to do, so I said, “Come on tour with me for a year.” He wasn’t planning to be a magician at that stage, but decided to take up my offer. He had a guitar and sang in the shows and started doing some magic too. He ended up touring with me for four years before going out on his own… now he’s married and has three beautiful kids.’

Greg and Sue are enjoying their new role as grandparents. Their youngest daughter, Melanie, is a full-time mother of two and, at the time of writing, their other daughter Natasha, a youth worker, was due to have her second child.

It explains why the couple, who have been married for almost 40 years, have decided to pull back from the North