Magic helped me beat the school bullies and to befriend Ant & Dec!
Presenter Stephen Mulhern on the tough times that shaped him, the joy of working with the general public – and why he always carries around a pack of cards in his pocket
We all need a little bit of magic in our lives. And TV presenter Stephen Mulhern has more than most. Indeed, as we settle down for our chat he tells me he’s brought a pack of cards with him – just in case.
“There’s always a pack of cards in my pocket, you just never know when you’ll need them,” says Stephen, 47, king of the game show, with presenting gigs on Deal Or No Deal, Catchphrase and In For
A Penny under his belt.
“When I do live TV – tomorrow, for example, I’ll be on Lorraine – I’ll always have a pack of playing cards just in case something goes wrong and they need to fill a bit of time. Or Lorraine might even say to me, ‘Can you do a trick?’ I love having a bit of magic up my sleeve.”
Stephen, who grew up in Stratford, East London and regularly joined his dad on his East End market stall, fell in love with magic from a young age.
“My dad would do the odd trick, making a coin disappear or playing around with cards,” he says.
“At eight, my parents bought me my first magic set. At 11, I started properly learning it with books – I still have some of them. On telly, I couldn’t get enough of Paul Daniels and, being a Londoner, I used to sit and watch street magicians in Covent Garden, too, and get as close as I could.” Stephen takes out his pack. “This is my latest trick,” he says, asking me to choose a card without telling him what it is (I pick the two of hearts). He then shows me my card.
“How on Earth?” I ask. “Magic,” he tells me. “And that reaction is what I’m talking about – it never gets old.” Indeed, the odd magic trick has come in handy over the years, says Stephen, even ensuring a firm friendship with fellow presenters Ant and Dec.
“A long time ago, I was in a room with Ant and Dec, and one of the big telly bosses
‘‘
I used to sit and watch the street magicians in Covent Garden
came in,” Stephen recalls. “At the time they were riding high, massively successful, and I was just plodding along. I saw my chance and said to Ant, ‘When the boss comes over, can you ask me to do a trick?’ He said OK. “So Ant says, ‘Stephen, come on, show so and so a trick’. I reply something like, ‘Oh what? Really? I’m off duty… Fine, go on then, let me have a go’ in a very nonchalant manner, but of course then do the trick.
“‘You cheeky so and so’, Ant says with a smile once the boss had gone. And that’s how we all became friends. I think the big boss liked it too.” He winks. Stephen has been a regular on ITV’s Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway since 2016. Magic has been something of a secret weapon for Stephen, whose career began as a magician in Hamleys and Harrods toy shops in London, followed by several years at Butlins, before he embarked on kids’ TV, fronting CITV shows Finger Tips and Tricky TV from 2001.
“Magic without question has helped me enormously over the years, from childhood to the present day,” he says.
“I loved music and drama but everything else I found hard, so school was pretty difficult. But even though I was far from the cleverest kid, I could do tricks. I was good at something.”
Magic helped keep his spirits up when he was bullied, too, something he poured into the storyline of his new children’s book, Max Magic: The Incredible Holiday Hideout.
“I only had about two real friends at school and was bullied,” says Stephen.
“There was a boy at the school I was at and the worst thing he ever did was in West Ham park. He said to me, ‘I want you to stand in the middle of the park and if you move from this spot before I leave the park I’m going to beat you up’.
“I must have stood there for at least an hour and a half. I was too scared to move. It’s always stayed with me. We always remember the worst things that happen to us.” He pauses. “I hope when this goes into your paper, and he’s reading it… Well, who’s laughing now?”
There’s no question that funnyman Stephen is at the top of his game right now, landing the coveted Dancing On Ice presenting slot earlier this year.
But he’s the first to admit it’s been a long road to get here.
Stephen muses: “I always wanted to be a performer and TV was the pinnacle of that dream, but did I ever think it would happen? No. It seemed like the thing you could never get near or touch.
“It was a long hard track to get there. I’ve had plenty of doors shut in my face. I’ve just learned how to prise them open.”
His secret? Being himself, he says. “When I see a presenter who clearly doesn’t care I think it’s so apparent. You don’t need to have a gimmick to be liked as a presenter, you just have to be you. I’ve always been myself.
“You can play my tapes back from 10 years ago and, while I may look older now, my presenting style has always been the same. I talk to guests, to everyone, to you, in the same way I’d talk to my best mate.
“You see it a lot at the studios when someone is grumpy on the ‘3, 2, 1’ count in and on the ‘Right, we’re live’ comes to life. What? How do they do that? It’s just weird.
“It’s hilarious, especially on ITV when you’re hitting an ad break and the presenter thinks they’re off camera and goes, ‘Urgh’ and pulls a face... but they’re still on air.”
He was inspired by some of the greats. “I loved presenters like Bruce Forsyth and Matthew Kelly, who I think was the warmest and kindest presenter on telly,” says Stephen, who reckons TV has changed beyond recognition in recent years.
“TV is still great but now we can watch it whenever we want and I think it’s a shame,” he says.
“When I’m watching a series I see it as a treat coming up – what are they going to do next week? Teasers make it exciting. However, streaming means you can just watch it right now.
“I don’t think I’m an old fuddy duddy yet, but being able to just spoil stuff means people nowadays have no patience.
“Where are the phone calls between friends asking, ‘Did you see that? What do you think is going to happen?’ “The nation used to come together and watch something at exactly the same time. The Dallas ‘Who shot JR?’ moment wouldn’t happen now.”
So what does Stephen himself watch on the box?
“Game shows mainly,” he laughs. “We used to watch Catchphrase as a family, which is weird because I now host it. I think the reason we as a nation love game shows so much is a comfort thing.
“They’re like a brand of chocolate, you know what you like and you like that one. Family favourites are passed down through generations.”
Most of all they involve the general public, says Stephen, so are entirely relatable.
“I prefer working with members of the public to anything – A-listers, you name it – they’re the gift that keeps on giving,” he says.
“One of my favourites ever was a woman on In For A Penny, who won a grand and started crying. Some people would go, ‘But you can win £100,000, what’s a grand?’
“But hang on a minute. I asked her why and she said, ‘I can now buy a mattress’.
“And there you go, that’s what it’s all about.”
‘‘ This kid said he’d beat me up if I moved from this spot in the park before he left