By Samantha Morton
An interview with YouTube Magician Steven Bridges.
Steven Bridges, 23, from Bardon Mill in Northumberland is a YouTube magician; he produces weekly videos full of fascinating magic tricks.
Magic is something Steven has wanted to do since childhood. He was inspired by TV magician David Blaine. He was always supported by his friends and family to reach his goals.
Steven rose to fame at a young age when he appeared on Stephen Mulhern's show 'Tricky TV'.
'I remember getting the phone call telling me that they wanted me on the show - that was one of the most exciting moments of my life.'
At 18, Steven decided to go to Teesside University to study Performance for Live and Recorded Media.
As part of his course he had to produce a YouTube channel, this was part of a creative module which gave students the opportunity to produce a live platform to showcase their acting and directing skills, this became the platform to Steven's current channel as he continued it after leaving University.
'People think I have psychic powers'
Upon graduation, Steven graduated with a first class honours degree and was also elected to receive an award for being the most outstanding student in his class. This was not where his success ended.
With the knowledge he gained from his degree, Steven began looking at ways he could make money from doing magic. His career began when he moved to London and became house magician at the Playboy Club.
From then he has made money by getting bookings at weddings and parties, as well as gaining sponsorship and advertising deals for his YouTube videos, 'I recently started getting sponsorship offers, where I'll make a magic video for a company.'
Even though Steven's career may seem to be idealistic, it's not always been this way. Throughout his career and building his online presence, Steven has encountered a lot of negative feedback through YouTube.
Steven is continuously bombarded by comments calling him fake and sometimes referring to him as being the devil as some YouTube users believe magic is evil; 'the weirdest situations I've had are when people think I have psychic powers. That's always a little tough to deal with'.
'Just have fun with it'
In any career, there will always be a positive side and a negative side, it's important to find that equal balance. For Steven he has built a fandom so large that he has 40,000 subscribers and 4.5 million viewers on his YouTube channel. He has his own fan page dedicated to him on Twitter and often gets recognised on the streets of London; 'people often introduce me to friends as a magician, this tends to lead to people asking me to do magic. This can be a really cool way to break the ice'.
For anyone wanting to start a career in the world of magic or to start a YouTube channel, Steven offers one bit of advice; read magic books and just get on YouTube and begin.
'You'll wish you started sooner, upload videos once a week and just have fun with it.'