Megan Fox, Jack Black and Stephen Mulhern among fans of Chorley street magician who found overnight fame

Samuel Phillips Hogarth, 38, who now lives in London, has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Hollywood actress Megan Fox, actor Jack Black and now counts ITV star and magician Stephen Mulhern as one of his friends. He has been mastering his magical illusion craft for over 20 years and has his former teacher who spotted his talent to thank. Samuel, who attended Alban Academy in Chorley, went on to further his studies at Blackburn College where his theatre teacher Nick Maynard spotted his talent and provided him with the inspiration to follow his dreams.

Samuel said: "I didn't know how to become a magician or even that there was money in it. I started doing street shows late at night in Preston and Manchester entertaining people coming out of nightclubs for money. My friend would play the bongos and I would use a cardboard box to perform magic tricks. I then progressed to mixing cocktails and performing card tricks in a bar called Pure Magic in Manchester where I worked for a couple of years and Kylie Minogue turned up. From this I started getting some TV work doing card tricks on a daytime variety show called Let Me Entertain You."

On a quest for more knowledge, he then went on to study performing arts in Bristol and then to London to learn about events production.

He added: "I moved to London and started performing in Covent Garden doing street work and got spotted by actor Jack Black's band The Killers and they asked me to hang out with them after their show. Now when they are in town I get a call to hang out. It just took off from there. Three weeks ago I was spotted street performing and ended up the next night touring the UK performing with Machine Gun Kelly and even made him levitate. I even got to hang out with his fiancee actress Megan Fox. She is actually very shy in real life and very protective of him. I learnt everything I know on levitating from Stephen Mulhern as I paid him to teach me and now we are good friends."