Getting even with magic help

HE IS a magician, illusionist, filmmaker, publisher and author, but Andrew Mayne is also an avid trickster who will play pranks on unsuspecting people in the series Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne.
This light-hearted series premieres on Lifetime (Astro channel 709) on the most ­appropriate April Fool’s Day (April 1) at 10.10pm, with subsequent episodes airing on Tuesdays at 9.40pm.
In Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, Mayne takes the fun of magic to the street where he randomly selects his targets.
In the first ­episode, he helps Lisa, an angry wife who wants to get even with her husband, Dave.
Dave was supposed to buy her a new car, but instead got himself a Jeep that doesn’t even run.
So Mayne hatches an illusion to help her get her revenge and also to teach Dave a lesson.
The rest of the ­series is in the same vein where street magic will be ­displayed, which will then lead up to the big trick where Mayne helps someone who has been wronged.
During a recent tele-­conference call, Mayne said: “I liked the idea of using magic to do something ­different. In this case, instead of just watching me do ­something really cool, you get to see me use magic to help people get revenge on ­someone they love or to ­convey a ­pertinent ­message.”
Mayne said he became ­fascinated with ­magic when he was about five when his grandfather ­performed a coin trick to ­entertain him.
He then became fascinated with master ­illusionist David ­Copperfield and ­realised that this is what he wanted to do.
As for Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, the people he targeted do not know that he was performing street magic as he does not approach them the way other street magicians like David Blaine or Chris Angel do.
“I can’t just ask someone for a ring, I have to convince them to give it to a stranger.”
When asked if all his subjects fall for his tricks or if there’s been anyone who has seen it coming before he could pull it off, Mayne laughed and said: “I think people see through me all the time!”
Despite all the planning and secrecy, he added that sometimes, his “victims” do feel he’s got something up his sleeves.
He explained: “We plan them really well and I am very particular when I plan something – that I know where their attention is and where they are looking.
“I have had times when I do something like making a phone vanish – I then walk away thinking they are still standing there.
“Then someone will run up behind me and grab me and tackle me! They don’t know how it works but they know I had done something to them.”
He said children can be the easiest as well as the hardest to entertain.
To be a good magician, Mayne said one should be able to adapt well to the ­audience.
He added that he does not like to make people feel ­inadequate with his magic tricks. Instead, he just likes to entertain and blow them away.
The best part of what he does, according to Mayne, is seeing the wonder on the faces of his audience.

Since clips of the series are available online, will people run away ­when they see him coming?
Mayne said: “People who know me are hesitant ­sometimes. Over Twitter, I get stuff like: ‘I love you but I am afraid of you. When I see you, I walk to the other side of the street. I am not letting you get my phone’.
“On the whole, I think many know that I am a pretty nice guy and if I get hold of them, they are going to have fun.”