Young magician Jessica Harkin.
By Cronan Scanlon
AFTER six years spent honing her skills as a magician, a Convoy teenager is finally coming in to the limelight.
Jessica Harkin (18) ‘caught the bug’ when she was just 12 years-of-age while attending a show by famous British illusionist and magician, Derren Brown.
He was “so fantastic” that Jessica pleaded with her parents, Jacqueline Anderson and Charlie Harkin, to buy her a magic set so that, one day, she could emulate her hero.
“Immediately after his show, my parents got me a magic set, then I went on YouTube and learned to do a few tricks by myself,” she explained.
“Since then, I have been practising at home on my brothers and on friends and just kept on going.”
Indeed, Jessica became the youngest person in Ireland to qualify as a clinical hypnotist when she was just 16 years old.
She was offered a free course after contacting Ireland’s leading clinical hypnotist, Louis Ryan of Irish Hypnosis, looking for ‘work experience’.
Jessica currently performs magic, paints faces and makes ‘balloon animals’ at childrens’ parties.
However, desperate to break into the lucrative adult market, she finally got on stage for the first time at last week’s ‘The Revelry’ arts event at the Voodoo Venue in Letterkenny.
There, she amazed and entertained the captive audience with her wit and many skills which included card tricks, escaping from handcuffs, balloon swallowing and, of course, mind reading.
“I have been doing kids parties, but would love to do more adult ones. The Revelry was my first time on stage and I just loved it. It was a great experience and I got a great reaction.”
She admits she would never have become a magician if it were not for the encouragement and support of her parents. These days, Jessica is busy training her rabbit, ‘Bandit.’
For information, email jessicaharkin@live.ie or follow Jessica Harkin Magic on Facebook or contact 086 6652 444.
For full report, see this Friday’s print edition of the Donegal News.