PAUL'S LOVE SPELL IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC

The Wairarapa wizard open s up about moving to New Zealand, finding a husband and the secret to his success as an entertainer

Known as “Zappo the Magician” to thousands of Kiwi kids, Wairarapa entertainer Paul Bates is a third-generation entertainer who proudly follows in the footsteps of his father Ken and grandfather Fred.

“Magic has been good to my family and Mum has a huge pile of scrapbooks full of stories about everything we’ve done, which means there are a lot of scrapbooks in the Bates household!” laughs Paul, 61.

And with the magician now starring on Th ree’s new balloon-art reality show Blow Up, Paul’s spritely 87-year-old mum is bound to be kept busy with her scissors and glue stick!

But this story starts much further back, when the Bates family moved to New Zealand from Leicester in 1972, when Paul was just 11. He recalls, “Before we left England, my teacher told me that no one wore shoes in New Zealand, which I thought was very funny as I’d never heard of jandals.”

After travelling by boat for six weeks, the whānau settled in Whangānui, where they opened a fruit and flower shop. But they were soon known around town for their side-splitting double act.