The Dress Up

Brook The Magician: His Story & Style

We sat down with Brook Exley AKA Brook the Magician, and his mum Heidi. Brook has worked with ITV on Scrambled, toured nationally with The Full Monty play, and performed at large corporate events. We asked a few questions about his story so far and fashion choices.

Brook at the Equinox Ball giving a thank-you speech to those who donated to Cancer Research.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers? And why don’t you describe yourself in three words?

(Brook) I’m a confident magician who loves to perform. I’ve been performing for about three years now. I love to perform for people and just make them happy!

I’d say confident, outgoing and positive.

What do you get up to in your spare time?

(Brook) Mountain biking, obviously drama and acting. I do tons of practice for my magic, and I make YouTube videos as well.

Check out Brook's YouTube channel here.

(Heidi) I can’t bear to watch his mountain biking videos! I think he’s just going off on a nice leisurely bike ride, then he comes back covered head-to-toe in mud.

How did you discover your passion for magic?

(Brook) Back in 2014, I did a national tour with The Full Monty. This was around 12 months long, so there was tons of time to practice. I decided to practice magic because it helps with confidence, which in turn helps with acting.

Read The Fully Monty review on British Theatre here.

" There is a likeable charm to Gary Lucy (Gaz), and the chemistry between Gaz and his son Nathan (Brook Exley) is very sweet. "

Danny Coleman-Cooke (quote from Britishtheatre.com)

So what about your passion for acting?

(Brook) I started acting when I was really young, three-four years old.

(Heidi) When he got his first acting gig he was given a script, and I was like “He can’t even read yet!” but he just improvised and managed it by bouncing off other cast members.

(Brook) It helped that I knew the story line as well.

(Heidi) Brook has always loved to dress up. He went through periods of dressing up as Sportacus, Star Wars characters, James Bond and Dr Who. There was a point where Brook wouldn’t leave the house without a dickie bow and suit on. He wanted to go to London for his birthday, so he went dressed as James Bond, and I filmed him running up and down the street with a fake gun. His love of dressing up probably was a natural progression into his acting career.

Do you have any magicians that you look up to?

(Brook) Dynamo, he’s from Bradford which is right around the corner from me. Another big influence is Shin-Lim – he works a lot with smoke and tours all over the world.

Do you take any influence from them?

(Brook) I take their style of magic into my own, and definitely learn from their wisdom.

Have you ever impressed any girls at school with your magic?

(Brook) YES!

*This is answered straight away with no hesitation whatsoever*

Magic really helps me get on with people in school, if anyone’s bored then I’ll show them a trick. Once in a while, I’ll get a cool teacher and ask whether I can do a trick at the end of class. I feel like it somehow gets me better grades? I do tricks outside, build up a crowd, then a teacher comes along thinking there’s a fight going on, but it’s just me doing a trick in the middle.

You performed at the Equinox Ball, how did you like it? Was it quite a normal thing, or was it quite different?

(Brook) I prepared a lot for this gig, I had a ton of routines planned out. I was working for about two hours. It was an Alice in Wonderland theme, so there were big cards and things there. I went around with a top hat after performing to collect money and managed to raise £1000! It was a really professional event; Capital FM and the band from Strictly Come Dancing were there. The event raised a total of £52,000 for cancer research.

We saw you wore the Porter blue, what did you think to it?

(Brook) Well I had to modify the suit slightly to fit my magical needs, like I need to hide away pens, cards, coins and things like that. I felt like I wasn’t searching for them, and the suit felt really high quality! I didn’t feel risky cutting into the lining or anything, it was perfect for the day.

(Heidi) I loved Brook in the suit – he fit in so well with the black tie audience there. I liked that the suit was a little bit different as well, like a deep navy as opposed to standard black tie. He wore personalized cufflinks that really showed off the shirt too, and that’s important because as a magician everyone is looking at his hands!

Magicians are known for dressing suave; how would you describe your style?

(Brook) My style has to match the type of magic that I’m doing. If I’m wearing a suit, I can’t be shooting fire out of my sleeve! I’ve got to make sure the outfit fits with the tricks, and vice versa. If the suit is slick, the trick has to be slick. I tend to wear waistcoats with jeans; this works because it’s the best of both worlds.

(Heidi) Tell them how many packs of cards you have.

(Brook) I have 132 packs of cards, and I always match my cards to my outfit. You’ve given me a brown waistcoat before (The Alec), and I had the perfect set of cards to match it – it looked amazing.

So do you quite enjoy dressing smart?

(Brook) I do! I feel like it comes across more professional as well. Like if I’m wearing a smart suit, and I do smart tricks, then both snowball and gain traction; they really complement each other.

So do you think you’ll want to do magic as a career, or acting, or anything else?

(Brook) This is actually a really common question for me! I think I impress people more with magic, but I reckon acting will be more beneficial in the long run. Magic is a more difficult gig to keep up with, like, I have to have gigs lined up for Saturday and Sunday every week. With acting, I can go to a casting, then have two months of work lined up. I’m better at acting, but both skills complement each other really well.

How did you get into performing on ITV scrambled?

(Brook) I sent a video clip into ITV, it was a lip sync video to “What does the fox say?” (check out the clip here). Every week, the presenters dress up as judges and vote on the best video. My video kept winning for two months, so they said I’d won it for the year, then they asked if I could film getting an award for it at home. We had a bit of fun with it, sent back the video and the producers loved it! They asked if I could do anything else, I said magic, and here we are!

Get your mind blown with Brook's appearances on ITV Scrambled here.

You’ve acted in the “Secret Life of Boys”, how did you get into it and how long have you been in that for?

(Brook) The producer of Scrambled is the same producer as the Secret Life of Boys. A new role opened up and they asked me to audition, I got to the second stage, met the director and got the role. They got a BAFTA for series one!

Check out the trailer below.

How do you get the time to fit it all in? Do you manage to sleep at all?!

(Heidi) No, he doesn’t! I hear him upstairs at night, clanging about because he’s practicing his tricks. I’ll hear a loud noise then just hear Brook shouting “It’s alright, I’ve just dropped my coin.” I do a mine sweep of his bedroom at night to see if he’s hidden away any cards.

(Brook) I’ll always have a deck nearby though, or I’ll just magic one up.

(Heidi) He does use his tricks to his advantage. He’ll say he’s just getting one chocolate bar from the cupboard, but he’ll have another 10 hidden up his sleeves.

Does it take a long time to prepare for character? Is it quite easy for you?

(Brook) Yeah, I think it’s quite easy for me, I like getting into the mindset of characters I need to be, so it comes quite naturally. I prefer to be able to prepare for a role, but sometimes castings just throw you in at the deep end and you just have to improvise. I sometimes get cast for one role, then get casted for another which I fit better for straight away. It can be quite hard!

What’s your favourite thing to work on so far?

(Brook) I love working on ITV Scrambled, mostly because of the cast. The cast are exactly how they are on-screen as they are off-screen. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, there’s not a script or format or anything. The cast are crazy and they’re just having a laugh.

(Heidi) They make a real fuss of Brook, and sing “Wizard, Wizard, Wizard” at him.

What are you most proud of achieving so far?

(Brook) Raising £1000 for cancer research. I’ve been practicing for 3 years, and for hours every day, which people don’t see. To see this practice pay off and raise so much money for a noble cause makes me feel really good.

We sent you the Portrait collection, what did you think to it?

(Heidi) The suits are really mature, compared to what you find on the high street there’s so much more choice, and they’re not “kiddy”. I wanted something a bit different for Brook, and the choice on Roco fit the bill.

(Brook) It's not from Portrait, but I loved the Oscar waistcoat! The colour really pops, it’s not your standard waistcoat; it’s mysterious in a way. I don’t think I’ll be able to find any cards to match this one though… I’m not sure they do velvet cards.

*Brook proceeds to effortlessly wow us with a trick, and then we sign off.*