D o you believe in magic? No? Neither did I. And then I met Peter Clifford. My friend Nicky and I were enjoying a giggly dinner on The Triangle one night when a slightly spooky stranger (who I later discovered was Peter) approached our table.

He told us he was a magician and asked if he could "magish" us.

Intrigued, we nodded.

(And as a cynic, I was thinking "come on then, magic man – show us what you've got").

Half an hour later, as my reeling brain struggled to process what I'd just seen, I thought "this man's a genius".

He handed me four £2 coins to examine. He then rolled up his sleeves and offered me his hands and wrists to inspect.

He placed the coins in my right palm, closed my fist around them and turned it over so my fingers were facing the floor.

Then he told me to close my other hand (which was empty) and turn that over too.

There was a pause. He tapped my right fist (which had the coins in) and I felt something move inside it. I also felt something in my left hand.

He said "open your hands".

I had three coins in my right hand and one in my left.

While Nicky and I stared in astonishment, he smiled and did it again. Close palms, turn them over, pause, tap, "open your hands" – now I had two coins in each hand.

After making a coin jump invisibly from one of my hands to the other for a third time, he gestured to Nicky and she tapped my closed right hand (which only had one coin left).

I immediately felt the coin's weight disappear out of my right hand, and something slightly forced open my left hand (which already had three £2 coins in it).

"Open your hands," said Peter. Right hand – empty. Left hand – four £2 coins.

If he hadn't done this trick on me, I'd have been convinced it was a set-up. But clearly I wasn't in on it.

How did he do it?

He produced a pack of cards and rubber bands and performed fiendishly clever trick after trick. Minds blown, we were transfixed.

I was intrigued to know more about this magic stranger.

Born in Midsomer Norton, he later moved to Bristol and as a shy, quiet child he spent hours in his bedroom learning card tricks from a book.

When he shyly showed some of his fellow classmates at Norton Hill School a few tricks, they were impressed, and their reaction gave him confidence. He did more tricks for them and they started calling him "Magic Pete".

When he left school, he stumbled into acting – and loved it. After drama school he appeared in TV shows like Cracker, Brookside and Casualty and acted in Bristol's nationally-revered Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory. He also used magic in schools to make maths fun.

Many companies ask Peter to help them launch new products, and when he was promoting the Peugeot 206, he even made onlookers' watches vanish off their wrists and appear on the steering wheel inside a locked car.

He is close friends with TV psychological illusionist and former Bristol University student Derren Brown and co-created Derren's stage shows.

Peter's a modest family man who doesn't court fame or fortune, which is why you may have never heard of him, but he's an incredibly entertaining homegrown talent.

After picking up a flyer at the Tobacco Factory, I see he's doing some shows there with fellow magicians in the coming months.

Pop along – and have your mind melted.