Bristol performer enjoys TV fame

By dharris

Escapologist Merlin Cadogan may be smarting after being voted off Britain's Got Talent, but the Bristol-based performer is already lining up his next big trick.

Despite receiving resounding praise from judge Simon Cowell in Monday night's ITV talent show semi final, the 36-year-old failed to gain enough votes to see him through.

Merlin – it's his real name – said he was heartbroken to miss out on a place in the final but enjoyed every minute of his time on the show.

He said: "It was a great experience, and all the other acts are really good and fantastic people.

"I didn't really get to chat with the judges but Simon Cowell said really nice things to me and said he would give me 10 out of 10.

"It meant everything to me and I really wanted to get through to the final, as this is what I have been focusing on for the whole of this year.

"I spent all my time training and missed out on being with my kids a lot but I gave it my best shot."

Merlin, who moved to Bristol from Devon when he was three, first learned to juggle with rolled up socks while he was a teenager at Filton College.

Now his TV success means he is fast becoming a recognisable figure in the street. He said: "Everywhere I go people say 'there's Merlin the escapologist', and the other day I was in a garage and a guy came up to me and told me I had been robbed on the show."

Yesterday he performed tricks at the opening of a new Ladbrokes betting shop at the Willow Brook centre in Bradley Stoke.

He is opening the Harbour Festival in August and is also doing a three-day stunt in July to raise money for charity Children's Hospice South West, in which he will be chained to a throne on the beach at Clovelly and covered, King Canute-style, by the rising tides.