Presentation, as I’m sure you would agree, is extremely important for a children’s entertainer. And for an adults’ too, when it comes down to it. How many dull routines have been transformed into a spectacle thanks to the liberal use of luminous colours and voluminous garb! A few atmospheric chords here, a stroboscope there, and even the most amateur shows can enthral.

That said, I’m sure you would also agree that it is the substance of the act –the tricks, in this instance– that is essential. Visually impressive as Mikuláš the Marvel-Maker’s outfit is, it doesn’t make him a conjuror. After all, there were articles of clothing quite like his (albeit cheaper and tattier) in our dressing-up box at school. But people worried they’re about to be fobbed off with nothing more than a fashion show have no cause for concern; Mikuláš the Marvel-Maker’s shows are never dull. You’d think that for someone like him, doing a piece in the middle of a field, scope for embellishment would be minimal. But how different, thank goodness, is the reality. The way he manages to hold his audience so captive is as magical as his illusions. Were he a hypnotist he couldn’t command greater attention. (Then again, who’s to say he isn’t? He could be hypnotising us all at the beginning and then ordering us to forget he has done so. But I doubt it.) His every move is executed with a flourish of his robe. His every word heightens the mystery and suspense.

In any case, no one coming home from the fair disappointed with Mikuláš the Marvel-Maker (and I can honestly say I’ve never met anyone who has been) would have wasted any money, because he performs for free. So even if he were a sham, one could hardly complain. The fairground committee pays his travelling expenses out of the profits at the end; he may receive an additional sum from them, and then there are his tips, but this cannot amount to much. He doesn’t seem to need much either. He lives, and moves from town to town, in his vardo, a gaily decorated wooden vehicle drawn by a pony. In my day this was a healthy young beast called Champion –or Campion it may have been, I forget. Apart from fairs, he appears at parties and receptions –you have to book weeks in advance. From what I’ve been led to believe, he does reasonably well out of this, but it’s still hardly the most reliable source of income.