‘Failing your GCSEs isn’t the end of the world – I got none and now I’m a magician’

Josh Maddocks, from Kings Lynn, got three Fs and a U in his GCSEs and says that exams aren’t everything, as he’s now a professional magician and living the life of his dreams

A man who failed his GCSEs is urging others in a similar position not to worry – as he’s never been happier and is living his best life as a magician. Josh Maddocks, 30, started messing around with cards at a young age and soon learned that he had a bit of a knack for it, and after a lucky turn he started earning money putting on magic shows in local pubs while he was still in school.

He was earning a lot more than his peers at the time and his studies suffered, and on results day he walked out with three Fs and a U, having failed every single exam. But Josh says exams aren’t everything as he’s now happier than ever – working as a professional magician.

What do you think about GCSEs? Let us know in the comments…

Josh, from Kings Lynn, Norfolk, said: “I didn’t get a single GCSE, my mum wasn’t too happy with me.

“Because of how my school was, I just messed around quite a bit, playing cards and blackjack with my friends at school.

“That landed me in all the bottom sets so I wasn’t doing academically well. The day I got my results I queued up with everyone else and I was told I had to go talk to a teacher, and he had mine folded up in his pocket for some reason.

“He said that if I wanted to know what I got I had to unfold it, some of my friends were getting good grades and mine said F F F U, so that was a lot of fails and ungraded results.

“Now I’m a magician, it’s very interesting – it keeps you on your toes and no two events are ever the same. You never know who you’re going to meet.

“You get some quite out there people, some very shy people, part of my job is to open them up a little bit – bring out that childlike sense of wonder. I show them a trick and it takes them back to their childhood.

Josh, who lives with his wife, 27-year-old Emily, and their two children, Ivy, four, and Jack, three, started practising magic tricks in 2007 and had his first gig when he was just 15-years-old.

He added: “I started doing magic in 2007, that was my first gig – I was still in school at the time. It was in a working mans’ club and the landlord came over and said show us a trick, I said I didn’t really show people, and my mum’s friend said he does it for £100 an hour – so they booked me to do a show at the end of the month.

“Sure enough my mum got me a suit from Tesco, dropped me off, and I winged it with just a deck of cards on me – everyone seemed really happy and told me how good it was. I don’t know if everyone was trying to hype me up, but they booked me again.

“They booked me a total of three more times, which was quite a strange thing – I was still in school and I remember going back to school and seeing all my friends and stuff.

“When you go from having a couple of pounds in school to a couple of hundred pounds, it’s an eye-opening experience.”

Determined to not let his GCSE results hold him back, Jack signed up for college to get some NVQs in English and maths and then landed a second job to support his magic career.

He continued: “Now I have a day job. I work at CITB, a training college, I sell courses for people in scaffolding and things like that.

“I’m also a magician – it can be a full-time job, but I like to have both for the structure and routine. I need to get up and do something in the day, but there aren’t many events in weekdays. It’s mainly on evenings and weekends.

“I’ve never been someone who wants to sit around.

“My gigs vary quite a lot, I do weddings – that’s the bulk of what I do. I had a children’s party recently, I turned up in my outfit and the birthday boy came out with the exact same thing I was wearing – it was surreal.

“I’ve done corporate events, I’ve worked for Vauxhall, Red Bull, it’s really strange the people you meet and the places you go. People approach me at gigs and ask for a business card, it just spreads like that.

“It’s so unbelievable, they want to share it with other people.

For more of the news you care about, straight to your inbox, sign up for one of our daily newsletters here.

“I love being a magician, it’s the most gratifying job I could ever hope to have. Everyone has their own battles and stuff – you never know what they’re going through, but I get the chance to change people’s perspectives and can make them smile.

“I met a child last month who had severe anxiety – he smiled and wanted to show his whole family. Later I got a message and they said thank you so much, he doesn’t talk to anyone but you came and showed him that trick and he wouldn’t stop talking about it. It was the most touching thing I’ve seen.

“Failing your GCSEs isn’t the end of the world, there’s so much more to the world than what your academic test results show – you aren’t the tests. There’s always room to learn something – I’m no good at tests but I’m quite knowledgeable, you can’t test everything.”

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at [email protected]