I met Magical Bones at London’s Wellcome Collection, when I ran into his green room after his show. ‘I’m sorry to intrude,’ I said, ‘but we need to talk.’

My mind had been blown by his tribute to Henry Box Brown, a 19th century magician who escaped from slavery by posting himself to abolitionists. I had never heard of Box Brown (or Magical Bones, truth be told), but I had made a film about a Black magician, my own father, escaping from a box.

Bones spoke in his show, Black Magic, about the lack of Black magicians when he was growing, that he’d seen no representation of someone like himself. I could barely sit still as I thought about my dad, the first Black member of the Inner Magic Circle, which is why I insisted my way into the green room as soon as the curtain came down.

As it transpired, Bones needed a writer to help him develop Black Magic. I worked with him that summer (2019) as he prepared for the Edinburgh Fringe.

In autumn 2020, Magical Bones and his Black Magic show made the final of Britain’s Got Talent.