Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod are a duo of

Scottish BAFTA BAFTA in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Formed in 1986, the branch holds two annual awards ceremonies recognising the achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, televis ...

-nominated magicians and comedians whose work has been seen on television and on stage around the world. The double act are known for their comically dark performing style, for taking as inspiration the accounts of Biblical miracles and faking paranormal phenomena to form the basis for some of their illusions.

Biography

Jones was born on 16 April 1982 in Aberdeen and grew up in

Portlethen Portlethen (; ) is a town located approximately 7 miles south of Aberdeen, Scotland, along the A92 road, A92. The population according to the 2022 census was 8,969 making it the seventh most populous settlement within Aberdeenshire. To the ea ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. MacLeod was born in 1980 in the town of

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

. MacLeod attended

Peterhead Academy Peterhead Academy is a six-year Comprehensive Community School in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is operated by Aberdeenshire Council. History The original building of Peterhead Academy was built in 1846 and was originally a boys only sc ...

before studying philosophy and psychology at

Aberdeen University The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Al ...

, while Jones grew up in Old Portlethen, before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to study multimedia computing. They met in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in 1994 and started making videos of themselves performing magic. This is where their double act style of acting out scenes in character while performing illusions developed. The filmed results of these magic sketches eventually reached a television production company and led to the making of their first TV series ''Magick''. The show was nominated as Best Comedy Series at the Rose d'Or international television awards in

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

in 2004. In 2005 they hosted the television series ''Dirty Tricks'' and television special ''When Magic Tricks go Wrong'' and in 2006 the pair created two one-hour specials for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, ''Tricks from the Bible'' and ''The Magic of Jesus'' where they took inspiration from and duplicated the miracles described in the Old and New Testament. In 2009, Jones and MacLeod were awarded the 'Best Comedy Illusionist' Award at the World Magic Awards. They have toured the UK extensively throughout from 2010 with their live shows as well as performing at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

with new shows between 2008 and 2011. In 2011 and 2012 they were part of both seasons of

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

's ''The Magicians'', a live magic show drawing in over 6 million viewers weekly. They most recently made ''The Happenings'' – four one-hour specials for

Watch A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

in which the duo use their magic to fake paranormal events.

Television

''Magick''

Jones and MacLeod's first television series ''Magick'' (aka ''Sick Ticks'' also, ''Crack Magick'') debuted on 5 October 2003 and was described as "comedy magic featuring surreal characters in bizarre and uncomfortable situations." It began airing in Australia on SBS on 1 February 2007 under the title ''Sick Tricks''. This series featured reverse film magic, where the magic was performed backwards and the film later reversed to reveal the

backmasking Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional. Artists have used ...

. In one of a series of 'crimes' caught on

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

, footage captures two men being caught en flagrante in a public toilet by a police officer. To get out of trouble, one of the men hides the other behind his coat and makes him disappear. In another incident, a man breaks into a car by sticking his hand through a glass window without breaking it. Secret filming in a supermarket captures MacLeod and Jones magically sabotaging the products by putting dead insects into sealed bottles of mineral water and penetrating razor blades through the foil lids of ready-meals. In 2004 this four-part series was nominated for a Rose D'Or comedy award in

''Dirty Tricks''

''Dirty Tricks'' is a six-part series that was hosted by Jones and MacLeod. It was described as "magic meets Natural Born Killers." The show also had regular spots from

Pete Firman Peter "Pete" Firman (born 26 April 1980) is an English magician, comedian, television presenter and actor. He has appeared in magic shows on BBC1, ITV, Channel 4, Five, and Sky1. He was also the presenter of two game shows on CBBC: ''St ...

Ali Cook Ali Cook (also credited as Alistair Cook) is an English actor and comedian from Yorkshire. Cook played Sgt. Paul McMellon in the feature film ''Kajaki (film), Kajaki'', which won the ''Producer of The Year Award'' at the 2015 British Independen ...

and Jonathan Goodwin as well as guest appearances from international variety acts and celebrities including

Penn & Teller Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since 1975. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. The duo has bee ...

and

Kevin James Kevin George Knipfing (born April 26, 1965), known professionally as Kevin James, is an American comedian and actor. He began his career by performing stand-up comedy at clubs on Long Island in the 1980s. He rose to prominence for his portrayal ...

. At the end of every show, the presenters "kill" the radio and TV presenter Neil Fox in a horrific and painful manner. This includes him being cremated, stabbed and crushed.

''The Magic of Jesus''

This one-hour special aired over the Christmas holiday period in December 2005. In this show Jones and MacLeod drew inspiration from the accounts of Jesus' miracles in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

to present illusions which included apparently walking on the surface of water in a glass tank, turning water into wine, causing a blind person to temporarily 'see', appearing to raise a deceased person, causing a virgin to apparently become 'pregnant' and feeding 5000 people.

''Tricks from the Bible''

Following on from ''The Magic of Jesus'' this one-hour special aired in June 2006. The duo drew inspiration from the miracle accounts in the Old Testament. Jones and MacLeod performed illusions such as turning staffs into snakes in Egypt, exactly where it was said to be performed in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

, casting some of the

plagues of Egypt In the Book of Exodus, the Plagues of Egypt () are ten disasters that the Hebrew God inflicts on the Biblical Egypt, Egyptians to convince Pharaohs in the Bible#In the Book of Exodus, the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of th ...

on two fans in an enclosed part of a restaurant, a transformation into a pillar of salt, exorcism of a demon, robbing a man of his strength as

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

had, apparently raising someone from the dead and pulling a coin from the mouth of a fish, performed on a boat in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

''The Magicians''

'' The Magicians'' is a BBC primetime show, that aired its first series during January 2011. It featured Barry and Stuart alongside host

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British Jamaicans, British-Jamaican comedian, actor and writer. He gained success as a Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ' ...

and fellow magicians

Luis de Matos Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

and Chris Korn. The show returned for its second series on 7 January 2012, with Barry and Stuart being the only personalities retained from series one. The second series featured two new magicians alongside Barry and Stuart; American magician

Jason Latimer Jason Latimer (born March 7, 1981), known by the stage name LATIMER, is an American illusionist. In 2003, he became one of four Americans ever to win the title Grand Prix "Best Overall" at the World Championships of Magic. In 2012, Latimer sta ...

and English magician

. This second series was broadcast live and was the first magic series to do so in the UK in 30 years

''The Happenings''

In December 2013 Barry and Stuart's latest show, ''The Happenings'', a four x 60 min series debuted in the UK on the digital channel Watch HD. The duo went undercover as they set about making the unbelievable paranormal-like events believable to the unsuspecting residents of towns across the UK and America. Each episode was a self-contained narrative and featured their magic and illusion under the guise of mysterious incidents that were played out over the course of a few weeks in four towns. Episodes featured, ghosts, vampires, aliens and government cover-ups. A number of events filmed for the program made national headlines including their faked ghost sighting and alien landing. The program was first broadcast internationally in April 2014 on the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

Theatre

In 2008 the duo took their debut live show ''Part Time Warlocks'' to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Following 5 star reviews and a total sell out run, extra dates of the show were staged in a larger venue. In 2009 they returned to the

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Fringe with a new show ''Powered by Demons'' which they later performed at the

Soho Theatre Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...

. Returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 they performed ''98% Séance'', a show where they used their magic to fake ghostly apparitions under the guise of a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

. In a five-star review, ''Time Out London'' described the show as "a triumph of astonishing illusions, inventive technology, and unexpected frights." This show was the most positively tweeted about show at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010 according to the Realtime, crowd-sourced review website, EdTwinge. They toured the UK in spring 2010 with ''Barry and Stuart: Live''. In 2011 they performed two shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, ''The Show'' and ''The Tell''. In ''The Show'' they performed an hour of magic, then a limited number of that audience had the chance to buy tickets for ''The Tell'' where they would witness the explanations to the all tricks they had just witnessed. In 2012 they toured the UK with ''Show and Tell'', a joint version of the two separate Edinburgh shows, and due to popular demand extended this tour into 2013. They brought their live show for the first time to audiences in the United States with ''Barry and Stuart Live'' at Coronet Theatre Los Angeles in April 2013.