I smugly handed over my 20p piece to the magician. Within three seconds he had not only made it disappear right in front of my eyes, but had returned it bent in two. Baffling.

The magician was Richard Young, now known nationally as half of the Oxford-based duo Young and Strange. With fellow magician Sam Strange, Mr Young has appeared on TV shows Penn and Teller: Fool us and This Morning and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Mr Young and Mr Strange, both 27, started off as rivals with almost idential businesses — performing close-up magic and stage magic for weddings and corporate events around Oxfordshire.

But they found potential clients would play them off against each other. Finally Sam contacted Richard in January this year and suggested it would be mutually beneficial for them to be in contact.

Mr Young said: “At first I was sceptical. I thought he just wanted to steal my tricks.”

Joking aside, you only have to watch the two on stage together to see they have professional chemistry.

In the show Penn and Teller: Fool Us, hopefuls perform a magic trick in front of the famous American magicians Penn and Teller in a bid to fool them. It took Penn and Teller two guesses to crack the coin trick that originally fooled me.

Mr Young said: “The audience went mad when they thought we had them — but they got it right on the second guess.”

Mr Young, from Blackbird Leys, discovered magic when he was eight and was thrilled to be able to fool his parents.

“I thought it was brilliant that I could fool my dad — he knew everything,” he said.

Mr Strange, from Eynsham, discovered a talent later at 17, when he started learning card tricks and moved on to close-up magic.

After realising two heads are better than one, the pair now perform stage magic and in April this year performed at the Magic Circle in front of their peers and heroes.

Mr Young said: “That was one of the best gigs — to perform for a crowd like that and have good feedback was a big deal.”

The Magic Circle is a society for professional magicians and every member has to be put forward by two current members.

This is followed by a written exam and an audition in front of a panel of magicians.

Not only a place of mystery and intrigue, The Magic Circle, whose headquarters are in London, has opened many doors for the pair through the contacts they make and the inspiration they take from their surroundings.

Mr Young said: “We often look in the museum and think what modern spin we can put on old tricks.”

Young and Strange have filled many Oxfordshire venues this year.

In a gig at the Players Theatre in Thame they convinced the Harley Davidson store in Wootton to lend them a top-of-the-range motorcycle.

For the finale of their show they made it appear inside a cabinet surrounded by members of the audience.

Mr Young said: “Venues like that and Wallingford Corn Exchange are great to perform in. They are the hub of the community.”

He added: “We work with so many great people. We have an engineer in Nottinghamshire who makes our props and is, frankly, a genius and we've had some fantastic advice on presenting ourselves to the media.”

As for the future, Mr Young revealed they have a ‘top secret’ show in the pipeline where they are working with a well known magician. Being adept at keeping secrets secret, he would not say any more. But what us clear is that the duo are very much ones to watch on the burgeining magic scene natonally.

They are planning a UK-wide tour in 2012 and are returning to the Edinburgh Fringe in August of next year. So watch this space — just be careful you do not fall over a Harley Davidson in the process.

Contact: info@youngandstrange.co.uk n Web: www.youngandstrange.co.uk