MAGICIAN James Brown has proved he knows the nuts and bolts of magic and trickery by beating the best in the South with his amazing skills.

The 25-year-old used a couple of nuts and bolts to impress judges at a prestigious regional final to see who could do the best "close-up" magic tricks.

In one hand he held a large bolt, while he picked up two nuts with his other hand and put them in his pocket.

But without time for so much as a drum roll he opened the hand holding the large bolt to reveal the two smaller nuts fitted on it.

With a number of card tricks up his sleeve as well, James, from Poole, more than impressed the judges at the regional finals of the Close-Up Championships for Southern England. And he walked off with the Alan McGurk Trophy.

James, of Jellicoe Road, will have to miss the national finals this summer as he is getting married, but he is determined to continue practising magic and hopefully become a full- time magician.

A member of the Wessex Magic Association, he is already the resident magic man at Calendars, in Tower Park, Poole.

He said: "I've been doing magic for the past three or four years. I started after seeing a street magician's show in London and had a go at doing some of the tricks myself."