Biography
Tom Stevens
Tom's grandfather, Jim Stevens was the only other magician in the Stevens family. And for Jim it was a hobby.
Tom has a photocopy of a photograph of his grandfather, possibly around age 16 pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
Jim's father was a hotel tycoon for a while (he built the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, later sold to the Hilton group) so it seems Jim could afford this very expensive hobby as a kid.
Tom grew up in Europe he only saw his grandfather's magic tricks every once in a great while when his grandparents flew over on vacation.
When people ask Tom where he learnt magic he says with an air of mystery, my grandpa taught me after he died. This is because Tom's early interest in magic happened to coincide with the passing away of his grandfather.
A background in music performing gave Tom a good jump start for his magic performances.
Tom's earliest childhood memories are of performing with his parents and brothers and sisters. See a picture here, Toulouse, France, 1982.
Being the eldest son in a performing family, it wasn't long before Tom was leading the band, and at age 15 took a lead role in organising performances. Another photo here.
Tom's parents had a strong belief in helping others and frequently participated in charity work, putting on performances for hospitals, and retirement homes regularly.
In 1992 Tom's dad invited Tom to join him in Romania, where he had been working for over a year. Tom jumped at the opportunity. Within two months Tom teamed up with 3 other volunteers in a different city (Timisoara) from where his dad was based (Bucharest). Here he learned Romanian, and within 6 months became fluent, performing entire shows for orphanages in the region in the Romanian language.
It was in 1993 that he was invited to join a team of like minded youths for a project in Amsterdam. Here he met his soon to be wife, Priscilla, who had a similar background in volunteer work.
A couple of key events occurred in Amsterdam. One, a friend working in the Russian State Circus let Tom dress up as a clown and help with presenting a prize.
It was in also in Amsterdam that Tom had the opportunity of being tutored (albeit briefly) in the art of mime. At the end of 1993 Tom and Priscilla moved to Hungary and Tom was to conduct character building lessons for delinquent teens in detention homes. Mime was an effective tool for communicating in a place where the language proved to be considerably different than the romance languages Tom had learned to date (apart from Romanian, mainly French, but a little Italian). When support for the project in Hungary began waning Tom and Priscilla moved to Italy where they started a music group. The plan was never to stay in Italy, and Priscilla wanted to return to Russia where whe had worked before meeting Tom. However a number of obstacles prevented this from happening but eventually Tom's parents got him in touch with a family in the Ukraine that was starting a humanitarian project and was looking for someone to team up with. By this time, (1996), Tom and Priscilla had two children and making a big move like this was quite an adventure. The Ukraine was kind of a wild place and going there necessitated blending in somewhat.
Here they were able to personally distribute clothes, medical supplies and hospital equipment donated by German hospitals to needy locations in the Ukraine on the Red Cross lists. This they always accompanied with musical and theatrical performances, to not only bring material aid but to also lift their spirits.
March 1997 pending the birth of their third child, Tom and Priscilla moved to Slovakia where they were able to continue linking donors to the needy and providing activities and excursions for orphanages and other under-privilegded institutions.
Before the birth of their 4th child, they decided to move to Australia where Priscilla's parents live. Upon arriving in Australia in 1998 Tom started developing his balloon twisting skills in order to meet people, provide entertainment, and raise support for their next volunteer project. As a matter of fact they had only been in Australia for a few months when they set about in earnest working on one more project: creating a puppet show that they would take to India and use in performances for orphanages. In June 2000 their fifth child was born. They made it to India in September 2000 and spent a wonderful year bringing smiles to many with their music and puppet show. Upon their return to Australia in 2001 they decided to focus more on their children's upbringing and education.
Tom started using every spare moment in the day to practice the skills required: balloon art, juggling, coin and card manipulation. He started a small collection of books on those various subjects. One of those books was "Clown Magic" by David Ginn. Tom decided to start out doing clown shows and was pleasantly surprised when his first performance got numerous additional bookings by simple word of mouth. When David Ginn visited Australia in 2003 Tom made sure to attend the Crash Course in Kid Shows that David Ginn held at the Australian Society of Magician's club. Tom soon joined the club and received lots of input from many local magicians and chose to give back by volunteering to help run the club's website.
Attending the 2007 centenary magic convention was another milestone in Tom's education, being taught the chinese linking rings by the world famous Shoot Ogawa from Japan, and receiving copious ideas from the many world class lecturers at the event.
 The Stevens Family |