Fringe Magic

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Fringe Magic 〰️

It’s time for Edinburgh Fringe 2025, and with it, our annual feature series! This year, we’re celebrating the special, unique Fringe moments — the ones that feel like pure MAGIC…

By James Trickey

It was the 18th Year in the 21st Modern Century. I was finishing my penultimate year of studying the magical language of numerical symbols. My graduation was inbound, the university had decided that I had accumulated enough knowledge to level up into a master of mathematics.

I was doing all this to impress my mum. My real ambitions lay in becoming a bard who would be able to travel the land telling fables and tales to strangers. I had discovered this was something you could do on my first visit to this enormous fair in a wonderful town called Edinburgh.

But it is well known that this specific career does not immediately provide the gold necessary to keep the bread and mead at my parents’ house flowing. My mother had made it very clear that if I returned home without a real cash money trade, then she would really try to make my life quite difficult. Rude. So I was pushed to search the job portals for something that I could do, to prove to her that I was capable of bringing honour and prosperity to the family name.

Something came to me. A message from an evil money toad who represented the arch-money-mages at KGMP arrived at my house with an offer: The knowledge to cast financial spells to keep people's businesses afloat, something highly sought after in this current age and, with it, I was sure to be with income whenever I needed. All they required was my soul for a mere three years. I was aware that this would be something that would satiate my mother’s thirst for my future stability. Who knows, it might even allow me to go back to being a bard one day.

So I took the deal. Three years didn’t seem so bad, I had just enjoyed four and they flew by, so why not give up a measly three? I could practice my story-telling in the evenings perhaps.

What resulted was three of the most intense years of my life. I cannot stress this enough. Becoming a monetary wizard was actually quite hard. I had to scrub the shoes of the more senior wizards, I gave up my evenings to count gold pieces in merchant stores in places I’d never been before. Places like Staines. And in between all the practice, I also had to study for the 15 necessary certifying examinations. The texts were tough to decipher, there were spells I’d never seen before with words like “Depreciation” and “Double-Entry Bookkeeping”.

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I counted down the days until that contract was over. One year followed by another year followed by another year to make three years in total (don’t say I didn’t learn anything). When it came to the day of my final exam, I was petrified. If I failed I would have to stay for another six months and I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to cope. The day I found out I had succeeded in becoming a trusted currency sorcerer, the contract was broken and I gave in my notice. I was free.

Of course, I still prepare the incantations to assist with people’s cash flow on the side to supplement my income. The price of the local mead has reached almost eight gold pieces in some places! But I’m back on the road to becoming a bard, I’ve been able to practice much more now that I have my soul back. This year, I return to the fantastical town of Edinburgh to peddle this story as a cautionary tale to those who also seek this power.

(I got an accounting grad scheme and it was hard but now I’m an accountant who is doing a show about not accounting anymore at the fringe. Hope that’s clearer now. Thanks.)

James Trickey: Don’t Count On It is running from July 30th-August 24th at 9:15pm, at Pleasance Courtyard (Cellar). Tickets here

Follow James Trickey on Instagram here

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