Adam Bloom is a very busy man. Not only has he got his five-day-a-week job of touring the country s action-packed comedy circuit, he is also getting married at the end of the year. But that s not all. What is taking up most of Bloom s life and a fair bit

Adam Bloom is a very busy man. Not only has he got his five-day-a-week job of touring the country's action-packed comedy circuit, he is also getting married at the end of the year.

But that's not all. What is taking up most of Bloom's life and a fair bit of his hard-earned cash at the moment is a complicated magic trick.

It's one he has invented himself and one he is working hard to try to sell to the world.

"I have no desire to be a magician," he says. "And I've got no wish to mix comedy with magic full-time but it has been a passion of mine since I was a kid.

"I had an idea for a card trick a few months ago and I thought, 'This is brilliant,' and I kept working and working on it. A friend of mine said, 'You have to market this.' I have put a few grand into it now which I can't afford to lose. I just think it is more impressive to invent a trick than perform one."

His card trick, which he says is fool-proof, sounds impressive enough. But I could not possibly do it justice by trying to explain it in these pages.

"However, Bloom has assured me that he is in advanced discussions with a company who want exclusive rights to it.

When I talk to Bloom, he is on the way to Brighton to do what he does best - be funny on a stage in front of a cackling crowd. The gig is one of his first since he took a few months off to concentrate on his supernatural sideline.

"My comedy career suffered immensely because of the other business. If I drew a graph of it, you would see a sudden dip. But comedy is my first love - I have given 14 years of my life to it. I hope that I will come back a bit fresher," he says.

You can forgive Bloom for wanting a break from comedy because he has been thinking about for a very long time. When he was 10 years old, he approached his parents one day and put all their worries at ease by saying he had decided he would be a comedian when he grew up.

Thirteen years later and he was on the stage making people laugh. His prophetic statement was an early sign of his confidence, something which has served him well over the years.

"I don't have any insecurities when I take to the stage. But different things work for different people. I know comedians who have really low self-esteem and their comedy comes from that."

Unlike a lot of comedians, Bloom does not like to go in for the cheap jokes and resists (most of the time) the temptation towards the always popular smutty gags.

"I might mention my nob two or three times an hour but I don't do that many sex gags," he says.

"That doesn't mean that kind of humour cannot be done well. Frank Skinner was a master at it. I think sometimes there are people I won't name who are not innovative but they have done very well for themselves and that's fine. But I think originality is the key.

"There are not just a certain amount of jokes out there, there is so much to explore and be discovered. I think it's a shame that people are not bothered to push the boundaries."

Hampstead's Ricky Gervais is one of Bloom's biggest fans and I ask him what it means to make other comics laugh.

"This is my problem," he says. "I always judge my performance on whether the comedians at the back of the room are laughing, but the Peter Kays of this world always wait for how the audience reacts. After all, they are the people paying our mortgages.

"For me, having a comedian say positive things to me means more than any TV executive saying it because they are the ones who watch comedy six times a week. They know how it works.

"Sometimes those who work in the industry (not the comedians) don't even like comedy. They don't recognise what fun is. I just think, 'How the f*** did you get this job?'

"Respect from my peers is the most important and getting respect from the people who come to watch the gig comes an extremely close second."

One thing for certain is that Bloom, a very affable and witty man, will not need to pull any kind of trick to make his audiences laugh.

Ham&High readers have the chance to pay respect to Bloom when he performs at the Dartmouth Arms on Thursday (March 13) for Laugh and Half, the monthly comedy night at the Dartmouth Park pub. Tickets cost £5. Doors open at 8.30pm.