At the age of eight,  Mike was given his first conjuring set - the Ernest Sewell Box of Magic - and was promptly hooked.     Very soon, he was entertaining his parents' customers,   before going on to learn more advanced material from another local manager-cum magician.  The first trick Mike mastered was Sucker Silk, followed by the card effect, Steamboat Sam,  and Cut-and-Restored Rope.     His heart was now set on a career in Variety and, though still very young, he began frequenting the many theatres that then existed in Liverpool.  He saw Channing Pollock - on his first visit to the UK - in a strip-club at the Pavilion theatre. You couldn't make it up. (You haven't, have you, Mike?)

Though happy to indulge his hobby,  Mike's parents were keen for him to study hard and go to university.   To this end, they enrolled him in a local prep school, convinced it would set him on the right road. Mike, however, had other ideas, forging sick-notes and truanting from class on a regular basis.   Still only eight,  he and his brother (for whom he was equally happy to forge 'time-off' letters) would skip class and catch the ferry to New Brighton,  where they would visit the theatre and enjoy shows galore.

Though ultimately found out and expelled, Mike still passed his 11-plus and went to grammar school.   His love for the theatre remained unabated, and he would take in shows whenever and wherever he could.  Back then, ninepence in old money bought you a seat in the gods, from where Mike looked down from a great height, learning everything he could about stagecraft, lighting, scenery and the rest. 

By the age of 11,  he was taking part in junior shows at, among other places,  the local Shakespeare Theatre.  Though his parents were still keen for him to pursue an academic career, Mike's heart remained fixed on a life in Variety.  Desperate to steer him back to academia, they even took to locking his props in the attic.   Unfazed, Mike promptly mastered a new skill - the noble art of lock picking - and before long the props were back out and Mike was practising like crazy.    As he would return them after every session, and cunningly relock the attic door, it was months before he was rumbled.

At 14 Mike was effectively a part-time professional, entertaining in the working men's clubs, while entering every talent competition he could.    At 16, he won a local event, scooping a respectable £20 first prize (something like £200 in today's money). 

In 1957,  while still in the sixth form at school, Mike's parents took him to Butlins, where he entered a nationwide talent contest. Starting at local level,  and from an overall pool of some 20,000 contestants, he progressed to the regional finals and from there to the grand final itself,  held at the Dominion Theatre in London's Tottenham Court Road.  He eventually tied for first place with a Yorkshire comic,  Bobby Pattinson, with whom he shared a £1000 prize (£16,000 in today's terms).  As well as the cash win, Mike enjoyed front-page coverage in the People newspaper.   This publicity was enhanced by a winning appearance two days later on the ABC TV talent show 'Bid for Fame', backed by the Joe Loss Orchestra.

A call now followed from a top London agent - a man who numbered a certain Ken Dodd among his clients.   'Would you like to be a star?' he asked young Mike, who, not surprisingly, replied, 'I'd love to.'

His parents, still keen for him to go to university, insisted that he restrict his new career to the school holidays, but, even so, Mike was now having the time of his life. 

One booking took him to Torquay, where he was paid the princely sum of 100 guineas and given a chauffeur to ferry him around town.    A Ball in South Wales was followed by a stint on 'Robert Robinson's Roundabout' (a live TV show filmed at the Empire Theatre, Shepherd's Bush),  and appearances with Ken Dodd at Leeds and Brighton.

A turning point came when, armed with the necessary A-levels, Mike was offered a place at Durham University.   Faced with a choice between Varsity and Variety, he chose the latter and was off to Blackpool for a summer season with Ken Dodd.

In the years that followed, Mike travelled the country,   rubbing shoulders with a galaxy of stars, among them Marty Wilde, Dusty Springfield, Billy Cotton, Bill Haley and The Comets, and Danny La Rue.   On one occasion he topped the bill at the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds, along with -  he was happy to inform us - a stripper.    His career was nothing if not exotic!

By the early 1960s, however, the world of Variety was coming to a close.   With the growth of television, theatres were shutting their doors,  and work was drying up.   In 1962 his father went blind and Mike abandoned his theatrical career to become the family's breadwinner. He entered the Civil Service, working initially for the National Assistance Board in Liverpool.   He was, in his new career, to enjoy as much success as he had in his old.   Progressing through the ranks, he found himself acting as a departmental spokesman on television and rose, eventually, to the lofty heights of Assistant Secretary, managing 16,000 staff and billions of pounds in benefit payments. 

For some time, he was able to combine his career with magic and comedy, travelling to Guernsey to star alongside Eartha Kitt and appearing, most famously of all, perhaps, on Granada Television's 'The Comedians'.  Eventually, a conflict of functions arose and pursuing both careers became impossible. Something had to give, and, for Mike,  it was his life on the boards.

Yet, as Mike was happy to tell us,  he has enjoyed the best of both worlds.   He had longed to work in Variety and in that he had succeeded.    As that world came to an end, he was content to move on, though he has, thankfully, pursued his comedy magic whenever he can and now, having retired from the Civil Service, is free to perform as often as he likes.

One story perhaps sums up his adventures perfectly.    In 1962 Mike met a group of young men at the Mersey Beat Clubland awards in Liverpool.   'You're Mike Coyne,' said one of them, recognising him at once.  'Do you know who we are?'    'No', replied Mike.     

'We're the Beatles.'