A KIDDERMINSTER magician failed to cast a spell over the Britain’s Got Talent judges on Saturday when his illusion was dubbed the “the worst magic trick ever” by Ant and Dec.

Despite Jay Adkins’ dream vanishing in a puff of smoke the 39-year-old said he “thoroughly enjoyed” his experience and was happy that he appeared on the show.

Since Saturday, however, the father of one said he had been “slated” by other magicians on forums and Facebook and that the organiser of a charity fun day had cancelled his booking after seeing him on the ITV programme.

Mr Adkins, who runs his own magic and entertainments company called Creative Entertainments, told The Shuttle: “People I know and work with said I had done really well but it’s the magicians and TV reviews that have said it was awful.

“To be honest, it’s hard to take, especially if you’re passionate about something. You’re bound to get it but there are ways of saying something.”

Mr Adkins’ audition, a card trick involving judge David Walliams, was aired with two other unsuccessful magic acts, followed by an impressive performance by Canadian illusionist Darcy Oake.

“My view is that it was highly edited and that’s the major problem,” Mr Adkins added. “I’ve done the trick many times and it’s got a really good reaction.

“I’ve watched the show since it started and magicians do seem to get a bad rap. I think they should have a judge for each category and get magician Stephen Mulhern [who presents the ITV2 spin-off show] on the judging panel.”

After his trick, Dec held up a sign reading “the worst magic trick ever”, mocking Mr Adkins’ use of flash cards.

“It was obviously done for the TV show and it probably wasn’t Dec that wrote it,” he added. “It’s a throw-away comment and it was a joke. If you go on that show and you expect to be taken seriously you’re on the wrong show.”

Mr Adkins, who started performing magic when he was eight, added the 3,000-strong audience was the biggest crowd he had performed in front of and that he felt proud that his audition had had nearly 170,000 views on YouTube.

He added: “Watching the two guys that were on before me, I don’t think I came across too badly.”

During Saturday’s show, Mr Adkins was given feedback from the judges, including Little Britain star Walliams, who said “it was sweet but it was quite a long time waiting for not very much”.

Head judge Simon Cowell added that Mr Adkins did not have the “cool charisma” needed to be a great magician but did say he was well suited to being a children’s entertainer, a comment unfortunately not aired on TV.

Mr Adkins watched the show on Saturday with his wife, Debbie, four-year-daughter Emily-Jai and other family members.