Magician ejected from bar then held in police swoop for bending his own forks

A magician was thrown out of a Lichfield bar then questioned by police for bending forks. Paul Fisher, who goes by the stage name Paul Saint, was given his marching orders by a burly doorman after performing the trick for friends at Après bar in Lichfield. “I tried to tell the bouncer that the forks were my own, but he wouldn’t listen,” said Paul, 35, by day a driving instructor from Pelsall. Moments after being ejected, he claims a police van raced to a halt beside him and he was told to get inside in connection with the incident.

“I was told to get out and the police were called. I wasn’t given any sort of explanation or told to put the forks away. The police vehicle came screaming up the street and an officer jumped out. He said he’d had a complaint about me bending up some forks. I told him they were my own forks and was about to get some out of my pocket when he told me to get in the van.” Paul, who added that he was completely sober at the time, was driven back to Après and made to wait in the van while the officer spoke to the doorman.

“He spoke to the bouncer, having a laugh and joke, and then did a background check, which came back all-clear. The officer then let me go. I was astonished that there was all this fuss over a few forks, which I happened to own. Since when has it been a crime to bend a few of your own forks to the amusement of your friends? They completely ruined our night. It’s not as if I was drunk and disorderly.”

Fiona Williams, director of Après, claimed that the fork was a security issue, despite the bar serving food and having its own supply of cutlery. She said: “It is our policy not to allow objects into our venues which can be a danger to the general public. That man was not organised as a magician, nor did he announce himself or his intentions to perform as a magician to our doorstaff or management. Our actions were conducted in the interest of the public. We have to protect our customers and knives and forks are a security issue.”