However, \u201cAmaze\u201d has a much deeper history than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n The show began in late 2023 with workshop performances in St. Louis, followed by preview runs in Colorado, Texas, and Nebraska. After its Chicago success, a redesigned version opened in 2024 at London\u2019s Marylebone Theatre before moving on to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, where it earned The Times Critic\u2019s Choice. In 2025, the show returned to the U.S. for a pre-Broadway run in Tampa before arriving in New York City that July.\u00a0<\/p>\n The production walks audiences through Allan\u2019s life \u2013 from his childhood inside his parents\u2019 pub\u00a0 to his \u201ciMagician\u201d era \u2013 turning \u201cAmaze\u201d into more than just a magic show. It becomes a story of a young boy who followed his dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n Performance runs in the family<\/b><\/p>\n Having grown up in the 1980s, much of the show is built around the pop culture of Allan\u2019s childhood. Music, toys and visual references from the decade help recreate the world where his fascination with magic began.<\/p>\n The year is 1982, in the English countryside, when Allan is just 5-years-old. Before that, much of his childhood was spent traveling the world with his musician parents.<\/p>\n His father, Alan James Nicklin, led the British beat group Second City Sound, which won the U.K. television game show called \u201cOpportunity Knocks\u201d for six consecutive weeks in 1973. When Nicklin met Allan\u2019s mother, British singer Kay Kennedy, he brought her into the band as lead vocalist and later formed another band called \u201cTouch of Velvet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But by the time Allan was five, his parents decided it was time to settle down. They returned to England and purchased a former saddlery that had been turned into a pub called The Horse and Jockey.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nicklin transformed the venue into an entertainment hub where musicians, comedians and magicians would regularly perform. Although Allan\u2019s parents initially hoped their son would follow the family tradition in music, it was magic that captured his imagination.<\/p>\n \u201cMom and dad initially bought me every kind of musical instrument, and none of it stuck,\u201d Allan said. \u201cI heard that my mom used to play recordings of singers to me when I was asleep, in the hope that I might get into that, but I just got bitten by the magic book.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That same year, during Christmas, Allan received a Fisher-Price Magic Show set. The toy included a wand, disappearing box and various props \u2013 along with stickers representing places like New York, Paris and Japan. Decades later, Allan has performed at nearly every one of those locations. The toy, in hindsight, felt prophetic.\u00a0<\/p>\n At just 8, Allan performed on stage for the first time at The Horse and Jockey.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to do it on the stage,\u201d Allan said. \u201cI didn\u2019t used to do it for long, but I did it quite often. I used to only do it for about 10 minutes, and I would do it before an act\u2026the locals all knew that I was the son of the owners, and I had the cute factor because I was a little kid doing magic.\u201d<\/p>\n As he grew older, Allan continued performing and refining his craft. By his teenage years, he began experimenting with high-scale illusions \u2013 a style that now defines his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would do anything that I could do to get work,\u201d Allan said. \u201cI was at a point doing children\u2019s parties [over] the weekends, and I would do the odd bits of close-up magic in restaurants and then whenever I could get on stage. But I was lucky enough that by the time I was 20, I didn\u2019t do anything other than stage work.\u201d<\/p>\n The big break<\/b><\/p>\n Allan\u2019s big break came in 1995 when he appeared on ITV\u2019s \u201cThis Morning,\u201d where he premiered an early version of his signature concept \u2013\u00a0 blending magic with technology. He later spent several years performing on cruise ships, but when the iPads launched in 2010, Allan saw an opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[It] was a very current piece of consumer technology, and I was doing something unusual with it,\u201d Allan said.\n<\/p>\n His illusion, \u201cDigital Art,\u201d which had Allan pulling drawings off an iPad screen into the real world, quickly gained international attention. Allan flew around the world performing the routine on various television shows, including BBC\u2019s \u201cThe One Show,\u201d \u201cBBC Breakfast,\u201d \u201cGrand Cabaret Du Monde\u201d and \u201cPenn and Teller: Fool Us.\u201d<\/p>\n The success earned him the nickname \u201ciMagician,\u201d and he spent nearly a decade touring his technology-driven show, \u201ciMagician.\u201d The production ran for three consecutive years in the U.K. During the tour, Allan met his fianc\u00e9e and magician\u2019s assistant, Natalie Love.<\/p>\n Love, originally a professional dancer, met Allan when she joined the world\u2019s first supergroup of female magicians, Chicks \u2018n\u2019 Tricks.\n<\/p>\n \u201cJamie was brought in for some magic advice [to help] us learn an illusion,\u201d Love said. He remembers it like it was yesterday. But I vaguely remember him. I was just more focused on learning this trick because I was the new girl.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AAA-0X5A2251-1920x1080-photographerDANNY-KAAN.jpg\" "\\"Jamie")
<\/a>Jamie AllanPhoto by Danny Kaan<\/p>\n![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HHH-0X5A2787-2-1920x1080-photographerDANNY-KAAN.jpg\" "\\"Jamie")
<\/a>Jamie Allan performing.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Amaze.-Child-_III-0X5A2306-1920x1080-photographerDANNY-KAAN.jpg\" "\\"Jamie")
<\/a>Photo by Danny Kaan<\/p>\n