12-year-old magician Raphaël Paulin-Daigle aspires to be like his hero, but with his own personal flavour.

It seems magic used to just for little kids. You'd see the typical man in a black suit with a black top hat he'd pull rabbits out of at children's birthday parties.

But now there are edgier tricks like walking on water and being frozen in a block of ice being performed by TV stars like Criss Angel and David Blaine respectively. These magicians with their Hollywood status have made magic cool.

Twelve-year-old Dieppe magician Raphaël Paulin-Daigle agrees.

"I want to be like Criss Angel," says Paulin-Daigle.

And he isn't alone. Veteran Moncton magician Kevin Robart has seen a lot of people interested in magic because of these TV stars, which he says can be a both good and bad.

On the one hand it gets people interested in magic and inspires young potential magicians.

"The great thing about it is anyone can pick up a deck of cards and get started," says Robart.

But with popularity of magic comes interest in how the tricks are done, and piles of how-to websites, which Robart doesn't feel is a good way to go about learning magic.

"You get a lot of information out there, but you don't get a lot of knowledge," he says. "Just knowing how they did something isn't the same as knowing how they performed it." In Robart's opinion amateur magicians often don't take the tricks seriously enough.

"Great, I have skates and a hockey stick I can go play hockey like Sydney Crosby," says Robart sarcastically.

He teaches magic to young kids and has seen how they get excited about being able to do the tricks, but don't practice enough "No, you master it until you know it perfectly," he says. "I think because of the easy access people don't see the value of putting the effort into rehearsal." But Paulin-Daigle isn't one of those people.

"I practice a lot, I need to practice if I want to be good because that's my favourite thing to do, it's magic," he says.

"I always want to learn new tricks so I need very much to practice a lot." Paulin-Daigle doesn't know exactly how many hours he practices a trick before showing anyone. He just makes sure he can perform the trick well enough no one can se how it was done.

He has been practicing magic tricks since he was about five "" initially with a magic kit his grandmother gave him. But since then he's acquired dozen's of other kits and tricks.

Paulin-Daigle buys tricks off the Internet, most of which come with props, and learns how to do tricks from websites and books. But some of the tricks available are very expensive so instead he figures out how to make them himself.

About a year ago Paulin-Daigle gave his first performance to an audience other than his family or friends. Since then he has given a few other public performances, the most noteworthy of which was a stage appearance at Dieppe's "Mercredi Show," a free summer entertainment series every Wednesday night behind city hall.

Paulin-Daigle has taken almost every opportunity he can to learn more about magic tricks and performing them. He makes sure to watch other magicians, especially his inspiration, Criss Angel.

Robart says this is a good way to go about learning, but he has one piece of advice for Paulin-Daigle or any other aspiring career magicians.

"Be yourself in your creativity. Don't try to be David Blaine or Criss Angel," says Robart. "Because I'm not part of a magic club I get to think on my own, so I'm not following the pack." Though he may not have heard it from Robart, this message strongly resonates with Paulin-Daigle. He admires Angel, who he refers to as the best magician in the world, and even tries to copy some of Angel's tricks, but Paulin-Daigle is no copycat magician.

"I want to be like him," says Paulin-Daigle of Angel, "but I don't want to be exactly like him. Just doing magic good like him, and I want to be better and better and impress people." Paulin-Daigle doesn't perform in any sort of costume, just his regular everyday clothes because he wants to be himself. This is just one of the ways he values his individuality as a magician.

"It's very important (to invent my own tricks), because other people can not buy them," he says.

This is his way of making sure his tricks are unique. But he doesn't invent every single trick he performs.

"I like to...buy a trick that anyone can buy, but to create my own version of it." Not only will this distinguish him from other magicians, giving him an upper hand as he strives towards his career as a professional magician, but it's also important for his own personal fulfillment.

"I'm a creator, I like creating and I'm very imaginative," he says.

This imagination he hopes will make him as talented as the TV star magicians.

"(But) I don't want to be famous, I'm doing magic because I like doing this, not to be famous," says Paulin-Daigle.

"I'm not doing sports, I'm not someone who does stuff like anyone else, I like magic and that's what I'm focusing on." But if people like his magic and he becomes famous Paulin-Daigle says he wouldn't reject fame.

Regardless of future aspirations and possible fame Paulin-Daigle's current talent impresses his father, Jean Daigle.

"Raphaël is quite creative and always needs a challenge and to learn something new," says Daigle. "I'm impressed when he goes in front of big crowds and does shows, like on the Mecredi Show in Dieppe, because I wouldn't be able to do it myself." Being in the house Daigle sees how some of his son's tricks are done.

"But I don't know everything of course, a good magician never tells his trick as they say," Daigle says.

But he's most impressed by his son when he invents tricks of his own.

"Sometime I say 'well where did you learn that trick.' He says well 'I just invented that trick,' I say 'well are you sure?' Sometimes I don't really believe him, but he does actually," says Daigle.

If you would like to see Raphaël Paulin-Daigle perform live he will be at the "Salon du Livre de Dieppe" at CCNB Dieppe on Oct. 23 at 9:30 a.m. He will also be promoting a 24-page how-to magic book he wrote.