Ella Nicholson, a transition year student in Loreto Balbriggan, was flown out to Nevada last summer to perform on the TV show, Penn and Teller: Fool Us.

Ella was given the chance to perform on the biggest magic stage in the world in front of two of the biggest names in the business.

The episode she features in is set to air in the US on Friday, January 31.

For Ella, from Balrothery, it was the dream trip for someone interested in magic from a young age.

“When I was seven, I went to see Dynamo in the 3Arena and I got his magic kit,” she said.

“You know when you’re younger, you get something from every show and then you never look at it again. That happened with me.

“I’m an only child and I was really bored during lockdown, so I picked it up and I started teaching myself the tricks.

“At the beginning, my parents thought, ‘that’s really good’. Then it got to the point where they thought, ‘wait, actually, how are you doing that?’

“Three years ago, I sent an email to one of the magicians who I was in awe of, Eric Leclerc.

“He emailed me back and I had a zoom call with him. He sent me a package full of magic stuff. We’ve been in contact regularly ever since.

“He’s helped me more than I can ever repay him. He helped me come up with my act for Vegas.”

As a magician, Ella has performed at lots of school shows, corporate events and weddings. However, her experience in Las Vegas was on another level.

“I never did anything to the scale of what I did over in Vegas. When I found out I was going to be on the show, I was in school,” Ella said.

“We’re not allowed phones at all. I got caught on my phone, but I made my phone disappear to get out of trouble. I needed to reply to this email.

“It was a long audition process. I filmed countless auditions. For my act, I had to film it outside. It completely depended on the weather.

“It was a lot of going back and forth with the producers and changing slight things, refilming, and coming up with what I was going to say in the intro.

“That was all happening during the Junior Cert Mocks as well, so that was fun.

“I actually don’t think I’ve ever felt heat like I did in Vegas, it was 46C when we got off the plane.

“But the big lights, the hotel, we were on the 21st floor and the view from it was amazing.

“You could see people driving around in expensive cars, flashy lights everywhere, and even on the strip, people are so different over there. We got to see the Grand Canyon as well.

“We saw two magic shows while we were over there. Eric arranged for me to go backstage and meet the magicians. I was super excited because he didn’t tell me until I got over there.”

Ella is a master at card tricks and hopes to keep learning more magic in what is still a male-dominated area of entertainment.

“Being a woman in magic, I actually find it really hard,” she said.

“There’s the Irish Society of Magicians and I’m the only woman there. I make my dad come to every meeting with me because I don’t want to sit by myself when everyone else is a man. My dad is like my personal bodyguard.

“A lot of my stuff comes from books and therefore a lot of it would be to do with cards or just everyday objects.

“I like coming up with my own tricks as well, so that’s definitely something I would incorporate in the future.

“Many people don’t know that learning magic is expensive. You’re better off buying books rather than tricks. You could pay €30 for one trick or the same for a book that has 200 tricks,” she added.

Earlier this month, Ella took her magic to the RDS to showcase her project – on how age and gender can affect our susceptibility to magic tricks – at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

Her research sheds light on how different factors influence our ability to perceive and react to illusions.

Labour TD Duncan Smith visited her stand and said: “Absolute magic at the BT Young scientist exhibition as I met young scientist (and magician) Ella Nicholson from Loreto Balbriggan.

“Fascinating project about the impact of age, gender and state of mind on how we view magic.”