“If you're a magician there are a lot of different images people get from that word,” says full-time performer Simon Coronel, who prefers the title "illusionist".

He says people often think he's a “wacky kid's clown magician”, assume he falls into the same line of theatrics as a David Copperfield or a Cosentino, or that he uses sleight-of-hand and other tricks to impress the ladies. Not so, says Coronel, who says pulling out the magic too early is hardly a sure-fire way to a woman's heart.

Sydney magician and 'infotainer' David Welzman also finds that Australians can be a tough crowd when it comes to appreciating the particular tricks of his trade.

“I don't tell people that I'm a magician – not in Sydney,” he says. “People don't understand it, they think 'ooh you're a magician'.”

Welzman, who says he didn't do particularly well at school, started learning magic at 21, while working as a barman.

Impressed drinkers began asking for his business card, and eventually he was headhunted by Club Med resorts to take his magic and bartending skills to Queensland's Lindeman Island.

With the days of pouring drinks long behind him, the 36-year-old last year won one of the magic world's biggest accolades when he was named a Merlin Award winner in the category of "best trade show magician". But he found there was little interest in the achievement here.

While Welzman's bread and butter comes partly from performing at conferences, dinner and children's parties, he has carved out a real niche at trade shows, where he performs numerous short shows a day – “magic with a sales message” - at a company's stand to help them draw a crowd and promote their brand.

It began when an Indian company was flying to Sydney to exhibit at an IT show in Sydney, and called on Welzman's services. Impressed with the number of leads he was able to generate, the company flew Welzman to Dubai.

“When I first went to Dubai, they loved it over there,” he says.

At such an event, he might perform 80 shows in five days, of up to 20 minutes each. A few years ago, an agent lobbied him to move permanently to the United Arab Emirates, but Welzman says he would prefer to try to break into the US trade show market.

There, the market is more lucrative, with some companies exhibiting at up to 25 trade shows a year.

Welzman says it's also easier to market his services than here in Australia, where trade show organisers keep their list of exhibitors a closely-guarded secret.

Simon Coronel also has the US in his sights, and will be moving to Los Angeles this September to further his performing career.

Why LA? “It's just more everything. LA is the world capital of magic and illusion,” says the 33-year-old.

He feels he can learn from some of the best in the business to keep improving his act. “I'm happy not to plateau for a few decades yet, skill wise.”

Coronel's love of illusion began at university, when he joined the Melbourne University Magicians Club on a whim and “for the first time in my life I saw really good close-up magic”.

“I first started not being completely atrocious at it three years after that. It's almost exactly as hard as learning a musical instrument,” he says.

A career as a business consultant beckoned, and while putting aside his daytime earnings, Coronel continued to explore his love of illusion after-hours.

In 2009 he was selected as the only Australian entrant at the world magic championships in China, finishing third in the "close-up magic" category.

“That's where I really went – 'this is worth exploring',” says Coronel.

So four years ago, he told his unsurprised boss that he was off to become a full-time illusionist.

Most of his pay packet now comes from corporate entertainment and emceeing work. But he also performs theatre shows, takes part in events such as the recent Melbourne Magic Festival, and teaches magic to beginners.

His clients often surprise him. Once, while teaching a short course in magic at CAE, his students included an author writing a novel about a magician, a 78-year-old arthritis sufferer using magic as occupational therapy and an entrepreneurial barman looking for a way to earn more tips.

Coronel says his former career as a business consultant has proved very handy in “doing all the stuff you need to do to run a business”.

But his real love is the creativity involved in crafting his own shows, which have so far taken him to China (he speaks passable Mandarin), Germany, the UK and the US.

He also loves the fact that at tax time, his “number one hobby” can now be claimed as an expense.

“Honestly, about 80 per cent of my life is tax deductible now,” he laughs.