The urban spaceman

Magician Alan Watson said he had known Ring since the forecaster worked as a magician called Mr Goodtimes in the 1970s.

Ring was former president of the now-defunct New Zealand Society of Magicians and is described on indexnz.com as a lecturer, speech therapist, author, actor, clown and magician known as Mathman.

He is co-author of Pawmistry: How to Read Your Cat's Paws, which teaches ways to read a cat's mood and "explores the psychic influences that numerology and the zodiac have on your cat".

Oh yes. But here comes the twist: Mr Wrong performed his magic tricks to the Skeptics, of which he was a member. He was also a member of the Rationalists and Humanists.