Meet the wizard that gets paid $10,400 annually for Wizardry.

Ian Brackenbury Channell was born in the United Kingdom but relocated and settled in New Zealand in the 1970s, where he became known as The Wizard. 

Over the years he has become known as Christchurch’s official wizard.

As if to reinforce how serious he is, he even held a New Zealand driver's license issued to The Wizard, although he says he hasn't officially changed his name. 

For decades he became a fixture in the city. Always  on the paved square in front of Christchurch's cathedral, where he pontificated on his life theories, wore wizard robes and became such a well-known figure that he earned himself  four out of five on Trip Advisor rating. 

Ian now 87 spends less time in the public eye. He is looking for a successor and appears to have found one in 39-year-old Ari Freeman, who teaches guitar and fronts a psychedelic funk band. 

As he and Freeman sit at at a table outside a sunny, inner-city cafe, a middle-aged cyclist calls out to them: "No casting spells fellas!"

As a young man, Ian “The Wizard” backpacked around Europe, was a Royal Air Force Officer in Canada, and taught English literature at the University of Tehran. But it wasn't until he moved to Australia with his then-wife that he found the role he would spend his life playing: The Wizard. 

After finishing his degree in sociology and psychology, he worked as a community arts organizer for the University of Western Australia in Perth, and then as a teaching fellow in sociology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. 

There, he started what he called a "fun revolution," aimed at bringing love, logic and levity to the world, and turning the university into a "theater of the absurd." When he lost his university job, he hatched a plan with the vice chancellor to give him a new position -- UNSW's first official wizard.