Ding dong, the wizard is gone.
After more than two decades as the official wizard of New Zealand, the Christchurch City Council has decided wizardry just isn’t in the budget anymore.
According to Stuff, Ian Brackenbury Channell was paid $16,000 annually in New Zealand dollars — a little over $11,000 U.S. dollars — “to provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services — as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch.”
Now he has been relieved of his duties, which, according to the Chritchurch City Council Libraries website, included doing rain dances and casting spells.
However, Channell won’t stop, even though his last check is set for December.
“It makes no difference. I will still keep going,” he said. “They will have to kill me to stop me.”