It’s not every day that I get asked to appear in a film where I’ll cut myself in half. So I was thrilled when the Italian luxury menswear brand Canali 1934 asked me to do exactly that. They booked me to consult on and perform in their short film produced for the holidays. It’s been …
I didn’t know it would be as if Benedict Cumberbatch was waiting for me. He could have been right there at the theatre as I cycled over for my Hackney Empire Tour. It’s one of my favourite weekends of the autumn: the Open House London tours this month. The Hackney Empire is about five miles from central …
I’m just back from a whirlwind magic performance sweep of California. The first secret was for me. Even as I flew from Heathrow to San Francisco before a connecting flight to northern California, I still didn’t know where exactly I’d been booked to perform my show. It could have been for a wedding, an awards night or …
What do Lady Gaga, a string of Broadway musicals and Harry Potter all have in common? The answer is Paul Kieve, a magician who creates magic behind-the-scenes. He has accumulated an impressive list of projects. All of these use magic that helps tell stories. I studied a degree in theatre and storytelling has always interested me. …
My alarm went off and my eyes shot open looking toward the ceiling. It was the morning of Day Two of my most recent Ira Seidenstein clown training workshop in London. I know as a stage magician, training in diverse fields of stage performance helps me ’round out’ my skills. But this was a shocker. …
As I walked through the drizzly December morning in the once shishi Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens after my interview with Kevin James magician extraordinaire. I couldn’t help but think that a hundred years of entertainment history had come full-circle back to this moment. Over coffee Kevin told me that just down the road from where we …
It’s the million dollar question. How do you get over stage fright? It’s almost like a cruel joke: your mouth is bone dry and the rest of your body has sprung leaks in places where you didn’t know sweat glands even existed! All this while your stomach feels like it’s either left your body or …
In great films there must be a reason why we get sucked in to caring for something even as implausible as, say, a boy who befriends an alien. It’s probably the same reason why we can’t stop watching a TV series about a charismatic and ruthless couple hell-bent on becoming the U.S. president and first …
What would you respond? Believe it or not, I’ve received emails and phone calls out of the blue to either ‘heal’ or ‘curse’ a particular person. This has happened despite what I think is unmistakably clear messaging on my site. It explains that I offer magic entertainment – nothing more miraculous or sinister than that. Yes, …
What’s there to do when it all falls apart? People often ask if things ever go wrong for me as an illusionist in front of an audience. Of course it happens but if the illusionist is good at improvising and has thoroughly thought through back-up plans then it can be a life saver. Also, the …
