The recipient of the International Magician of the Year and International Escape Artist of the Year at the Merlin Awards, fielded some questions about the art of mystery and the suspension of disbelief.
Here are his edited answers:
Magic has proven its staying power, maintaining its popularity in the world of entertainment, despite the rise of technologies and platforms that can easily manifest the impossible — whether on the cinema screen or a hand-held device. Why do you think that is?
It’s a really interesting question. You would think that you can go to the cinema, watch a Marvel film and see the most elaborate magical effects — therefore that would diminish what the magician can do.
However, for some reason, when someone watches a film, they know that it’s a special effect. When they watch a magician, although they know it’s a trick and it’s an illusion and it’s not real, for some reason, because it’s happening live in front of them, they tend to take it as being more of a reality. I know that sounds completely bonkers. What’s really interesting is with all the information at our fingertips on an iPhone, you can Google anything and figure out how things are done, or try to. And yet it seems now that magic is more potent than ever.
And I think it’s because we do have access to all this information. So when the magician comes out and they’re able to baffle you and amaze you, it tends to be more powerful because of the fact that we do know we have access to all this information. In the past it used to be like, "oh, well, they know something that I don’t know". Whereas now that’s not necessary. Everyone thinks that they’re very, very clever with all this information and yet the magician still thrives because of that. So, it’s almost a contradiction, but I found, from doing this for decades, that it actually works to the magician’s advantage.
Now, however, the double-edged sword is this: yes, people do know how more effects are done — or certain methods or techniques — so you have to be clever in using other methods or you have to wrap it up in storytelling and mystery and showmanship to make it, I guess, entertaining, and the people who do that tend to thrive.
And maybe that’s the answer. The real answer might be the fact that if you can entertain somebody with it, then that’s all that really matters. Maybe that’s the real answer.
The performance of magic often explicitly references the long history of the artform. How do you see yourself in terms of that tradition and how is it expressed in your work? On the other hand, how do you keep it fresh with your work moving forward within that tradition?
Everything I do is built on the classical impossibilities of the past, whether it be sawing somebody in half or levitating somebody. And I directly speak to that in the show, Decenni. I talk about "this next piece is a classic, sawing something in half, originally created in 1921 by P.T. Selbit ... But what we’re going to do is we’re going to reinterpret it, and we’re going to do it with clear perspex boxes, where you’ll be able to see the assistant from head to toe throughout the entire demonstration, so there’s no way for her to hide".
So, what we’re doing is we’re taking a classic and we’re making it that much more impossible. And, it’s really funny because in the show, I never used to do the sawing in half. I did it in the beginning, and then I took it out and then people would say, "you’re a magician, you saw people in half".
And it is the same with levitation.
Everybody knows that magicians can levitate somebody — so we do that in the show. But it’s done differently and it’s really romantic and it’s sexy. So, I don’t shy away from the fact, I don’t try to claim it as if I created it or I invented it. I actually address it and say, "this is the sawing in half, this is the levitation... I hope you enjoy my interpretation of this classic".
I also love, to some degree, educating the audience, without trying to overdo it. In so much of what I do, the history of magic is really important to me. We all stand on the shoulders of the greats that have come before.
Yeah, that’s an interesting one too. You know, many many moons ago, when I was a young magician, I was interviewed by someone and she actually attacked me. She said, "your craft, what you’re doing is, you’re trying to fool people and you’re trying to take advantage of them".
And I was really taken aback. I was very, very young. I had just started doing my own touring show, so I was like 19 and I didn’t quite know how to take it. I remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh", but what I did say to her, the journalist, I said "but I’m not a clairvoyant. Like, I’m not trying to speak to the dead and connect you with loved ones and then take your money and swindle you".
I said, "what I’m doing is just for entertainment", but it was a really big eye-opener for me. I personally felt that pushback.
So, I don’t profess that it’s all real. For example, I talk about passing a solid through a solid. I literally melt through a steel plate. We show a steel plate, we spin it around, we hit it with a hammer, we show that it’s solid, audience members can examine it, and then bit by bit, you see me melting through the plate, believe it or not. The way I set it up is I explain that two solid objects can’t occupy the same space at the exact same time. And this is the reality. However, if we were to use our imagination, just imagine if we could actually alter that. Imagine if we could alter physical reality and that was possible? So it’s framed in a way, like a movie would. You know it’s not real, but by playing on the reality of it, and while the audience is sitting there comfortably understanding that "oh, hey, he’s a magician, he’s an illusionist, what I’m seeing is not real because of that". And because we have this kind of contract, the audience not only knows that it’s not real, they demand for you to kind of baffle them.
So, I think there’s that contract that takes place. Again, it works to my advantage. But, believe it or not, when you go to Southeast Asia or you travel, you have to be slightly careful because they do believe in magic. And so when you go to Saudi Arabia, when you go to parts of the Middle East, it’s really interesting. You kind of pull back a little bit on that, you have to frame it even more so, like, it’s a trick — where in the West you don’t, because I think the audience understands it from a different perspective.
Further to that, is magic often about creating, at the same time, both a sense of unease and delight?
Yes, it is, because there are aspects in the show where, for example, when I’m doing these crazy escapes, my head’s in a perspex box with 18 kitchen knives dangling above my head. Now, everyone knows that I won’t really be killed, but of course, if a knife goes into my face, it’s not going to be very fun and you’re going to be scarred. I set it up that there’s 350 keys and only two of the keys open the padlocks and they’re given to a volunteer to mix in the bunch.
What that does, is the audience sits there in the comfort of their seat, watching this crazy person stick their head in this box. And so it makes them uneasy — the audience thinks, "well, if I was in that predicament, I would have a knife in my face".
It’s like a horror film. It’s like action films. Like you kind of know it’s safe. OK, things go wrong. And things went wrong. I mean, I got 12 stitches in my chin with that. The audience, to some degree, feels like they know it’s safe, but there’s a thrill to it.
So, yes, I definitely think those aspects work together, we write the show in that way so there is that danger element that makes people feel uneasy.
And then there’s a bit of romance and humour, then the magic. And to add to that, sometimes you can perform an effect just for what we call in magic, "geek magic". It’s like grossing somebody out.
Like, I put a Tic Tac in my eye and it pops out. Like, you kind of think, "Oh, how did the tic tac come out of his eye?". But more to the point, you’re a bit more grossed out by it.
Some of the symbolism you use represents elemental forces that might once have been associated with the shaman — do you think the performance of magic also connects to those traditions?
So with the shaman, yeah, it’s interesting because that’s where magicians came from. Like, everyone would hang around the fire and the original medicine men and the shaman would do little demonstrations of magic with stones or they were kind of the fortune tellers. And this is why magic gets mixed up with the whole kind of "I’m predicting the future" or clairvoyants or mediums, because that’s kind of how it started. In the village, the magician, who was the medicine man, was the shaman, was the fortune teller. So, it harks back to that tradition.
So, again, I think the audience knows that what I’m doing, for example, is make believe and fantasy, but maybe subconsciously in the back of their mind, they’re still thinking that I have some kind of knowledge that they don’t or could get access to if they knew me. Again, if we go back to the East, I think it’s even stronger there. And I tell you what’s interesting about that, is in Indonesia,
Vietnam they don’t need to know how everything is done. They’re OK with the mystery. And I think that’s really fascinating. Like here in the West, we’re kind of like, yeah, but how’s it done? How did it work? Like, we want to solve it like a puzzle, which is fine.
But they tend to accept it a little bit more, which again appeals to that whole, "we don’t know all the secrets to the universe".
The universe is a mystery and the magician speaks to that. And the magician is almost the gatekeeper to that, if they can unlock it for you. So, I think it definitely is a throwback to that. Although I don’t profess to have any special kind powers.
Your stage shows incorporate dance with the drama and storytelling of the magic. Has dance always been an interest of yours?
I started watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire as a little boy on VHS tapes from the video store. I was just taken up by the nostalgia of watching Gene Kelly. You know, he had these two-toned shoes and he was just so fluid. He made it look so easy and natural. And then, from there, I got into Michael Jackson and Prince and Madonna and all these kind of performers, really theatrical performers. I was dancing before I even did magic. So, walking from one side of the stage to the other, it didn’t occur to me as a 12 year old. I thought, ‘well, no, I’ll just moonwalk from one side to the other’.
I just did the dance, and the magic, and they kind of just came together, but I’ll let you know a little secret. When I did my first showcase, I was part of a young magician’s club. I was 13 at the time. All the kids had to get up in front of the class and present.
And kids would give feedback and the teacher would give feedback and a guest judge would give feedback. And the feedback I got, with the show that I put together, was there’s way too much dance. And I went home and I told my brother, Adam, who works with me still to this day, and my mother, and I was crying about it because I put this act together with all this dance and I had all these masks and costumes and I was really upset about it and I was going to compete in this competition that was taking place in Adelaide.
And so my mother and my brother said, "Don’t listen to them. Do what you want to do. Do the act the way you want to do it".
And lo and behold, by some miracle, I won the competition.
You are a performer who works across various formats. What sort of opportunities does a stage show like Decenni provide an illusionist, as opposed to, for example, working on the street?
Well, when you’re working on the street, it’s very stripped back. It’s guerrilla style. It appears more organic. The theatre show allows you much more time to indulge, again, with storytelling, lighting, costume. The moment the audience walks into the theatre, ideally, they’re starting to get into the frame of mind of suspending disbelief, the moment they walk in, and so they’re getting caught up in all the mystery of whatever it may be, so you’re kind of setting the tone from the beginning.
Whereas in the street, you don’t have that aspect. Although, in the street, because it feels so off the cuff, it can feel very real and magical because it’s "Oh my god. I wasn’t expecting that". I prefer doing it in a theatre because it just becomes more of a performance. It’s more of a show. You’ve got music. You’ve got everything. So there’s more intention in what I’m doing, and I feel more creative. I personally feel more creative and I feel more like an artist when I’m doing it in a stage setting.
Seeing magic live is probably when it’s in its best form, as opposed to being on TV. And I think street magic is great, but again, seeing it on stage, where you can actually participate is different. I just think live is where it’s at.
How might a belief in the impossible help us all in these troubled times — or indeed just in our everyday?
I think the magician is there to show you that anything is possible, even if it’s only a trick and it’s only an illusion, just for that split second, you might actually say to yourself, "wow, actually, you know what? If he can, although it’s not real, if he can predict the future or he can make that person levitate, maybe I too can do the impossible". So it’s very aspirational. Magic definitely speaks to that.
This is getting a bit dark, but I get lots of kids talking about depression, and saying "it really moved me" or "you really inspired me".
Years ago, before anyone knew me, I would get all these emails about kids that were really struggling. I would get these incredible emails from children, kids, teenagers, they were quite dark and I used to have to send them links to where they could get help and so it is definitely inspiring to some degree.
And then when I do the escapes, because they’re not fake, because it’s not an illusion, because I really am holding my breath or really am picking the locks, it’s really interesting because that is, that’s like an athlete to some degree. It requires training and skill.
On the night you can muck it up because you’re nervous or just, like, a hundred metre sprinter, sometimes they just don’t get off the blocks fast enough. So, things can go wrong, but the escapes have that kind of physicality, athletic ability attached to them.
And that is, again, inspiring, because it requires discipline and strength to do it, I guess, and mental focus. So, that definitely inspires people as well. It’s empowering for me and the audience. It really does inspire. It does inspire people.
The show
Cosentino plays the Regent Theatre, Dunedin, on Tuesday, November 26
