MASTER OF MAGIC
Cosentino embodies metamorphosis. Having transformed from a shy child, through being a reality TV star, becoming a world-renowned magician with his own TV specials, breaking boundaries and winning multiple awards. Bringing his live theatre show Tricked – An Evening of Wonder to Darwin and Alice Springs, this man of magic chats with Rosie Wild.
How did you first get into magic?
It started with a book called The Encyclopedia of Magic. It was from the 70s. I discovered it in the games section of the library. It had a hard cover, yellowed pages and that old paper, musky smell. I was a 12-yearold kid who couldn’t read, so when I opened the book, I got drawn in by the pictures of old vaudevillian posters from the late-18-early-1900s that were so beautifully hand illustrated.
It was fascinating … seeing a magician holding a skull, and steam or smoke coming out of the eyes, and all these contraptions around the magician. I saw Houdini, all muscular, in locks and chains, staring down the barrel right at me, looking like a comic book superhero. That book was life-changing for me.
You have a powerful personal story of overcoming learning difficulties by using the craft of magic to pioneer a path. What are some of the other boundaries you've pushed to become one of the world’s most original international magicians?
I was a shy kid, cripplingly shy … But I loved magic, and rather than give up, I made myself take off my mask, talk in front of people, be judged, face my insecurities, keep learning, keep challenging myself, keep expressing myself.
And then there were all these other restrictions I had to break through … the people who said magic isn’t a viable art, not viable on TV, you can’t be a world-famous Australian magician. It’s like people don't know anything but the word no, and that's my entire life, hearing people say no, no, no … I really felt like people were trying to shove me down and compress me.
Now, what's inherently funny is that it’s my job is to make the impossible possible. People are levitating. They're disappearing. They're reappearing. So, I'm coming at it from a very different angle. Like, ‘What do you mean, ‘No’? There's no such thing as no. There's got to be another way to do it.’
What are some of the seemingly impossible things people will see in Tricked?
There are seven fundamental illusions in magic, just like there’s seven notes in a scale, and we make sure we play all of them. The full scale of magic. It’s funny, because early in my career, to try and be unique, I steered away from traditional ways magicians played with those illusions. I thought, for example, ‘Why would anyone want to see someone sawn in half now?’
But I found people have an appetite for those old tricks, and it’s my job to satisfy that. Someone's got to levitate. Someone's got to disappear. Someone's got to be sawn in half. Teleportation. Solids going through solids. Metamorphosis. I tried to be unique by going against the traditions, but it turns out looking to the past helps us move forward … Giving the old illusions an astonishing and original spin.
You’re also an escapologist who’s won Escape Artist of the Year. How are escapes different from illusions?
It's really weird, because you're walking this fine line where I’m creating illusions to make you laugh and smile and go, ‘Wow,’ in the most wonderful manner. But, when it comes to escapes, that’s a bit of an Achilles heel, because you've said this entire time, these are illusions. And then you go into the escape, you say, ‘Oh, but this is not. This is real.’
In my escapes, I will be in full view the entire time. I am really in locks and chains. My Mum can’t watch me rehearse anymore, because I have really blacked out. I have really gone to hospital. She can only come see me after the months of intense physical preparation that makes me ready for the physical challenge of the show.
Why I like escapes so much is that I haven't tricked you. It’s real. There's something very powerful about that for me. Something liberating.
What makes magic shows a unique and memorable experience?
Well, it's interesting, because with everyone having all these AIgenerated illusions, they can just scroll and scroll at their fingertips. It seems, from my experience in the decades I've been doing it, that magic is more powerful now than it ever has been.
Magicians were the original masters of live special effects. They still are. They use human ingenuity and human hands and human ideas and real contraptions that you can watch with your real eyeballs in real time. When people who are only used to seeing AI see magic live on stage in a theatre, something happens to them.
But then on a deeper level, when I levitate in the show, it’s like you're speaking to being liberated and free. A child gets to fulfil this dream about floating through the air, a dream which is also my dream. When you see someone sawn in half, first off, it's just a cool trick. That's fine. You can see it like that.
But it’s also really about death and resurrection, pulling apart and then coming back together, being whole, being new. Or for others it’s not. It's just a cool trick you can sit down together with the whole family about afterwards and try to figure out how it’s done. Something to make you gasp.
And in the world right now, that kind of wonder and astonishment is essential. I do all of it because magic makes my spirit feel free. And that makes everything feel possible.
Cosentino | Tricked An Evening of Wonder
WHEN FRI 15 MAY | 7.30PM
AT ARALUEN ARTS CENTRE COST $95-125
INFO araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au
WHEN FRI 22 MAY | 7.30PM SAT 23 MAY | 7.30PM
AT AANT CENTRE COST $70-190
INFO yourcentre.com.au
