Photo by Eric Richmond
Photo by Chris Nash , MBE
Photo by Eric Richmond framing takes you somewhere . For me , adding a story to circus feats has much the same impact . I trained as an actor in University . Then as a classical singer after that , so it ' s no surprise where my bias sits ! I ’ ve also always loved the theatre musical and Bob Fosse film Cabaret . I think it ’ s so clever how the show uses a narrative that weaves through a series of cabaret numbers . It ’ s been my dream for years now to make a show that uses a similar musical storytelling device . But instead of cabaret numbers , for us it would be magic and circus acts that the story weaves together . We wanted to use that as the basis for a show that is equally appealing to young people as it is for adults while delivering strong magic with a meaningful message of ‘ be yourself ’
V - MOST MAGICIANS DON ’ T DO MUCH WITH STORIES , DO THEY ?
Christopher : Well I guess you could say we are a couple of settlers in a largely unexplored territory . Before my theatre-going days , in the 1970 ’ s Doug Henning had a musical magic show on Broadway that played for four years called THE MAGIC SHOW . In Henning ’ s footsteps , David Copperfield has of course also used storytelling in his TV specials and live shows . This includes his Chicago theatre debut in THE MAGIC MAN – also in the 70 ’ s . That story-based magic show helped put him on the map for many people . One story magic show I did see was recently in New York : IN AND OF ITSELF by Derek Del Gaudio and directed by Frank Oz . It was a one man theatre show that ran off Broadway . Also one of my mentors , Eugene Burger , was a big proponent of using stories to elevate the impact of his magic . As for the UK , the biggest example here must be Darren Brown who has used stories to make his magic powerful in his own ways . I ' m sure there are others I ' m missing . But either way , it ' s true that not many magicians choose this road .
I loved reading about Doug Henning ’ s THE MAGIC SHOW in John Harrison ’ s book “ Spellbound .” Dale Soules , a collaborator with Henning , said about their show , “ Sure , audiences had already seen a woman get cut in half , but they never got to know her well enough to care whether she was ever put back together . THE MAGIC SHOW changed that .” That quote really resonates with me and that ’ s exactly what we ’ re aiming to do in our theatre magic show RABBITS OUT OF THE HAT .
V - JOSEPHINE HAS AN UNUSUALLY PROM- INENT SPEAKING ROLE FOR A MAGICIAN ' S ASSISTANT . TELL US MORE .
Desireé : We wanted to see how we could make the assistant as strong as the magician on stage . The goal was to break the cliché of the silent supportive woman . Our research and development on this topic began in 2021 for a show called the TOP HAT ACT with director Abigail Dooley and comedy writer Susan Earl . We looked at ways of making Josephine stronger . Up to this point she had been a traditional ( mostly silent ) assistant . So first we tried to strengthen her by changing her physicality and actions on stage . But after trying different ways of doing this , we realised that to balance the bias of Norvil being the man , the magician and the one who speaks , that Josephine also needed to speak . As a woman who was a silent assistant , it was just not possible to make people see her strength and equal status through physicality alone . It was time for audiences to hear Josephine . Of course , as a physical person ( a dancer and circus performer ) the challenge of using my voice on stage for the first time has been exciting and inspiring for me .
Era 50:50 is an organisation in the UK that
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