AUSTRALIA’s premier magician, Cosentino, is again visiting Swan Hill, bringing his latest material to shock and surprise audiences young and old.
The illusionist was last in town in 2019 and said he loved performing live.
“When you sit in the audience, it’s very hard to diminish what’s taking place,” he said.
“Whereas when you’re watching it on TV, you can say to yourself, ‘I reckon that’s an accurate set up’, or you know if I was there I’d figure it out or know that you can’t really read their mind.
“But when you’re in the audience, and your child comes up on stage, and I saw them in half and you’re like, hang on my child, I can see is in half.”
Cosentino is constantly working on new material but every two years he puts out a completely brand new show, and is inspired by the seven fundamentals acts of magic as a starting point.
“You can make something appear, disappear, teleport someone or something which actually consists of something disappearing and then reappearing,” he said.
“You can make a solid go through a solid and the list goes on.
“So the magician-musician’s job is not to create music, but to create magic out of those keys.”
Cosentino is inspired by a number of greats from the history of magic, and this show has been particularly inspired by the work of P.T. Selbit.
He invented the sawing a person in half trick that has become synonymous with magic.
“In my show, I’ve done many different versions of sawing in half – vertical and horizontal,” Cosentino said.
“In this particular show, I saw a child and I literally cut a child in half.
“We take a photograph of them so that they can witness it themselves.
“And this came about because of children constantly asking me can you saw me in half.”
Cosentino himself was inspired to pursue magic as a child, following in the footsteps of Selbit and escape artist Houdini, and initially learnt through a book, and that’s his advice for those aspiring to follow him.
While there is a lot of information on the internet, Cosentino said if you’re serious about pursuing magic and entertainment, you should visit your local library or buy a book online.
“Because the book forces you to create your own personality,” he said.
“Watching it online teaches you to mimic – you mimic the gestures and the speech.
“Which is fine in the beginning, but if you read it from a book you read the description of the trick, you learn the mechanics, you look at the little hand illustrations, you figure it out with your own hands, and then you have to inject your own personality to it.
“And you do that by going out and you show your siblings, some friends, and then you start to go, ‘oh, they laughed at that point – that’s interesting’.”
Behind the scenes, Cosentino is far from a one-man show, and he explains the set up like a Formula One team.
With a smaller show like the one in Swan Hill, there is a team of seven and from arrival around 8am, it is all hands on deck.
“We set up the entire show, we build the props and the illusions and the scenery and set up all the costumes,” he said.
“Lighting goes in, our own sound goes in, sometimes our own curtain screens.
“We literally are a little travelling circus.
“Every single one of my team members has to be in perfect time and perfect sync on stage or all the magic doesn’t actually happen.”
Tickets are still available for Cosentino’s new show Deception, showing tomorrow at 7.30pm, for purchase through cosentino.com.au/home/ or through the Swan Hill Town Hall on 5036 2384.
All tickets are $84.40 or family is $280.40 (two adults and two children).
