The Illusionists: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Originally published on Avenoir Magazine, in June 2017.

Arriving in Crown Theatre this week, is the spectacular and mind blowing magic sensation The Illusionists. 

Having shattered box office records around the world, The Illusionists – Direct from Broadway will be performing in Crown Theatre. 

The Illusionists are comprised of seven incredibly talented individuals, each with their own astonishing skills. 

“The audience only gets to see about 3% of my job the other 97% is all of the research and development, the preparation, and the training to make sure I can do it and walk away at the end of the night.” – Jonathon Goodwin  

There is The Manipulator, An Halim, from Korea whose sleight of hand and card tricks I had the privilege of seeing, and the best part was how much he loved what he was doing. There is James Moore, The Deceptionist, who first appeared on YouTube and is now doing high-risk illusions. Raymond Crowe is Australia’s only Unusalist. There is also The Trickster Harrison Green Baum, The Inventor Kevin James, The Deductionist Colin Cloud, and The Daredevil Jonathon Goodwin.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Cloud and Goodwin to discuss how they came to be members of The Illusionists. For both it seems that they were inspired by the people they read about as children.

Cloud was inspired by Sherlock Holmes and was devastated when he realised at the age of 10 he was a fictional character. However, that inspiration triggered a fascination with the idea of knowing things about people that he wasn’t supposed to. Cloud was accepted into university at the ripe age of fifteen studying forensic investigating and specialising in criminal profiling. 

“I loved being invited to the BBC Sherlock series to go and work with them for the Christmas special so I got to spend the day with them and do stuff with Mark Gatiss who I think is a phenomenal writer not just in comedy but in Doctor Who stuff and especially with the Sherlock stuff. Spending time with him and being able to amaze him with some of the things I’ve developed. I’ve performed for royalty, celebrities but for me he has been the highlight.” – Colin Cloud

For Jonathon Goodwin it was none other than Houdini who was the primary motivator in his life. At the age of seven, he read a book about Houdini, and like many young boys, he was fascinated by superheroes. But, what he loved about Houdini was that he was real, and had actually achieved the feats Goodwin read about. When he realised that he could do that for a job, he never wanted to do anything else. 

“I’ve done lots of ridiculous things: I’ve been hanged, buried alive, attacked by sharks, locked in a box covered in 2000 bees, sewn up inside of a dead cow, all manner of crazy things.  

In this show I do a body burner escape, where I am completely on fire, in a straight jacket upside down and the genesis of that idea from the first moment I had the idea to getting it right, was about 6 years, and the very first time I did it I was quite badly burned.” – Jonathon Goodwin

Collectively these performers have been seen by millions of people worldwide, and this production is a showcase of their incredible talents – together on stage for the first time.