In a world where reality blurs with illusion, and where the line between the mundane and the magical becomes as thin as one of Harry Houdini’s straightjackets, one man has emerged from the shadows to defy the laws of nature, physics, and possibly even fashion. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the enigmatic and electrifying Cosentino, the magician who recently left Singapore audiences spellbound, wondering if they just witnessed a show or stumbled into an alternate dimension where card tricks come with a side of mind-bending mystique. But enough of the ordinary pleasantries, because when you’re talking to a man who makes rabbits disappear, watches levitate, and jaws drop, you don’t want a mundane interview – you want a backstage pass to the theatre of the absurd and the extraordinary. Buckle up, because Cosentino is about to reveal the secrets behind his magic, and it’s going to be one wild ride down the rabbit hole in this Glitz Spotlight.
Interview with Cosentino
What inspired you to create “Cosentino: Decennium – The Greatest Live Magic Show” as a celebration of your 10 years of global success?
Decennium means “decade” in Latin. So the show is inspired by how it has been over a decade since Cosentino broke into the mainstream media after Australia’s Got Talent. Just a year after that, Cosentino snatched his own TV Special which aired in over 40 countries globally! Hence the term Decennium, depicting a decade of magic.
“I’ve been doing magic all my life. It’s all I know. This show is really a celebration of my life in magic for the past 10 years.” Practicing magic at the young age of 12, Cosentino was a shy and introverted kid. “I say 10 years because that’s what people got introduced to. But when I was doing magic 15 years prior to that, 15 years to become an overnight sensation, which I think is a really important lesson for people! I truly believe you have to devote yourself to your art, and your craft. There’s got to be sweat, blood, and tears, and I really believe that. I don’t think it should come easy. Because then, you don’t have the gratitude. ”
“I know that doesn’t necessarily sit well with everybody, but I really believe you have to suffer, for your art. All the greatest things for me in my career, have come through real massive sacrifice and just, you know, a little bit of pain to be honest. So it’s a 10-year celebration where I do my greatest stage illusions, close-up magic, escapes, mentalism, and it’s all kind of jam-packed into a 90-minute spectacular!”
Balancing between death-defying escapes and intricate illusions must require intense preparation. How do you mentally and physically prepare for such performances?
Yeah, it’s really tough you know, you’re interacting with the audience, you’re bringing people up on stage, you’re borrowing objects off them, you’re predicting things and so on. Then you’ve got the illusions, people appearing and disappearing and running around the stage. It’s very energetic. It moves very fast pace. And then you’re right, I’m hanging upside down by my ankles from burning ropes! It’s really, really challenging to go from one genre of performance to the other. Doing the escapes in of itself is very challenging because you have to rearrange the way you think. You’ve got to go into the escapes and understand that inherently, it is dangerous. I mean, I’m hanging upside down. There’s a lot that can go wrong. I’ve broken my ankles hanging upside down, I’ve cracked ribs. So you have to change your focus. It’s not so much, oh ok, now I’m involved in the audience and I’m going to be charming and charismatic. It’s kind of like how an actor has to switch on and off from maybe a dramatic scene or even the way an athlete steps into a boxing ring. So it’s that switch. And that’s just taken years of doing it and just understanding what works for me.
With your background in dance and magic, how do you find the perfect balance between these two art forms during your stage productions?
It’s actually really hard to find that balance, because how much how sexy do you make the show? How dramatic do you make the show? If it’s too dramatic, it can come off cheesy and if it’s too scary, younger children might get scared. So, it’s walking on a very fine line where you have people on the edge of their seats and you build this tension and then the tension is released. For example, when you do an escape and then make it a little bit funnier! But again, it all comes down to my years of experience on stage, analysing myself and listening to the audience. I always say to people, to be a great magician, you’ve got to be a great listener. Listen if the audience is gasping where you want them to gasp. Are they laughing when you want them to laugh? Are they laughing for too long? Is it dramatic where you want it to be? All these details can help you gauge how far you can push it and when you need to pull it back.
Audience participation is a significant aspect of your shows. Can you tell us about a particularly memorable or unexpected interaction you’ve had with an audience member?
You know, it changes every night, twice a night. Every time you bring somebody up, you never know what it’s going to be! To be honest, performing in Singapore is really interesting! It’s so transient because I had a lady come up who was Chinese and she had a translator and I was thinking to myself, should I be bringing her up? But I brought the translator up with her and it was so good! Because she could actually speak English, I think she just wasn’t comfortable doing it. But she enjoyed the show so much and the interaction between her, the translator and myself made for this really interesting reaction. Basically, it was kind of a “predict the future” sort of thing and it was a really good experience! I’d never had somebody come up with a translator and me, and kind of doing it on the fly. So that was kind of a new experience for me. But I learned a lot and it was really fun for the audience too because they could really relate to both of them, which was good!
Over the past decade, you’ve toured around the world and performed to millions. Are there any specific cultural differences that you’ve encountered that influenced your approach to magic?
Every audience within the country is different. So if you travel to different parts of the country, you get a different response. If I learnt anything, it’s probably from my TV show, The Elements, where I travelled to Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. I learned that with magic, it doesn’t matter what language you speak. If an object or somebody is floating through the air, or they disappears, it translates. If you grab an object and you make it disappear, everyone understands it. So I learned to make my magic hyper-visual. And by making it very visual, it transcends the language barrier. It tells you that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what language you speak, your background, or your social status, magic brings that childlike wonder out of you. That for me was a hugely eye-opening experience and a really beautiful thing to see.
With a decade of touring and performing, what’s one surprising lesson you’ve learned about yourself as a magician and performer?
It’s a lot of hard work. People see you on stage, the lighting, the sound, the pirate techniques, the costumes, it looks amazing. But all of it comes from a lot of work, a lot of practice and effort. I have learned, that I don’t want to be famous for being famous. I want to be famous for having a skill, for having something special to offer, to be able to inspire people and share my art with people. So I’ve definitely learned that I don’t need to be famous, it’s really just about sharing my art form. I’ve been doing it so long that for me, it’s all about making the audience feel good. I’ve also learned to share myself a little bit more and through that process, hopefully encourage other people and inspire other people.
Being the first Australian magician to have your own TV shows is a remarkable achievement. How did these shows come about, and how do you think they’ve contributed to your global recognition?
So I did a show called Australia’s Got Talent in 2011 and the same network afterwards, I said to them, we should do a TV special. A one-off special and they agreed. The TV special was viewed by close to 2 million people in Australia which is a huge number! It was unheard of and from there, they realised that people in Australia really like magic! So I went through a competition and I came in second, then they gave me my own one-hour TV special where everyone in the country was watching it. Then they realised everyone loved it and decided, we’ll give you some more! So then I got three more TV specials and that allowed the Australian audience to see something they’d never seen before. They’d only ever seen international magicians. Those TV shows were then broadcast in over 40 countries and that kind of opened up a new market for me, leading to the international TV shows with AXN which opened up even more markets! To this day, I don’t think Australia quite understands the international market. Because we have some really famous people in Australia like comedians and celebrity hosts, I don’t think they acknowledge or even appreciate what we’re doing internationally. Since it’s never been done before, I guess that’s what I have to put it down to.
“Cosentino: Decennium” marks a significant milestone in your journey. Looking forward, what aspirations or goals do you have for the next chapter of your magical career?
Oh, I love that! Yes, act two, wow, I’ve got big dreams! It’s more TV shows, writing more books, and more tours. But we travel a lot, so my next plan is to stay in a permanent residency or venue a little bit longer. Because it allows me to make the show more magical, more elaborate because you’re not packing it up every day or every week. So staying there for a period of time, maybe six months of residency allows me to be more spectacular, which then, of course, allows for a more elaborate and better experience for the audience. That’s kind of my next plan, which is really exciting because it allows me to do things that I’ve never done before. Things that I have in my little sketchbook and things I’ve come up with, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.
