Page 24 - Real Style Winter 2016 / 2017

ThE gRAnD iLLuSioniST
Magic, illusions, staged tricks, call it what you will, it’s still one of the oldest performing arts in the world. The origins of the word
magic can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece, and the oldest known book explaining how magic tricks are performed rst appeared in 1584. Today, people still ock to theatres around the world to watch magicians perform, which is exactly what will happen when The Illusionists plays at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto from December 13th, 2016, to January 7th, 2017.
The Illusionists features seven of the most talented illusionists on earth. Their act is the world’s best-selling touring magic show playing today, and they have shattered box of ce records wherever they go. One of the performers in the group is Canada’s own Darcy Oake, who performs some of the larger illusions in the show. With the title of the grand illusionist, you’d expect him to be much older than his 29 years, and might be surprised to learn that he only started to come into prominence after performing on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014.
During his rst appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, Oake performed several tricks with doves, which wowed not only the audience, but the judges as well. Even Simon Cowell called him “without question the best magician ever”
BY RoDERiCk ThEDoRFF
to make an appearance on the show. What people don’t know, however, is that just before he appeared on the show, Oake was considering dropping the trick from the act. “It was something I had been doing forever and I was like ‘I want to retire this,’” Oake admits. “The dove act doesn’t necessarily fool your mind; it’s like eye candy. It’s something cool to watch, and it’s a quick display of time and dedication. Ever since that took off from Britain’s Got Talent, though, I’ve been like, ‘Okay, this is my thing, I’m going to open 99% percent of my
shows with this.’”
While Oake might make performing
illusions look easy, it takes a lot of dedication to get things right. The rst step is coming up with a trick in the rst place, which according to Oake is “years and years in the making,” due to the “little tweaks and developments here and there” to get things right. “You can’t really force creativity,” Oake muses.
Coming up with tricks and guring out how to make them happen is only part of the process though; it’s the practising that takes the most amount of time. “It’s a never-ending process,” Oake says. “And even once you get it in the show, which takes a long time, it’s completely different on the stage in front of a crowd, so it’s important to practise it and be familiar with every situation.” Of course, for Oake, “it doesn’t feel like practising when it’s something you’re passionate about.”
Not all of Oake’s tricks are illusions; sometimes there is real danger involved. “Every time I’ve seen a show where someone says that they’re going to do something dangerous, I personally feel if it’s not actually dangerous you can tell, so it’s really important for me when doing those types of things to have it actually be real,” says Oake. One dangerous stunt that Oake performs involves his head being locked in a box that is lled with water while his hands are shackled on the outside. He has to pick three locks and escape, all while holding his breath. “There’s no trick to that,” he says. “I’ve literally been training with breath
holding exercises and nding different ways to slow my heart rate. That one frightens me and everyone I work with every single time we do it because it’s always different. Every time there are different variables and it’s always so intense, and that’s what we like about it, but it is so risky.”
As good as Oake is, it’s hard to believe that he might never have begun touring the world, and performing for the likes of the royal family, as he did for the Queen’s 90th birthday, if his dad hadn’t accidentally inspired him. When he was eight, Oake’s dad performed a magic trick for him, telling him to pick a card from a deck, and after he did he put the card back in and his dad reshuf ed the pack. Without looking, Oake’s dad reached in and picked out the chosen card. “I was blown away,” Oake says. “He played it off like he was the best magician in the world and he wouldn’t tell me for weeks how he did it. When he nally told me, it turns out it was just a one in fty-two chance and a complete uke. But for those weeks, I was like, ‘That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I have to learn this; I want to be able to do this.’”
Like any magician, or illusionist, Oake does admit to enjoying watching others perform his craft. He names David Copper eld and Derren Brown as inspirations, or “anyone who’s sort of found that pocket where that’s what they do, like you say their name and you know what you’re going to get.” He believes the key to a successful career is having the ability to steer people down the wrong path. “It’s a whole psychological process,” Oake says, “where we know people are going to watch it over and over, so how do we fool them every time rather than just once?”
With new tricks being performed around the world, and movies like The Prestige and Now You See Me bringing magic to the big screen as well, Oake thinks the future of the art is a bright one. “Magic is a universal language,” Oake says. “It’s timeless because people love to see something impossible, so I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s only going to get more popular.”
canada’s darcy oake takes the stage in toronto as part of the touring group the illusionists.
24 Real Style Winter 2016/2017
Photos, Left: matt barnes right: startraks, nbc