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BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT’S DAREDEVIL ILLUSIONIST DARCY OAKE TELLS MARION McMULLEN ABOUT SURVIVING BEAR TRAPS AND SKY DIVING – ALL IN THE NAME OF MAGIC
You have performed some death defying illusions. Do things ever go wrong?
IF you say something is dangerous and it is not, the audience can always tell. For me, to be dangerous it needs to be real because then the audience can feel the tension 100 per cent.
I don’t do as much any more. I was just going on and doing bigger and bigger stunts and then realising that’s a really stupid thing to do. I still do them from time to time though.
The first time I did my bear trap illusion I took it to the extreme and fell hard and my leg was completely black... I still can’t move my pinkie toe from that.
Every time you do something like that you have to be prepared for the worst. (Laughs) But I’ve never been rushed to hospital.
Have you ever been scared doing a stunt?
I DID a TV pilot and they wanted me to sky dive, which is something I would never do in real life. When it came to the actual point, I was like ‘hold on a second’.
I came close to saying ‘Bad idea, I don’t want to do this’ but I ended up going ahead... although it is something I would never do again.
When did you become interested in magic?
WHEN I was only seven. Everyone is kind of fascinated by magic when they are little and most grow out of. I loved seeing something you can’t actually explain, the impossible, that feeling of ‘no way that could happen’.
I wanted to do magic from high school. I went to university for one year but I was extremely not interested in even thinking about anything but the next gig, the next show, the next idea. I was not a scholar and I thought ‘I’m going to take a run at this’ and I started to work on getting shows and practising and trying to develop all that.
It was funny at university. I heard that if you had too many unpaid parking tickets the university would not send you your grades. I racked up as many parking tickets as I could get so they never sent my grades to my parents. (Laughs) They didn’t get to know that I failed EVERYTHING.
I didn’t have a back-up plan or a plan B. This was going to work or nothing.
Was appearing on Britain’s Got Talent a turning point?
I WAS working a lot of slots in other performers’ shows before BGT, but people were not coming to see me. I was making a go of it, but BGT completely changed the whole dynamic.
I was prepared for the TV performance, but I could not anticipate the level of interest it generated. Honestly, I was going on there and just hoping not to get buzzed off, but it went the other way.
I was invited to perform for the Queen at her 90th birthday party and that was mind-blowing. It’s still hard for me to get my head wrapped around that.
Will you be flipping traditional magic on its head during your UK tour?
I’LL be doing a lot of brand new material, and will be offering a very different style. The audience move around during the show and there is a bit of audience participation.
I know some people are not keen on taking part and some love it, but you gauge that during the show. It’s funny sometimes when you go towards someone and they look downwards at the floor and back away.
Performing is like riding a bike and you get the chops back for it. I enjoy doing it. I really like the whole experience. I’ve been doing this since I was little and I love it. It’s not a chore for me. I enjoy working on new stuff and I find the whole process relaxing.
I’m always tweaking things. The main part of my job is finding new ways to surprise people with magic. That element of surprise.
Are you ever fooled by tricks by other magicians? WHEN you are watching other performers, 99 per cent of the time you know what’s involved. It’s not very often that you see something and you don’t know how it works.
As a magician, you forget what it is to be fooled.
Are you all ready and packed for the tour?
(LAUGHS) My packing is ridiculous. Everything is jammed in a suitcase. If I don’t have something I’ll have to buy it. I’m a last minute sloppy packer.
I go home when I can to see my family in Canada when I have down time, but I’m always working on new ideas.
■ Darcy Oake is on tour until April 1. Go to tinyurl.com/ y2ppoduu for ticket details.