Magical Supergroup

"Three of my best mates who are all insanely fantastic magicians in America got together and thought it would be awesome to work together on something we could never do singularly as magicians,” says James Galea.

Along with Justin Flom, Nate Staniforth and Justin Willman, he’s created a “magic supergroup” – and that’s how Band Of Magicians began. “[It’s] the best parts of all our own shows and then things that we’ve created specifically for this show that have never been seen anywhere before.”

So what’s the creative process involved with living out this dream? In practice, how does the show work? “It’s all dependent on the theme that you’re going for,” says Galea. The group tends to agree on major aspects of the show first and then works backwards. “Sometimes you’ll be [like], ‘There’s a piece of the show that we’d love to have some kind of musical number or something here’ and then… ‘It’d be great if there was like a big illusion or something amazing could appear here or disappear here.’” And then they fit in lots of cool tricks in between.

“[Magic has] changed a lot with technology with people having access to how the tricks could potentially be done"

Band Of Magicians agree that magic is different in the modern age, but they are always changing to keep up with the times. “[Magic has] changed a lot with technology with people having access to how the tricks could potentially be done,” says Galea. They took this into account when putting together the show, trying to create something that “you couldn’t just go and look up on YouTube to try and work out how the trick was done”, and even incorporate the use of HD video cameras and giant screens so that everyone is able to see every aspect of the show.

Galea also keeps in mind that audience interaction is a vital ingredient for the success of the show. “That’s why magic is such a wonderful thing. People see a lot of shows on TV and know that they’re rigged and know that it’s fake. Yet with a live show like this… When you’re interacting with people, you know that it’s obviously live and that it’s obviously real.”

Band Of Magicians are set to perform at The Palms at Crown in January. Galea is looking forward to their performance at the casino because the venue “attract[s] such a different array of people – from poker players to people who are lovers of magic and some people who just want to see something really spectacular.” This follows their Australian debut – and world premiere, in fact – at Sydney Festival earlier this year. “It was great, we sold out… It couldn’t have gone better. Sydney was the world premiere, so we didn’t even know if the show was gonna work or if people would like it. So now, coming to Melbourne, the show obviously works… Now it’s just time to go have fun and to have a great time in Melbourne.”