Jinger Leigh and her magician husband Mark Kalin performing the catching-the-bullet-between-the-teeth act… “As soon as I understood the psychology behind illusion and magic it became second nature,” she says.
That’s unlikely to be the reaction of audiences when they appear at the Canberra Theatre soon in “The Illusionists 1903”, but you can see her point.
The bullet catching, Leigh explains to “CityNews” by phone from the Dubai World Trade Centre, where she is about to perform in three shows back-to-back, is absolutely real and about 12 people have died doing it in recent memory, but though dangerous, most of the show is pure illusion.
Jinger Leigh and her magician husband Mark Kalin performing the catching-the-bullet-between-the-teeth act.
“It’s very clever and vividly historical,” she tells us, as it goes back to a “golden age” of magic around the beginning of the 20th century when magic and variety were seamlessly interwoven, a period when magic was “very colourful, very rich and very theatrical”. For instance, superstar escapologist Harry Houdini performed his most famous escape act in London during 1904.
As well as The Conjuress, you can expect to see characters such as The Eccentric, The Showman, The Escapologist, The Clairvoyants and The Charlatan as they levitate, mind-read, juggle and perform sleight of hand.
As day jobs go, performing in “The Illusionists 1903” is plain hard work. They travel from city to city performing for three or four days each week, Leigh and Kalin always look forward to getting back to their home in suburban Reno, Nevada, no longer, she assures me, famous for divorce and gaming but rather “a lovely place to live”, with beautiful clean air and drinking water.
Still, she’s not complaining. Unlike many of her fellow magic artists whose fathers were magicians, she only came into it about 24 years ago when she met her husband.
“I specialise in large stage illusions,” Leigh says, and that fits the troupe well.
“Sleight of hand acts don’t necessarily work in large-scale venues, as they require intimacy, but we try to create the same theatrical environment whether we play to 100 or 1000 people.”
Specialisation is the norm in the world of magic as artists discover their basic nature and realise it on stage.
“My background is in dance and theatre,” Leigh says, “so large-scale illusion was natural to me… as soon as I understood the psychology behind illusion and magic it became second nature to present it.”
So what does “The Conjuress” actually do? Her favourite piece involves a floating orb that dances across the stage into the audience, “all under my control – a beautiful piece,” she says.
As for the bullet-catching act, she’s been practising it for more than two years with Kalin, who plays The Showman character, doing the catching – “obviously, it’s a nail biter,” she says.
“The Illusionists 1903”, at Canberra Theatre Centre, December 8-16, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.
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