NAKED MAGICIANS | It is what it says, and theyre coming to Mounties
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
NAKED MAGICIANS | Best mates, Chris Wayne (left) and Mike Tyler.
Chris Wayne has been performing magic for 20 years years so he must have started when he was 11. He and a mate, Mike Tyler, have been doing magic together on stage all around the world, which is not that unusual. What is unusual is the fact they do it in the nude.
Yes, I s'pose it's one way to stop the audience watching your hands so closely when you're doing magic!
Are you guys really naked – or is it just an illusion?
Yes, we do get fully naked. Everything comes off. We start off in our clothes and then lose them bit by bit by bit until the end of the show we're wearing nothing. Except for our top hats and a smile. And you're right, people aren't kinda looking at the magic, they're looking at other, er, stuff.
Who came up with the idea?
We both sort of came up with it collectively. We were best friends and we worked as independent magicians. Mike was a corporate entertainer, I was actually on a kids TV show, which I'm not allowed back on now. We both loved magic and we wanted to something that hadn't been done before. Even though magic is the second oldest profession in history for some crazy reason no one had ever made a nauighty magic show.
So we said let's do it and let's make it the naughtiest magic show, and the funniest show, and let's make it ideal for everybody – a girls' night out or gay guys or a couple looking for a cheeky laugh. It truly changed our lives.
What was it like the first time you and Mike did a practise run in costume? Or out of costume.
Getting naked together was actually the scariest – well, maybe not scary, but weird! Cos we weren't nudists or strippers, just two best friends. There was this moment where we had to drop our pants and it was like, [cough], that moment was so significant because we're both nervous about it and felt strange about it, as you do, but that was the moment when we went well, we're either doing this or we're not. And we made choice to do it and it was weird and we got through it. Like jumping out of a plane. Best feeling in the world.
Then we had to do it in front of an audience. Scariest thing in my life. We were terrified and I almost threw up. People's greatest fears are public speaking and standing naked in a front of a crowd of people.
That was four years ago and we haven't looked back.
Then we had to do it in front of an audience. Scariest thing in my life. A room full of people, just 180 that time, which is still a lot of people! We were terrified and I almost threw up. Statistically, people's greatest fears are public speaking and standing naked in a front of a crowd of people. But then this amazing thing happened. We take off our pants on stage, we get to that part of the show and the crowd just erupts and cheers and delivers this response and energy you don't get from any other show. You feel bulletproof. You take down your pants and they accept that and they're clapping and loving it, it's the best feeling
Have you invited your mum to the show?
Oh [laughs], we just played Brisbane, our home city, for the first time in three years and we had all of our family there on the same night, last week! All in the front row. OK, so maybe THAT was the weirdest thing that's happened.
When you remove your clothes you also remove your inhibitions – do people in the audience lose their inhibitions too?
One hundred per cent. There's an energy in the show that's unmatched. It celebrates this naughty side that we have discovered every single person on this planet has inside of them. It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, what your race is, everyone's got that naughty side. Some people wear it like a badge, others have it a little hidden, but we all have it.
We've done the show all over the States and also had a run at the West End in London and two runs in Hong Kong – famously more conservative people. But everyone has the same amount of fun. Deep down, we're all very very naughty creatures.
I s'pose you're not going to have many wardrobe malfunctions – what about props malfunctions?
We were in Sydney doing a photoshoot for a newspaper and we just had top hats covering our, er, magic wands and Mike threw what's called flash paper, magicians use it, you light it up and it burns instantaneously, he threw it into the air and it landed literally on the tip of my – it got in a little crevice between my skin and a top hat and this ball fire literally landed on the tip of my, er, penis. That's my hobby, that's my job, and it's all up in smoke in one moment! That was the craziest incidence of wardrobe malfunction.
Terrifying!
I burnt my penis, no other way to put it. It was as painful as you're imagining it right now.
Oh, my goodness. What tricks get the biggest audience reaction?
Two tricks immediately come to mind. One halfway through where the audience gets to unwrap their secret gift. And the finale of the show. All I will say is it is a metaphorical and a literal climax. It was the trick that put our show on the global map. I've never seen anything more outrageous, more funny, more magical than what happens in the last five minutes. And it happens like that every single night at every single show. It's pure insanity.
Ever had anyone leave in disgust?
Not in disgust. Only time we had a walk-out was during our season at the West End in London and over the first couple of nights before the UK knew what we were about we had a couple of, you know, well, we were playing at Trafalgar Square, next to The Book of Mormon, Wicked, the biggest shows in the world, and here are these two guys from Brisbane. We had a couple of theatre-lovers who might not have been up for the same fun as the rest of the audience! But when you come and see a show called The Naked Magicians you're just getting what it says on the tin. For the most part, people aren't shocked when that happens in the show. They know what they're signing up for before they came in.
We're glad to be touring all the suburbs of Sydney. We didnt just want to do the capital cities but we're looking forward to getting into every nom and cranny of the country.
So to speak.
Cheers mate, thanks for the interview.
Thanks to you, too! Now go put some clothes on.
- Naked Magicians are at: Hurstville Civic Centre (April 4), Mounties (April 5), Revesby Workers Club (April 14), Blacktown Workers Club (April 26), Penrith Panthers (June 28), Anitas Theatre Wollongong (June 29), Wests New Lambton (June 30).
- This show includes coarse language, sexual references and some nudity and is intended for audiences 18+.
Full tour schedule
- Wednesday 4 April: Hurstville Civic Theatre
- Thursday 5 April: Mounties, Mount Pritchard
- Friday 6 April: Ettalong Bowling Club
- Saturday 7 April: Griffith Regional Theatre
- Thursday 12 April: Ballina RSL
- Friday 13 April: Twin Towns
- Saturday 14 April: Revesby Workers Club
- Tuesday 17 April: Dubbo Regional Theatre
- Thursday 19 April: Glen Street Theatre
- Friday 20 April: Belmont 16s
- Tuesday 24 April: The Concourse, Chatswood
- Thursday 26 April: Blacktown Workers Club
- Friday 27 April: The Juniors
- Saturday 28 April: Wests Nelson Bay Diggers
- Friday and Saturday 11 and 12 May: The Events Centre, Caloundra
- Wednesday and Thursday, 16 & 17 May: Clink Theatre, Port Douglas
- Friday 18 May: Brothers, Cairns
- Saturday 19 May: The Ville, Townsville
- Sunday 20 May: GECC, Gladstone
- Friday 25 May: Brolga Theatre, Maryborough
- Saturday 26 May: Moncrieff EC, Bundaberg
- Friday 1 June: Ipswich Civic Centre
- Saturday 2 June: Armitage Centre, Toowoomba
- Friday, 8 June: Redcliffe Cultural Centre
- Saturday 9 June: The J, Noosa
- Friday and Saturday 15 and 16 June: Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
- Friday 22 June: Glasshouse, Port Macquarie
- Saturday 23 June: Capital Theatre, Tamworth
- Sunday 24 June: Jetty Memorial Theatre, Coffs Harbour
- Thursday 28 June: Evan Theatre, Penrith Panthers
- Friday 29 June: Anita's Theatre, Wollongong
- Saturday 30 June: Wests New Lambton, Newcastle
- Thursday 5 July: Albury Entertainment Centre
- Friday and Saturday 6 and 7 July: Canberra Theatre Centre
- Thursday 12 July: Westside Performing Arts Centre, Shepparton
- Friday 13 July: Frankston Arts Centre
- Saturday 14 July: The Capital, Bendigo
- Friday 20 July: Wrest Point, Hobart
- Saturday, 21 July: Princess Theatre, Launceston
This story NAKED MAGICIANS | It is what it says, and theyre coming to Mounties first appeared on Fairfield City Champion.
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