KEVIN JAMES
“THE INVENTOR” OF INNOVATIVE ILLUSIONS
By Iride Aparicio

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Comedian, Collector of the Strange and unusual, and creator of innovative illusions, KEVIN JAMES, is coming to S.F. as one of the 7 world’s top Magicians, participating  in “THE ILLUSIONISTS – WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE”  a show where magic makes the impossible, possible, and each act stretches the limit of our imaginations.

Before the show's debut,  on January 16th, at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, CULTURAL WORLD BILINGUAL  interviewed  Mr. JAMES, who calls himself “THE INVENTOR” for a good reasons. The world’s renown illusionist, had created some of the most ground braking, innovative and celebrated illusions on this Century,

Pictured above, wearing a white medical robe, Mr. JAMES, glances at the man, dressed in white with a bandage over his head and a mask, that he had just “operated” by sawing him in half. After the operation, JAMES had taken the man's upper torso and placed on top of metal table with both his arms stretched in front of  him. He then asks a woman from the audience to come to the stage and shake the hand of the man. After the torso grabs the woman's hand and she screams.  Mr. JAMES completes his act by placing  both the  legs of the man next to the torso, puts the man together again, and, smiling, the man walks out of the stage. 

What does it takes to become a Great Magician? We ask him.

“You have to practice,” he says “ To do magic you need to educate yourself, to learn how different effects are accomplished, you have to read a lot of books, watch a lot of shows, study magic,and work in its techniques.  Work on your hands, and then in teaching yourself how to control attention, how to use the different tools a magician use to create an effect.
To become a magician, you need to live your life with an air or curiosity. Wake up every morning expecting to find something new and beautiful on that day. Maybe to find a story line for a possible routine, maybe a new one.

C.W.B. Where  do you find your inspiration?

K.J. “In different places.  In life experiences, from the Cinema, from literature, from the hardware stores, from the toy stores.  I find my inspiration everywhere for new effects and for new plot lines.  I also read a lot.  There is a lot of work in creating Magic, but if you love it, it does not feel like work."

C.W.B. What attracted you to Magic?

K.J. “I think an extremely powerful sense of wonder.  When I was a kid, I saw a performer who came to my school, and I was amazed at what this performer did. I loved it.  It was absolutely love at first sight.  I knew, instantly that “Magic” was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was hard because there were few schools of "Magic" at that time  and the internet did not exists."

C.W.B. Is it difficult to learn Magic?

K.J. "It was for me, because I did not know that one learns “Magic” by parts:
The first part is to learn all you can about the subject. The second part is that one has to try things, to be original and different as a magician. The third part is designing your effect (creating the effect you want) creating something, and learning the “technique” it requires to accomplish the effect you want to create. The next part is practice, and the last and final stage is trying to hide your technique and make it look effortless."

C.W.B. What does a person need to become a Magician?

K.J. "Concentration and dedication. It is not an easy job. To be a professional  Magician, one has to pay their dues. Do thousands of shows just to get  the stage time and experience it requires to feel comfortable in front on an audience. To lean how to handle any situation if something unusually happens, and above all have patience and  persistence. Magic is something that you need to practice it every day to find new little bits, to add new things. It is a never ending job.

C.W.B. You do many innovative acts such as sawing and shrinking people, which one in your opinion is your hardest act?

K.J.  "I do some (acts) with the audience, and in this one I bring a little girl to the stage and then take a piece of paper and make it into a ball, and with a hand-held camera zooming in so it shows (in a Close up shot)  my face, her face and the paper ball, I put my finger on the paper ball and it starts dancing. The audience can see her face on the camera, which is just inches away (from her face) and it is obvious that the girl does not know how it works. After that I ask the girl to concentrate on the paper ball and wiggle her finger, and when she does, the paper ball begins to dance.  The look on the girl’s face is really beautiful, because she really believes that she made the ball move. It sends electricity to the audience. It is also a beautiful moment for me, because I see on her face that she is experiencing the sense of wonder that I had the first time I saw magic.”

C.W.B. You have been described in the Media as the most prolific inventor of Magic illusions living today,  How do you describe yourself?

K.J.  “As a Magician, I  just want to touch people in their hearts. I want them to leave the show feeling wonderful , feeling that they experienced something special and be happy about life in general. I want to leave a positive message to the audience: Celebrate life.”

THE ILLUSIONISTS Live from Broadway will play at  THE SHN ORPHEUM THEATRE in San Francisco From February 16-21    TO ORDER TICKETS BY PHONE CALL  1-800-683-8959