INTERVIEW

Illusionist Romany chats to Jenny Hewett ahead of her performance at the Spiegeltent in Festival Centre

Up Her Sleeve

How did you get into performing?I always wanted to be on stage as a singer, dancer or ballerina, but my parents were not into the theatre, so they let me go to dance classes. When it came to the crunch they said “no, you’ve got to go to university and get a proper job, and a mortgage, and live a normal life”. So I did, and I was a business executive and then in the evenings I would go to circus school and learn stilt walking and knife throwing and juggling. I started being a stilt walker at the weekends. Then I suddenly thought I can’t do this double life anymore, one has to go. I went to a magic class and my first class, I just thought “right, I’m going to be a magician” and I was 27.

you can speak four languages, does tHis Help you diversify your sHows?I love it when there are people in the audience who are Italian or French because suddenly I can speak to them in their language and it’s so much fun and people are so pleased.

wHat do you tHink tHe secret is to being a convincing magician and performer?You really have to believe in magic. If you don’t, then no-one else will. I have to pretend in my head that I really am turning this silk scarf into a rose. Be delighted by it, because obviously if we could do these things it would be marvellous and it makes people happy, it gives them the hope that it’s possible.

How many cHaracters do you Have on stage?I tend to just have the one now. All my childhood I used to watch all the Hollywood movies with Judy Garland and Greta Garbo and all these wonderful divas and then when I performed this diva came out who’s really funny. She’s a bit clumsy and things go wrong, but she thinks she’s really special so there’s a comedy in that, when I drop things or my volunteers don’t do things right. It’s her surrounded by incompetence and it’s funny.

did tHe comedy element come naturally for you?It did, I didn’t mean to be funny at all, I meant to be elegant and accomplished and then I wasn’t. When I first started people kept saying “are you trying to be funny?” and I wasn’t at all and I was very offended. Then one day, once I’d done the show and everyone was really laughing I think I sat and I thought “ahh this is better than anything”, to make people laugh is wonderful. The more serious I try to be, the more they laugh.

16 Ya hala / July 09

July 09 / Ya hala 17

INTERVIEW

wHicH celebrities Have you performed for?Lots of them. Johnny Depp in Hollywood. I was doing 22 shows a week in a Hollywood magic castle and I always pick two volunteers and they said, “don’t pick the man in the hat and the dark glasses”. So there’s Johnny Depp at 2pm in the theatre, in a big hat and dark glasses, so I didn’t pick him. But afterwards I went and said hello and he said “you were very good”. He was very sweet. I’ve also performed for the Queen of England.

you also do weddings?I really respect the brides that choose me, because it’s going to be a bit odd having a magician at your wedding. I appear and do close-up magic around the table and then introduce the speaker. It makes the wedding really good fun and an alternative to the very traditional toast master.

if you weren’t a magician, wHat would you be?I’d be Bette Midler. I’d love to be able to sing and I can’t really sing. I’ve always really admired Bette Midler and she’s always been on the plump side, a real woman and that’s the same as me. I wasn’t allowed to go to dancing school because I wasn’t skinny and so it was a joy when I found out that I could be on stage, just as a regular size.

were people quite surprised wHen you, a woman, won tHe magic circle stage magician of tHe year in 2007?Yes, it gave me a lot of confidence because the way I do magic is the way a female is more inclined to do magic, in a very feminine way. Not so much “I’m so clever”, it’s more, “oh look, there’s magic, this turns into this and this turns into this”. Females are less competitive in the way they do magic, it’s more of a sharing experience.

tell us about your costumes.I tend to always wear black and pink now. The corsets are just so you have a nice shape, I look like I’m from the era of the can-can. People are used to male magicians having big jackets, whereas when you don’t have any sleeves and are wearing a corset and a tight frock, then the magic is a bit more impressive. No-one knows where it’s from.

wHat can we expect from tHe House of illusions sHow?The director Derek Scott says it’s going to be jazzy, laidback and cool. I know that Andrew van Buren is a very good performer and he says it’s going to be very magical. He’s very

professional and he’s going to be performing big illusions and I’m going to be the funny hostess character, doing beautiful, odd magic.

Have you ever worked witH derek scott before?I have, I saw him as the snow clown in Slava’s Snowshow and I hadn’t seen anything so magical for a long time and I was really amazed. So I asked him to direct my act. I haven’t actually performed in a show with him before, but I have a lot of respect for him.

wHo is your biggest idol in tHe magic industry?Jeff McBride is a Vegas worldwide magician and he’s my mentor and the person I really look up to, he can play rock stadiums with magic. He’s really encouraged me my whole magic career. He continues to support me and is always looking at my work.

your favourite magic trick?There’s one magic trick where I get the whole audience to make a wish in their heads. I have a ball of thread called wishing thread and I burn it when everyone’s making wishes, I then put it back to what it was before and

the wish is made and I bind the wish into the thread. What I love most about it is seeing everyone’s wishes in their eyes because everyone goes all dreamy because they’re thinking of whatever it is they really want and there’s this atmosphere.

wHere Have you travelled to witH your work?We went on a six-month tour of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. I’ve worked at some refugee camps in Bosnia. It was a peace mission and it was just after the war. I did shows there and it was great because they couldn’t really understand English so they did watch the show, but at the end, I said “that’s it, I’ve finished”, but they wouldn’t go away. Beautiful.

wHat is your next goal?To go cruising on the big ships. You need two 45-minute shows so I’ll put this together.

Romany stars in the House of Illusions dinner show in the 19th century Spiegeltent until August 14. Tickets Dhs100-325, see www.festivalcentre.com for details. Performances run Tuesday to Saturday.