Masters of Illusion Delusions

Masters of Illusion Season I has been off the air for a few weeks now, so in this century of instant gratification, it's been a long time. So I figured it’s now admissible for me to reveal some of the inside scoop of my experiences, at least. 

A few interesting tidbits: When I filmed the stage portions I had my appendix removed a about a week before. I mean, I was just out of the hospital, and filming under those conditions marked the first time I had gone against a doctor’s recommendation. 'Well, I can stand up, so I'm okay,' I decided. I had this intense abdominal brace on at all times, except when I was on stage, and it was still difficult for me to walk. It was such a bizarre experience. I’m still not quite sure how I pulled that off. It was totally worth it, though. I mean, those craft table gummy bears were good.

I filmed the street magic segments in three sessions. For the first one, I was called the day before, and told that I’d need a few tricks that did not use a deck of cards or a table. I had just enough material, so no sweat, I thought. We film, no problem. I was with about four other magicians. We’d rotate to keep the crowd present, and so we could set up our next effects in between performances. I came in with all of my scripts, etc., but the directors explained that in order to maintain the MTV Generation’s viewership, I’d have to scrap my lines in exchange for pure narration of my actions. Anyway, it wasn’t clear if FOX was even going to like the street magic bits, so the first session was sort of a test. However, MOI street magic was a hit.

Within a couple of weeks I was called again, and was told that FOX liked “that blonde magician” and wanted me on every episode. Um, well, it just so happened that that week I had the stomach flu. 'No big deal, whatev’s,' I figured, and I went ahead to shoot. Oh my. When I got to the studio to do the prelim camera rehearsal (which they started doing after the network decided that they wanted to air more street magic) I was told that I needed ten tricks to perform. “Um, uh, I’m sick, and I only have so many more effects that you haven’t already seen,” I felt like saying. Regardless, I was informed that I had an hour break, which, I was assured, would be plenty enough time to find four additional performance pieces. Haha, sure. But I did. Somehow. A couple of weeks later, the same process repeated itself, minus illness, and the rest is now, well, history.