Illusionist Tony Chapek performing a trick in which he pulls a card out of a video screen. PICTURE: Joey Aguilar
By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter
An award-winning illusionist from Atlanta, Georgia (US), enthralled dozens of children and spectators at Lagoona Mall yesterday with his unique “interactive media magic”.
Tony Chapek is back in Qatar after nearly two and a half years to perform at several malls during the Eid al-Fitr festivities. He had staged a similar show at Souq Waqif during the Spring Festival earlier.
Chapek told Gulf Times that he uses traditional hand tricks and combines it with video.
“Instead of a handkerchief disappearing into somebody’s hand, now it is being pulled into a video screen,” said Chapek, who also performed at Hyatt Plaza on Monday and Al Khor Mall
on Tuesday.
He described the people in Qatar as nice and friendly and calmer than some of those he had seen in other places. “They are a little bit more quiet and reserved.”
The show was a big hit with spectators, especially those who were seeing it for the first time. The illusionist normally engages the audience to make his show more lively, humorous and entertaining.
“It is mixing magic and technology, having comedy and audience interaction. It is a complete entertainment package,” he stressed.
Chapek, who claimed to have “pioneered interactive media magic in 1984”, believes that many illusionists have started involving technology in their tricks.
“I started doing it when people were just getting VCRs. I think I borrowed a video camera to produce the first one that I did,”
he recalled.
Asked how he learned the technique, he said he watched videos, read books on magic and met other illusionists.
When he was a child, Chapek recounted that his father did a card trick, which he felt was fun and fascinating.
“My dad wasn’t really a magician but he liked card tricks and he taught me a few tricks,” he noted. “When I got a little older, I wanted to know about real magic and serious stuff.”
He was amazed when he went to a magic shop and asked a person there to teach him some hand tricks.
Chapek said he was inspired by David Copperfield to some extent, believing that the latter had set a new standard for illusionists.
On why he chose to create a new technique, he noted that he liked video- and film-making – something that would make his “magic exceptional”.
“I really wanted to do something amazing and new, something that nobody has ever done,” he said, which was one of his tips for aspiring illusionists.
He stressed that people who want to do magic should aspire to be different and unique in whatever they do.
Chapek said it takes a lot of hard work and imagination to come up with something absolutely new and original. Performing for nearly 30 years, he considers it as a process: adding something new and changing some things.
“When you do it in front of an audience, it is really very satisfying,” he added.
Chapek, as well as a break dance group called Mighty Jokerz, will perform at The Mall this evening.
In the coming days, Chapek will again perform at Hyatt Plaza, Al Khor Mall and Lagoona Mall.
