I sat down with dapper magician Richard Vegas to chat all things magic, mystery and “Real Fictions” – his upcoming Melbourne Magic Festival show with fellow performer Pierre Haag. Read on to discover more!
1. Tell us about your show title – it sounds quite contradictory! What can audiences expect?
Yes, well Real Fictions is the show title, and it’s kind of about how we can be deceived by what we believe, but the subtitle explains what audiences can expect, they can expect ” impossibilities, unpleasantries and other stupid and ridiculous things “. The “stupid and ridiculous” things are Pierre and myself, I’ll leave audiences to decide which is which. Amongst all that ridiculousness, we will read minds and make audience members unwittingly do exactly what we want them to do without them ever knowing that we are doing it, until the very end!
2. Tell us about yourselves and your backgrounds…what made you team up this year?
Well, we actually teamed up before the pandemic and have had this little ripper of a show in the incubator for years now. We premiered it at Adelaide Fringe last year with a very short one week run, just to test the waters with it and it killed. The audiences LOVED it., people actually saying that it’s the best magic show they had seen ( who knows how many magic shows they had actually seen though …. ) So naturally we decided to change things up and muck around with it…. And I think we’ve made it even better! I think… So I can’t wait to see what audiences reactions are to the show at this year’s Melbourne Magic Festival.
A little about our backgrounds: Pierre is known worldwide as the Unknown Mentalist, that’s why no one has heard of him, because everyone who knows, knows that that he is unknown. In magic circles he’s famous for being unknown. He really is a badly kept secret. Pierre has over 25 years experience as a mentalist and magician and I have almost 25 years experience as a magician and a mentalist. My background is in theatre, from a very early age I knew I wanted to be an actor and so here I am – “ an actor playing the part of a magician “. We teamed up because we like each other’s sense of humour. I think. Though I could be wrong on that. I’m still not sure…
3. Do you have a favourite magical style or genre? If so, what is it?
I love all magic styles and have performed most of them. At the moment my favourite style is comedy mentalism but I have a strong history of the dramatic and highly theatrical. Pierre is a comedy mentalist who likes to flirt with the dramatic but rarely succeeds, I mean you just look at him and you laugh, or at least I do… and wait until he opens his mouth! So together we compliment each other, when we aren’t abusing each other.
4. Why should audiences come and see your show at the Melbourne Magic Festival this year?
I can promise that in Real Fictions audiences will see magic that they will not see in any other show at the Melbourne Magic Festival. There are very original and never seen before routines and effects in this show. Not only that, I can also guarantee that they will have never seen a magic show presented as uniquely and at the same time ridiculously as what Pierre & I have put together with Real Fictions. And if that doesn’t convince you to come and see it, then come just to listen to Pierre talk with his stupidly cute Swedish accent… Or come because we tread a very thin line between really funny ( and amazing ) and inappropriate and the show should be cancelled…!
5. What are you most looking forward to at the 2023 Melbourne Magic Festival?
The bubbling critical mass of magic that happens when the Magic Festival takes over Melbourne and getting on stage with Real Fictions and blowing peoples minds with impossibilities, unpleasantries and other stupid and ridiculous things!
Well it sounds like this is going to be an unmissable show! Click here to secure your tickets to “Real Fictions” and make sure you don’t miss out on this “ripper of a show”!
Tay Around Town 