(Reproduced from MAGIC Magazine, September 2007)

At a magic convention in Sydney almost 10 years ago, Tim Ellis met the woman who would change his life forever. Sue –Anne Webster quickly became cohort, collaborator and co-founder of one of Australia’s most successful Magic duos – as well as the wife to an equally inspirational and challenging magician.

The ride has not been smooth sailing – far from it. Combining the professional pressures and stresses of a successful business partnership performing hundreds of shows a year and the 24/7 partnership of married life has led to some unique and formidable tensions. But in each other they have found a passion, drive and patience that has allowed this team to persist and prosper over the years.

Now they are holders of numerous individual and team nominations and awards from some of the industries highest organisations; have consulted for television, theatre and print; toured the world 5 times lecturing their own material; produced national conventions and events; produced three top selling DVD’s; and hold a regular engagement with the FISM judging panel.

Somehow, in amongst this hectic schedule, Mat Unwin managed to engage them in a complex interview via email to find out a little more about this ‘dynamic duo’.

 MAGIC: How did you get started in Magic?

TIM: When I was 10 years old, I was given a Merit Magic Kit by my Grandfather. It fascinated me as I began to play with the various tricks inside it. I remember going in to a magic shop at that age and being blown away by the 'Ball and Vase'. I think that was the moment the magic bug first bit me. I just couldn't even begin to fathom how that ball disappeared from the vase and reappeared somewhere else. Once I bought the trick and it's secret was explained to me, I felt as though I'd been given a peek into a whole new world I never knew existed. I bought more tricks, I even got the 'Hanky Panky Magic Set', and I shared my new found passion with a friend from Church, Mark Glassborow, and together we went out and performed at libraries, fetes, even a few children's birthday parties. I even have the original poster my Dad made to advertise my services: "Hire Timothy, an experienced young magician, from only $10 per 30 min show." 

SUE-ANNE: I sat as a little girl with my eyebrows pressed tightly together, trying in vain to use my mind powers to move a pencil across the table. Years later I met my art teacher Turoa Walmsley, an incredibly talented and accomplished oil painter, puppeteer and borderline eccentric who endlessly fascinated me for hours on end in his world of art and music. The aroma of linseed oil lingered in his magical studio as he’d tell tales of his childhood in the country, world travels, rich widows and mansions. One Sunday afternoon, he casually vanished a coin and made it reappear on the tips of his fingers. My world stopped. He had no choice after that, but to teach me magic. The deal was that if I read the twelve magic books he piled into my arms that evening, the lessons would begin. I was 22 years old.

We focused heavily on creativity and originality in our magic performances. I supplemented my learning by studying drama for stage, film and television with a local drama school that hired teachers from NIDA. It’s not the same as the American NIDA. NIDA in Australia is the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. Drama training has been my most valuable asset in magic.

Turoa always insisted that I was a partner in magic, never an assistant. I was always ‘one of the boys’ in everything I ever did, including magic, so being ‘the magician’ was natural. Being a woman never made a difference. If I could do the work, then I got the job - simple. He kept me humble and, although I was very much attracted to film and television and scared of the stage, Turoa impressed upon me that I was definitely made to be seen live, performing on stage. So, my career began.

MAGIC: Sue-Anne - As a Female magician, How does your presentation and approach to the audience differ from Tim’s? 

SUE-ANNE: When I entertain ladies, I tend to chat first, ease my way into their group and take an interest in them, in who they are. I give them time and respect, then bring in the magic showing them some fascinating effects and sometimes get THEM to do the magic - it empowers them in a way and puts them in the limelight. When I do this, they put the focus back on to me. It’s a girl thing, I think - caring, sharing, playing. If men are in the group, it helps that I have a wedding band on. At no time do I entertain sexual innuendos, which earns me more respect with the women. When the women accept me, the men feel more comfortable with me taking their attention for a few minutes.

When I’m with a group of men, they’re usually quite willing to give me time. I introduce myself and make each one feel special, and then I get straight into the magic. When I show them what I can do, they become fascinated in the magic and often want to see more, calling their friends over to watch the magic. They become boys again… it’s a lot of fun and laughs.

On stage, I watch the way I act and dress. If I can show an audience something pretty amazing and professional in the first few seconds, then I find both men and women to be very receptive to anything I want to show them. I like to have fun with them, make them laugh, give them something to really enjoy.

TIM: Sue-Anne’s approach is very different to mine, in many ways I think it’s better. I burst in full of energy and baffle the audience with colour and movement. Sue-Anne engages them on a very personal level that leaves them with a strong memory of her as a truly amazing person.

MAGIC: Did you have any formal training Tim? 

TIM: Mark Glassborow and I went to our first magic club in 1979 and we were told we were too young to join. However, the club had just started a program called 'The Young Magicians'. Lyndsay Reitschel taught weekly classes on Saturday afternoons with a few other magicians. We joined and I spent my weekdays preparing for these all too short Saturday sessions. Lyndsay concentrated on stagecraft and presentation. The first thing he had us do was to write a list of every trick we knew. Next, we had to bring some in and perform them for the whole group. Lyndsay would make suggestions, some polite, some not so polite, and gradually each of 'The Young Magicians' began to develop their own unique act. They had to be unique, because every month or so we'd all go out to an "old folks home", as Lyndsay used to call them, and put on a show. To protect the audience from a slew of Zombie Balls or an afternoon of Professor's Nightmares, whoever put a certain trick in their act first had a certain "exclusivity" to it. It really taught us a lot about the value and importance of being original. Lyndsay was also notorious for pulling us down a peg or two when we started getting a bit too cocky. After I began to get confident speaking on stage - yes, I used to do silent acts - he set me up with 'Sparkles the Clown' as my "volunteer" for the head chopper. Little did I know Lyndsay had told her to upstage me to the hilt! Cruel? Yes. Valuable? Priceless!!!

Sparkles was, intentionally, the most difficult person I've ever had to share a stage with and, since then, every over-exuberant drunk I've ever got on stage to cut a piece of rope in two has been a joy to work with compared to her. Lyndsay was always a 'sink or swim' teacher who threw you into the deep end. He wanted to find out if you're going to survive in "the real world" rather than waste his time teaching someone who's only going to perform once a year for friends.

Mark moved on and got a job in an advertising agency, and I did a university degree in film and television. My thinking was that if I got into TV behind the camera I could work my way on to screen. I quickly realized there was a lot more work for magicians than there was TV producers. 

MAGIC: So Tim, you were living in Melbourne, Sue-Anne was living in Sydney, and you met at a magic convention? 

SUE-ANNE: We met in 1997 at a magic convention in Sydney. It was my first one. I viewed past Australian conventions on video and gagged. I vowed I’d never attend one, but Turoa made me pay my registration because this convention was set to be a success. I met my very first overseas magician, Marc de Sousa, and readied myself for the gala show that night. Tim Ellis was on the bill. I had no idea who he was, but when he got up on stage with his back to the audience, I knew I’d be his partner before he even turned around to start his show. 

MAGIC: How do you deal with living and working together as two magicians? 

TIM: When I first met Sue-Anne, the girl who was assisting me in my show was about to leave and join a touring musical, so Sue-Anne suggested that she could take on that role. I was wary, because she has so much creativity and tons of ideas that are so different to mine, that she'd be really restricted, and she was. I'd been working in the corporate market for fifteen years, and she'd been performing in theatres. So magically we were poles apart. She'd suggest ideas for the show that would be great in a theatre, but impossible for corporate, so I'd say no. 

I wanted to encourage her to develop her own show for the corporate market, but instead I was stifling her creativity, so we got off to a bad start. Sue-Anne used to describe our working relationship as a roller-coaster ride with her clinging on by her finger tips. 

SUE-ANNE: It was a shock for me to go from working birthday parties, community events and restaurants part-time in Sydney to working full time professionally in the corporate market in Melbourne literally overnight. As much as Tim and I have the same professional attitude to performing, I constantly misunderstood his directions and meaning in rehearsals. He saw great potential in me and saw my abilities, so totally trusting his instincts he threw me in the deep end and into situations I never dreamed of or prepared for. I was scared, but he didn’t see it. He knew I’d survive, and I did, but the experience crushed me, my self esteem and confidence. I was too busy trying to recover from the first crushing wave, when I was thrown into another.  Then our personal relationship suffered in many ways. I suffered anxiety and began to spiral into depression. 

TIM: Teller told us once that the secret to working as a successful duo was to "never apologise". If you had an argument over a trick or a presentation, don't apologise, just go home and start afresh the next day. Of course, if you're married that advice really doesn't cut it. 

We'll be arguing about a trick, each of us trying to state our case, but in the back of my mind a little evil voice will be saying: "Your idea is great Tim, Sue-Anne's just being difficult because you didn't do the dishes last night!" 

SUE-ANNE: Communication seemed to be our major problem. We both constantly misunderstood each other. We had so many goals to reach so we plodded along, praying our way through each day. It took miracles to get us through. 

TIM: Once we started creating completely new shows and lectures together, things started to gel a little better. We both had really clear visions in our heads about how we wanted the shows to look, but we had trouble explaining them to each other. 

The first successful collaboration we had was on her Haunted Mansion act. She had a very clear story in mind, and she knew exactly what she wanted to happen, I had to come up with technical solutions to make the magic work. Then as the act developed, I added bits and pieces to Sue-Anne's story and she made some improvements to the methods I'd come up with. 

MAGIC: So you found a way to communicate? 

TIM: One of the biggest problems we've had as a couple is communication. When we're out at parties she'll give a subtle gesture or raise an eyebrow to me and I'll have no idea what she means. Or we'd be out at a show and I'd be talking to the client about our technical requirements and she'd be shocked at how "coldly and rudely" I was speaking. Sometimes she’d think I was being sarcastic. I was totally unaware of it, but apparently others had noticed but no-one had ever pulled me up on it before. I guess they just assumed I was a jerk. 

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome. It's not a disease but a way some people's brains are wired up. It's a form of high-functioning autism that was only discovered 13 years ago. It's got its pros and cons. people with AS tend to lack nonverbal communication skills and empathy, and exhibit socially and emotionally inappropriate behaviour. We have a preoccupation with a subject to the exclusion of all other activities and have no idea when we are boring people to tears with our special interest. We're often "too honest" with our comments, unaware of other people's emotions, but we do have extensive logical patterns of thought. 

SUE-ANNE: It’s funny… I used to have a crush on Mr. Spock, and I ended up marrying him! 

TIM: So, I'm socially awkward, prone to egocentric behaviour and obsessed with tricks. I just never realized there was a name for it other than "magician". 

MAGIC: How do you manage the Asperger’s condition along with your professional and personal lives? 

TIM: 'Social Phobia' is a very real side effect for people with AS. If I'm at a party as a guest and not a magician, I can't wait to get out of there. I never know what to say and I become painfully shy. I never know what to say or do and I find the art of small talk totally baffling. However, if I'm at a magic convention, doing a lecture, or performing then I'm in my element with my “special interest” but I have to be careful not to take over or dominate. Of course, this is where my AS is an advantage if I'm on stage. I've always said I'm far more comfortable on stage than off. Now I know why. 

But it is a relief being diagnosed. We're learning a lot of coping mechanisms to deal with AS. One Asperger summed it up nicely saying "If you think I'm puzzling, imagine what the world is to me." But my favourite AS quote is: "I'm not rude, bad, hyper or shy, I have Aspergers, what's your excuse?" 

SUE-ANNE: Yes… it is truly difficult to live and work together, especially the added difficulty of him being an ‘Aspie’. Granted, he’s incredibly funny at times but until his diagnosis there was constant high anxiety, stress, low self-esteem and depression affecting both of us most of the time. I nearly abandoned everything, including magic. 

MAGIC: And yet, you were both touring the world, lecturing, making DVDs…? 

SUE-ANNE: Yes… my faith in Jesus Christ always got me through the hard times. You have to focus on the positives, and there is an incredibly wonderful upside to all of this. Being an Aspie, Tim is relentless to succeed in his special interest of magic. He has high standards and it’s a huge compliment that someone like this trusts me working on magic with him. Since I have high standards too and won’t perform, lecture or involve myself in professional activities unless my standards are met, then we have a win/win situation. I can totally trust Tim to attain success at anything he puts his mind to… and it feels great that I’m a part of that. He’s wired up that way. He’ll go to the greatest lengths to achieve his goals. 

Tim has an incredible mind. He can see things so clearly. He can easily solve magic and performance problems and create new acts at the drop of a hat. He organised the 2004 Australian Magicians Convention, which included flying out five international guests, all within five months after discovering the clubs were not organising it. He could see the whole thing in his head and surrounded himself with people who trusted him and gave them important roles to play. There was no committee. The convention was an incredible success. What was truly unbelievable, was that at the same time, he put on a Flicking Fingers convention, which included eight of the eleven Fingers and their partners, accomplished status in the Guinness Book of Records for the World’s Longest Magic Show - 75 hours non-stop, and created three theatrical and very complicated magic teaching DVD’s all within a few months. And he thought he had accomplished nothing! 

TIM: We both believe that God brought us together for a reason. Sue-Anne has an amazing ability to protect me in difficult social situations, to soften my “bluntness” and act as a buffer when we meet new people. It’s incredibly hard for an Aspie to talk to strangers, to look them in the eye or make them feel at ease. Our barriers are up as we protect ourselves and it usually takes a few meetings before we can relax in the company of others. I think that’s why I’ve always said I feel most at home on stage. I remember Sue-Anne’s mum saying how quiet and shy I was… until she saw me on stage for the first time! She thought I was a different person. That’s why I try to avoid doing meetings with new clients. Inevitably they look at me and think “There’s no way that guy’s going to be able to entertain our group!” I’m sure Sue-Anne’s saved a lot of gigs I would have lost if I had to deal with the client on my own.

MAGIC: You mentioned Teller earlier. I read a quote in which he commented that Tim “has the mind of an evil elf".... 

SUE-ANNE: Tim has a wicked sense of humour, and uses it. Tim’s not swayed by emotion, so he can coldly cut to the truth… and as much as this can get him into trouble, he’s always looking for ways to use the talents of other magicians in ground breaking projects. People often misunderstand his actions and intentions, but he has a heart of gold and delights in other people’s well earned successes. His work and enormous contribution to magic proves it. 

TIM: I do have the very Aspie habit of offering people help or advice whether they want it or not. But now I’m aware of it I’m learning how to bite my tongue and keep my opinions to myself, unless they ask for it. 

SUE-ANNE: And he is an exceptionally good “act doctor”.  

MAGIC: I assume you are referring to critiquing others works in progress - So what are the most common ailments the ‘act doctor’ sees? 

TIM: The two most common problems I see when people ask me to critique their act are ‘Segues’ and ‘Superiority’. The first is a problem that occurs when an act is just a series of unrelated tricks. This type of act can and does work, but you need to segue seamlessly from one effect to the other. You can’t go from an effect with a cigarette to one with a piece of rope without some kind of logical justification - even if it’s as simple as transforming the cigarette into the rope. It’s the difference between a long, well punctuated, grammatically correct sentence and one with a full stop after every word. 

‘Superiority’ is possibly the number one killer of magic acts in the world today. Magicians like to fool people, it’s what we do and it’s true, it’s fun to be fooled. What’s not fun is the magician who has a smug attitude of superiority because he knows the secret and you don’t. Often, this attitude comes across as soon as the magician enters the stage before he’s done any tricks at all. He strides to centre stage as the “all powerful wizard”, pointing and looking angry. In theatres when the magician is a trained actor, this can be very effective, but in a hotel function room at a corporate dinner it just looks absurd. How can we expect the audience to “suspend their disbelief” if they can’t believe the way the magician is behaving? 

Sue-Anne has shown me that the magician needs to connect with the audience. Be yourself, not some “super-powered person” high above everyone else. Even if you look at the way super heroes like Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four are portrayed nowadays, they are shown as flawed human beings who just happen to be able to do amazing things. People are much more interested in getting to know other people rather than seeing them do tricks. That’s why shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ rate so well. Viewers would rather see people they “know” trying to dance, than strangers dancing superbly.

Stand up comics have known this for years. They bare their souls to the audience in a funny way. Can we start baring our souls in a magical way?... And reciting someone else’s script about the first time you saw snow doesn’t count. You might be able to do the pass invisibly, but faking sincerity is much, much harder. Better to be genuinely sincere and win the audience’s trust, then they might believe all the lies you tell them later about “empty” boxes and “regular” decks of cards. 

MAGIC: Sue-Anne, you perform as yourself but also in character as ‘Jeannie’. What attracted you to this character and is it easier than “being yourself”? 

SUE-ANNE: Performing as Jeannie began by accident and through desperation. I could perform on stage, but to perform magic in a corporate close-up situation had me hyperventilating. Corporate people are networking most of the time. They’re with their colleagues and trying to impress each other.  The ‘feel’ of a corporate event is very different to a happy community gathering where people are expecting entertainers to do their thing. I was desperate, so colleagues suggested I dress in character, to avoid the confrontational aspect of intimate magic. I went to a party with the theme ‘dress as your favourite TV character’… I went as Jeannie. Everyone gasped and said my problem was solved. Jeannie is the happiest, cheekiest, most non-confrontational magical female character that I had half a chance of portraying. It worked. The gigs were easy. People see Jeannie, the reactions range from delight to tears and of course they expect to see magic. They want it. It really got me over that hurdle and now I perform close up as myself as well as Jeannie. 

A year later, Patterson Lundquist, owner of www.IDreamofJeannie.com was scanning the net for pictures of Barbara Eden. He came across an early thumbnail photo of me dressed as Jeannie. Surprised he’d never seen this photo before, he enquired further and found it to be me. He asked if I’d be the site’s official Jeannie look-a-like. Since then, Patterson has helped me hone the look for an almost perfect copy. OK, I’ve got a bigger nose and mouth than Barbara Eden… and I’m bigger than she is, but we do share the exact same height! 

I do have to work on the accent, though. The scariest moment performing as Jeannie was in Hollywood at the Magic Castle. Every now and then an Australian colloquialism would slip through when I was ad-libbing with volunteers from the audience. 

MAGIC: Is it true that the producers of the new 'I Dream of Jeannie' came to the Magic Castle to see you? 

SUE-ANNE: Yes, they said that “the likeness is uncanny”.  They gave me their blessing to use the likeness of Jeannie for my work, feeling safe that I‘m doing her justice. Eventually I’d like to perform a series of acts like the TV sitcom, without copying the actual show.

TIM: Unfortunately they want a “new look Jeannie” for the movie, but we’ve kept in constant contact with the producers, and with Sony who own the TV series, and as a result Sue-Anne performed as Jeannie at the Australian launch of the series on DVD. She even has a Jeannie bottle signed by Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Daly. 

MAGIC: You also portray a completely different character on your ‘24 Years of Living Next Door to Ellis’ DVD. Given the ‘theatrical’ nature of the concept, was the experience like shooting a movie? 

SUE-ANNE: As an actor, I delight in portraying characters at every opportunity. Tim’s technically advanced nosy next door neighbour, Elly May Drudge, is a character who brings out a side to me rarely seen by anyone, including me. She definitely exaggerates a few of my less noticeable character traits and gets along famously with the older men at magic clubs. I really enjoy playing that character and the experience on set was definitely like making a movie. Great fun! 

TIM: It was more like shooting a TV mini-series! We shot all three, plus our promo video, simultaneously… nine hours of extremely complicated footage, then literally months assembling it all in the editing studio. The DVDs were based on our lectures but we didn’t want to just film a lecture… though that would have been much, much easier… because the lectures were more like shows, the DVDs had to use the medium and be as entertaining as possible while still getting the information across.   

MAGIC: Having lectured in magic clubs across Australia, as well as overseas, what differences did you find between the local and international organizations? 

TIM: Over the last twenty five years I've enjoyed a great relationship with the magic clubs in Melbourne. I've edited magazines, been a member of one club and served on its committee, lectured and performed for some of the clubs, helped promote them to the public and guided many new magicians into their folds. But there are still some clubs that are a little “behind the times”. I remember at one club meeting a visitor from England explained why his club liked to encourage lady magicians to join: "They make the tea and bring the cakes for supper!" 

Thankfully, that sort of attitude is gradually dying out. I love the clubs and support them. They have a very important role in the development of magicians, both novice and experienced. But no matter where you go in the world you find some clubs are active and alive, some are divided by politics, and others are filled with people who end up watching instead of doing. MagicSports is a great activity for magicians to use at meetings as a way to get everyone up out of their seats and expanding their limits as performers. 

Another thing I've noticed over the years is that some clubs grow and grow then suddenly burst. They start a membership drive and get dozens of new magicians into the club, but then they have to cater to the new magicians and the more experienced performers become disenchanted and get nothing out of the meetings. The ideal situation for a growing club would be to have two monthly meetings, one catering to the new members, the other pitched at the advanced level, and members can decide when they're ready to move from one to the other. 

I wrote a piece on my "ideal" magic club on our blog and it was one of the most downloaded articles we've ever had. One suggestion was that a club could meet in a function room at a pub or restaurant and, as part of a deal with the venue owner for providing the room for free, the magicians mingle with the patrons and perform close-up for them before the meeting. 

A few years ago we decided to test the theory and created ‘Melbourne’s Magic Nights’ using some of the ideas from that article. It worked incredibly well. We met in a pub in the city centre and the magicians loved having “real people” to test their material out on each month. They’d watch each other perform for the patrons and give each other notes afterwards. Then we’d all head upstairs to the function room where every night was like a mini-convention. We’d have guest speakers talking about sound systems, lighting, make-up, costumes… we’d have workshops, panel sessions, quizzes, MagicSports, and often one magician would perform something they were working on and open themselves up to constructive comments from the group. 

SUE-ANNE: Eventually ‘Melbourne’s Magic Nights’ transitioned into a more formal club called ‘MUGS - Magic Unlimited Group Sessions’ - which has now become the Australian representative group for FISM Oceania. MUGS is more focused and goal oriented than the original meetings. The rules for MUGS include 'no gossip' and 100% work on magic ideas, routines and effects. The members session together and help each other reach their goals in magic. It's fun, very useful and progressive. As a group, we're dedicated to raising the standard of magic in Australia to international levels. It certainly helps that Tim has been a judge for FISM. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in magic to pass on to people. 

TIM: And just like ‘The Young Magicians’, we try to encourage members to be as different as possible to each other. This is despite the fact that one speaker at a ‘Magic Night’ was a top entertainment agent and, when he was asked if originality was important he said “No. If a client wants to buy an act we’ll sell it to them. It doesn’t matter to us if they’ve copied another magician.”  

It’s a sad reality but if you want to make money in the entertainment business, the quickest way is to copy another magician’s act. There’s always someone who wants David Copperfield at their event but can’t afford the real thing. “Give the people what they want” as the saying goes. Remember though, they’re only booking you because you were cheaper than David… there’ll always be someone who does the same act even cheaper ready to undercut you. 

But if you want respect in the entertainment world, and you want to climb a harder but much, much higher ladder to success, be original. Offer something unique, something that people will have to book you for if they want to see it because you’re the only one doing it…. Until, of course, someone else starts copying your act… 

MAGIC: You’re also been quite outspoken about the copying of tricks and effects as well… 

TIM: You mean Magic Fakers? 

MAGIC: Yes, Magic Fakers 

TIM: I saw a lot of my friends having their effects copied then mass marketed at lower-prices by other dealers. Some people will argue that this is simply capitalism at work, but I truly believe that if we don't support those who are coming up with new ideas, they'll just stop creating. I think that most magicians feel that way and would rather spend a dollar or two more to buy the "original", so I put together a webpage, Magic Fakers, where the "new" items are listed side by side with the "original" items. Immediately people started writing to me expressing their amazement at how similar both items were. Others wrote in with more examples which were double and triple checked before being added to the page. Dealers wrote in thanking me for alerting them to certain products and telling me how they trashed their stock because they didn't want to carry "rip-offs". Currently there are over 75 "original" items and well over 100 "new" ones listed. I'd much rather there was no need for the page at all, but magic is a small "cottage industry" and it's way too expensive for inventors to patent their creations and then take the rip-off artists to court.

Some dealers have felt that I was targeting them just because there were more of their products listed in the "new" column but there's a really easy way not to be listed: instead of just stealing someone else's idea and mass producing it cheaply, do a little research, find out who invented it and ask permission. It's not rocket science and it keeps everyone happy. 

MAGIC: Surely the dealers in question would wish to retaliate about the site? 

TIM: We've had people spread rumours about us, set up fake websites in our names, and email us with legal threats. The worst was when one dealer sent his friends to "pay us a visit" at the FFFF convention. This big guy approached me at our dealer's booth and suggested I remove the Magic Fakers site because "you don't want me as your enemy". He offered a compromise suggesting we just remove his friend's products and then the threats started. I tried to explain that his friend was selling copies of tricks that had taken friends of mine years to develop, and he acknowledged that. He admitted the tricks were rip-offs. He felt what his friend was doing was fine, but my Magic Fakers site was crossing the line. Then a friend of his joined us and they tried to play “good cop, bad cop” and the threats got more blatant. 

SUE-ANNE: Things got ugly, so I stepped in to tell them to take a hike. I reported him and things were taken out of our hands… Bronx style!  

MAGIC: Do you feel the rise of the internet, and especially ‘peer-to-peer’ file sharing has helped or harmed the magic industry? 

TIM: I remember, as an eager young magician, being amazed by tricks I saw on TV and running off to the library to try to search through books and figure out how they were done. It really took a lot of effort. Now, of course, you just google a vague description of the trick and you're inundated with methods, critiques, performances and video tutorials (usually taught by the hands and torso of a faceless 12 year old). 

I think it's gotten a lot harder to keep a secret these days. The internet is a fantastic resource for magicians, but it's equally accessible to non-magicians. 

To make matters worse, there's a whole new section of the magic community emerging who seem to think they somehow deserve the secret of every trick ever created. Some magicians cater to this crowd by releasing the "latest and greatest" tricks with the appropriate amount of hype pitched squarely at these magic "consumers", but even that doesn't seem to satisfy them. One very creative magician I know is not releasing his tricks but instead attempting to keep them for himself, but that hasn't stopped people. I've seen raw explanations of his effects offered both free and for small fees as pdf files on magic "teaching" sites all over the internet. 

SUE-ANNE: On the other hand, the internet is an invaluable tool for support, brainstorming, solving problems, research, learning and keeping up to date with the latest news. 

MAGIC: Do you ever feel at a disadvantage due to the distance between ‘Down under’ and the centers of magic in Europe and the United states? 

SUE-ANNE: As much as distance is an expensive disadvantage in time, travel and access to international magicians, conventions and magic products, isolation can be advantageous in creativity and work possibilities. The internet is our life-line to overseas friends in magic. 

TIM: We certainly feel a lot less isolated since the internet and cheaper international travel. Now we get a lot of American and European magicians visiting Australia to lecture or attend conventions, and it really helps the local guys a lot. We’re also trying to encourage more Australian acts to travel. Australia seems to be the last place talent scouts go to looking for magicians, so we’ve got to leave our own country to be “discovered”. That’s why international events like FISM are so valuable. 

MAGIC: Speaking of FISM, Sue-Anne’s reports have become quite well known as the ‘comprehensive’ summation of these events – After reporting on every act for the last 3 FISM’s, what puts an act on your ‘must see’ list?  

SUE-ANNE: Sitting through 150 competition acts and writing up every single one in detail, can send you to the loony bin. I go crazy having to watch acts I’d rather take a machete to. Other times, I fight my eyes lolling back into my brain, desperately staving off the urge to pass out in boredom. The sooner FISM brings in more stringent rules for performance standards, the better. But when an act  brings me sprinting back to attention and my adrenalin pumps with excitement, I feel that my numb backside, all my hard earned money, time and thousands of miles in travel are all worthwhile. You never forget a good act. It stays in your memory forever, ready to deliciously re-live over and over again. 

Pushing imagination to it’s limits, originality, theatricality, showmanship and well thought out routines go towards extending the boundaries of magic and it’s popularity. Writing the FISM reports is a difficult and time consuming activity, but it’s worth doing if it shines a light on awareness and helps magic in any way. 

MAGIC: Tim, you’ve sat on the Jury at the last two FISMS. What are you looking for in a world championship magic act? 

TIM: I believe magic is one of the most underdeveloped of all performing art forms. There is still so much ground to be broken, so many paths yet to be walked. When I see a magic act, the first thing I'm looking for is originality. Look at what everyone else is doing, and DON'T do any of that.  

Think of your wildest dreams, those magic fantasies you had when you first got into magic. Don't worry about methods or practicality, just imagine what type of magic would blow you away if you saw it. That is what you should aim to create. 

Don't look at a successful act and copy it with slight changes.

Don't look at a successful act and copy it at all.

Don't do routines you've bought at a magic shop or a lecture.

Don't create a theme act where it's all based around one item that multiplies, changes colour, floats then grows to a huge size as the climax.

Don't do an act that is purely a demonstration of skill.

Don't do any type of act which ends up with you looking great at the expense of any volunteers or assistants.

Don't do any act where animals are being hurt or even look as though they're being hurt.

Don't use foul language. Even when used in context this can offend some judges and lose you points. 

MAGIC: It sounds like you are both truly passionate about your work. Do you ever take a break? 

SUE-ANNE: I’ve got to get out or I’ll go mad! I love driving my red Peugeot 307cc Sport with the roof down on a nice day, music thumping, fresh air in my face. I love driving in the country, breathing deeply the sweet scent of gum trees and watching flocks of cockatoos playing and eating in the bush, the kangaroos bounding over the fields. I’ve taken an interest in carnivorous plants and creating a gothic garden at home along with my magical library that looks more like Professor Dumbledore’s office at Hogwarts… and I take great delight in playing with my cheeky little Australian Lorikeet. I’ve started doing gymnastics again for exercise and I love going out to the movies with Tim. 

TIM: We LOVE the movies and really, we do have to get out of the house to take a break. We live in a converted broom factory with our rehearsal studio and offices downstairs and you have to enter through the coffin! I do get away from magic now that I started playing poker in a league every week. 

SUE-ANNE: But then you put together a poker show! 

TIM: True, but I do get a break from reality watching the WWE. 

MAGIC: WWE ? So are you going to do a magic wrestling show next? 

SUE-ANNE: Don’t even think about it!

Reprinted with permission from the September 2007 issue of MAGIC Magazine, copyright © 2007, all rights reserved.

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