Real Life: NZ-bound illusionist Scott Silven on ‘sliding-doors moment’ that led to touring the world

Acclaimed illusionist and mentalist Scott Silven. Photo / Newstalk ZB

Scott Silven, a world-renowned illusionist performing in New Zealand next month, has revealed the “sliding-doors moment” that led him to fulfil his dream of touring the world.

The Scotsman, who will bring his show Wonders to the Auckland Arts Festival in March, has always loved magic. He learned his first tricks from his grandfather as a young boy, ran away to Italy as a 13-year-old to learn hypnosis, and was headlining a show at one of the UK’s top theatres by 21.

But it’s only in recent years that Silven’s career has gone truly international, catapulting him to global stardom.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Silven said much of his success came down to being “really lucky”.

“It’s all of those sliding-doors moments in life — the people that you meet and being in the right place at the right time,” he said.

“I had moved to London, and I’d signed with an agent in London who was touring Europe at that point. And I thought, ‘This is the pinnacle of my career. I’m so happy to be here’.

“And then I went up and did the Edinburgh [Fringe] Festival one year and met my current manager, who came to the show and very kindly said it was one of the best things he’d seen at the festival in 25 years.”

Silven told his new manager of his dream to live in New York City and open a show there. He was told that could take three to five years — but only three weeks later, his manager had secured a residency at a theatre there.

“That residency was meant to run for six weeks and it ran for 18 months. That was really the moonshot at that point,” he said. “That helped my career in an incredible way, and I’ve been in New York since then and have the great privilege of touring the world every year.”

A self-described mentalist, Silven says his performances are an exploration of the power of the mind rather than the misdirection and sleight of hand that most magicians rely on.

“My work doesn’t deal with any of that. It’s people’s emotions, memories and experiences, and hopefully crafting impossible illusions from those things,” he says.

“The interesting thing about mentalism is that the illusions themselves are hopefully just as exciting, impressive and even more mesmerising than traditional magic because they’re personal to the audience.

“It’s not a strange guy standing on stage putting someone in a sparkly dress into a box. It’s dealing with your life. It’s dealing with the here and now, and I like that presence of it.”

He says Wonders is “a fast-paced, exciting, but meditative experience” — and promises it will be unlike anything people have seen in a theatre before.

“You’re going to witness a story, you’re going to witness a beautiful set design, but you’re also going to witness this hopefully really exciting journey,” he said.

“I take the audience on a journey that explores a moment of wonder in my life that I had as a little kid growing up in the forest of Scotland, and then I take them on a journey that explores the power of wonder in their life.

“And everyone is involved. There are moments where the entire audience will be taking part in decisions together, and other moments where people will come up on stage and hopefully witness impossible and exciting things, culminating in a finale that they’ll hopefully remember for a very long time.”

Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.