Malin Nilsson ' s annual variety production , Variety Victoria , 2018 Photo Lars Brundin
THE BEGINNING
Everything could be turned into something else
I have worked professionally as a magician for 20 years . I create things and I perform things . Some of the things I create are tricks and live shows .
Growing up in a house full of magic is why I am here today . My father , Lennart , had a passion for magic which was passed on to him from Paul , the local watch maker , a gentleman old enough to be my granddad , and the Robert-Houdin of the small 500-people fishing village .
The first live magic show I ever saw was when Paul performed at a children ' s party in our living room . I will never forget the five of diamonds he forced on my cousin . After forcing the card he brought him onstage , made some jokes and gags , and when he turned his back to the audience , he reveal the five of diamonds , pinned to his back . Not the card . But five big fabric diamonds , spread out on his back , each attached with a safety pin .
It took me many years to realize that it was actually amazing . Perhaps not the effect or the trick . But the amount of stage work that went in to it . I think I remember this trick because we all helped him remove the five diamonds afterwords . And it took quite some time . This was in the eighties , before the internet , when magic tricks were spread like covid-19 , mouth to mouth .
I only saw a handful of live magic shows before I started to work professionally .
The carport opens , in front of all the tools and machines , my brother , in a pinstriped suit and hair like mine , has set up a magic show . My father built all the props . I found it very fancy . There are glitter stars on the table and his name is spray painted in gold on boxes . All the garden furniture we owned was dragged in front for the audience to sit on , the neighbors and my family . The show goes on forever , because more is more , and nobody has anything else to do . Card tricks , magic canes , rope tricks , and empty boxes that , after a simsala-bim , are filled with something colorful . It ’ s grand .
My 10 year old brother moved to Australia when I was 12 , but the phone kept ringing , someone asked for a magician to perform at the local harbor festival . And my father told them he had moved abroad , but they could speak with me . That ' s how I got my first paid gig . I did a 45 minute long show , featuring all the tricks I knew , including fire juggling . And I was hooked .
My father wasn ' t a performer , he was more of a collector and he loved building stuff and trying out ideas . He was very creative , a true artist . Teaching comes in different forms , it doesn ' t have to be in the way of do-as-I-do . I could be given a trick description with the comment ” you can probably do something with this ”, or be handed a prop with the question “ do you have any use for this ?” There was never a fixed place for a prop , a sequence or a move . Everything could be turned into something else . There were no right or wrong ways to perform something .
Growing up I never heard “ this is a good trick for a girl ”. I played with the same props , and wore the same stage clothes my brother and
10 DECEMBER | 2020