I 'magicked' my way into a date with a supermodel: illusionist Adam Trent

09 June 2017 - 02:00 By Yolisa Mkele
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Adam Trent dazzles champion ski jumper-turned-helicopter pilot Thomas Morgenstern with his skill.
Adam Trent dazzles champion ski jumper-turned-helicopter pilot Thomas Morgenstern with his skill.
Image: PHILLIP SCHUSTER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Gone are the days when being a magician meant belonging to a league of creepy men who had too much ribbon in their lives and liked to hang out at children's parties.

Illusionists like Troy and Dynamo have brought magic back into the realm of cool and now Adam Trent hopes to make it adventurous as well with his show The Road Trick.

In the show Trent travels the globe seeing whether he can wrangle experiences out of people in exchange for a bit of wonderment.

The Times caught up with him to find out what drew him to magic and conjuring and to find out what kinds of things a nifty magic trick can get you.

How did you get into magic?

I began when I was nine years old. I saw David Copperfield with my family and it was the first time I remember three generations of family being equally entertained. Later that year I got a book on magic from my aunt and I was instantly hooked.

The inspiration for doing this show?

I wanted to do something that changed the format of magic shows we've seen on TV, and to challenge myself in a way I've never been challenged before.

The most amazing experiences you've wrangled out of people?

I ''magicked" my way onto a yacht party in Monte Carlo during the F1 Grand Prix, got to go in the illegal part of the catacombs in Paris, jumped off the side of the Swiss alps, went on a date with a supermodel, and other crazy things.

WATCH Adam Trent blow these office workers’ minds with his illusions

It feels like magic has become cool again. What do you think?

Obviously, it's great for me.There's a lot of good magic on TV and online lately, and when people see good magic, they want to see more. Magic goes through high and low periods like any other genre of the arts, though it's certainly hotter than I can remember it being in the last decade or so.

Has a magic trick ever gone badly wrong while you were performing it and how do you fix things when they do go wrong?

I've had (and still regularly have) things go wrong on stage. Some of them are huge mishaps, and some are small. I think the biggest part of being a pro is not only preventing disasters, but learning to cover them up. In cases when the trick is completely unsalvageable, I try to make it more entertaining and memorable for the audience than it would have been had it been successful.

• Stream episodes of 'The Road Trick' on redbull.tv

This article was originally published in The Times.

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