It’s billed as An Evening of Wonders and Vitaly Beckman – or just Vitaly – truly delivers with an odyssey that blurs reality and leaves the audience breathless with wonder.
“I’ve been doing this for more years that I want to count. I’m 42 now and I’ve been doing magic since I was a teenager,” Vitaly says.
“I was compelled to do magic out of sheer curiosity. I realized that this was my calling because, right from the beginning I was trying to figure out how things could be done.”
And that passion is evident in Vitaly’s performances. Whether he’s breathing life into artwork, creating perfect sculptures while blindfolded, levitating objects or defying gravity itself, each of Vitaly’s illusions is a work of art.
Vitaly’s story is an inspiring lesson in the value of following our dreams as well, and perhaps that’s one of the most magical aspects of this magician’s journey.
“I was born in the Soviet Union, in Belarus, and moved to Israel when I was only eight years old. In my 20s I moved to Canada where I tried my hand at painting and martial arts. My parents wanted me to be an engineer, so I got my degree in mechanical engineering,” Vitaly says.
“But I always loved magic, and I didn’t want to build bridges. I wanted to build a sense of wonder and bridge the gap between imagination and reality.”
“These illusions come from inside me. They are like my children. I couldn’t ever tell you which one I love the most.”
Vitaly explains that his best magic stems from the things he creates through his own imagination.
“I imagine things and that inspires me to make them real. I want to make them real…and when I can, well that’s magic,” he says.
Vitaly’s approach creates a reality that is both baffling and inexplicable – so much so that he has been able to achieve the remarkable feat of deceiving Las Vegas superstars Penn & Teller not once, but twice, on their hit TV show, Fool Us.
“That was a great accomplishment for me and doing it on national television was just great,” Vitaly says.
“They’ve invited me back again and I’m planning on fooling them a third time.”
(Incidentally, in case you’re wondering, for anyone familiar with Penn & Teller, Vitaly confirms that Teller does, in fact speak. Quite a lot, according to Vitaly, just not on camera or on stage.)
Asked about his favourite illusion, Vitaly was, himself, silent for a moment, then responded slowly.
“These illusions come from inside me. They are like my children. I couldn’t ever tell you which one I love the most.”
That being said, Vitaly still chuckled as he recalled doing his trick of making people’s faces disappear from their driver’s licenses.
“That one always gets a reaction,” he says.
“But that’s what magic is all about, isn’t it? It’s theatre mixed with deception and it allows us to express a genuine sense of mystery. The audience finds itself witnessing things that are unexplainable. It’s what I love about the craft.”
See Vitaly’s Evening of Wonders at the Farquhar at UVic Dec. 7. Tickets are available at events.uvic.ca/farquhar
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