Master illusionist and escapologist, Cosentino has been an Australian household name for more than 15 years, ever since his dazzling first appearance on Australia’s Got Talent.

In the last decade, he has become a true global superstar, wowing audiences across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and beyond. He’s a bestselling author, a multi-award-winning performer, and the first Australian magician to have nine prime-time TV specials broadcast globally, with a reach of over 750 million viewers across 40 countries.

Bringing his brand-new show TRICKED to the Orange Civic Theatre next week, Australia’s favourite magician told OC Life there’s no secret or 'trick' to his success, just a whole lot of hard work.

“If you were to calculate the hours… it wouldn't be economical. It doesn't make any sense,” says Consentio, recounting the months of work and rehearsal that go into producing even one illusion for the stage.

“Each illusion takes four months of preparation to come up with an idea, a concept, to draw it, to fabricate it, you put it all together and then it doesn't work! You start rebuilding, then you finally get a working prototype!

“Then you're bringing in a choreographer. You've got to add lighting design; you're bringing in the dancers and the crew. We're talking thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment and rehearsal time for one illusion!”

And an escape can take six months of preparation, he adds.

“If you're clocking in and clocking out like a normal job, the accumulated hours would never make any sense, but you don't do it for that. It's an art form, and it's a craft, and it's a passion,” he says.

Magic is also an art form that has been around for a long time, but people seem to still like the classics, says Cosentino, who enjoys the challenge of reinventing them for his audiences.

“We do a sawing in half,” he says as an example. “Why? Because audiences are kind of disappointed when you don't saw someone in half!

“So I say, okay, well we're not going to do it in a horizontal fashion dividing in two, we're going to do vertically and divide in eight separate pieces! So I’m thinking about what I love so much about the art form, and then kind of pushing it.”

Cosentino describes his new show TRICKED as the most ambitious live show he’s ever created, and it’s not just the death-defying escapes or grand illusions that make it so.

“Why we're saying it's so super ambitious is it involves more than 50 per cent of the audience participating in the show. People come up on stage, they examine things, they sit opposite me at a card table,” he says.

Working up close and off the cuff with random audience members means there is always a risk of not knowing how they're going to respond.

“My comedian friends tell me just do your act to the audience, don't do crowd work,” says Cosentino.

“When you're seemingly reading someone's mind - obviously it's a trick - So when I'm working with people, it's challenging because you've got to select the right people, be able to actually read them, read signals, and so it can all go pear-shaped pretty quickly!”

Cosentino has made an entire career of blending the line between reality and fantasy with his stage performances, but in an AI world where those lines are becoming increasingly blurred and people can conjure fantastical things at a word, is there still room today for magic?

“That’s a really good question,” Cosentino says thoughtfully. “It's getting to the point where you can't distinguish between what's real and what's not. People are conditioned to seeing pretty amazing things, and I thought this was going to be challenging for us.

“But what's happened is people are coming to the show; it’s live, they’re sitting in the seats, and these magical things are happening right in front of them. People are appearing, people are disappearing, ending up in the audience. Levitating! And they're saying to themselves, this is not AI. This is not ‘fake’ in that regard. I don't know how that person disappeared and ended up in the audience. So now it's working to my advantage, and people are more bamboozled than ever!

“That's the real magic that's taking place now. People are seeing magical things that they're so used to on their phone, but now experiencing them, sitting in a live audience- not alone, but with a community around them.”

Prepare to be TRICKED at the Orange Civic Theatre on Tuesday, July 28. Tickets via Ticketek or call Orange Civic Theatre on 63938111.