Paul Kieve

Paul Kieve
Born Woodford, London
Occupation Illusionist, magic effects creator

Paul Kieve (born 1967) is an English professional illusionist and whose consulting work for both stage and screen has contributed to changing how magical special effects in productions are approached. He is the only illusionist ever to have won a New York Drama Desk award (for Ghost the Musical on Broadway). He created the illusions for the 2014 Kate Bush concert Before the Dawn.

Early life

Kieve was born in Woodford, North-East London[1] and started magic at 10 years of age after receiving a magic set as a birthday gift.

Early performing career

Kieve first performed publicly in 1983. In January 1984 at the age of 16 he performed card tricks in the music video for the Sade single Your Love Is King, his arms having been shaved to give the impression that the singer was performing the prestidigitation herself.[2]

In April of that year he made his first television appearance on the BBC TV children's show Blue Peter, apparently cutting presenter Janet Ellis into three pieces .

In 1985 he was a finalist in the "Young Magician of the Year" competition.

Early professional engagements as a performer included a 1985 residency at the Xenon nightclub on Piccadilly, London and a summer 1986 run at the Inn on The Park, Jersey where he was resident support to acts including Bernard Manning, Gloria Gaynor, Bob Monkhouse, Rolf Harris and Ken Dodd.

In 1986 he and Lawrence Leyton formed The Zodiac Brothers and performed resident seasons in Sendai, Japan, on board the Cunard Line's QE2 and at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. When the Zodiac Brothers split in 1991 and Kieve made plans to attend university an approach from the Theatre Royal Stratford East to assist with illusions for a production of The Invisible Man[2] marked the beginning of a new career as a magic consultant.

Later career as magic effects creator

Stage

Credits include:

Film

Kieve was magic consultant on the 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for which he created a number of 'live' illusions including the floating spheres in the astronomy room and the self-folding marauders map.[3] He also appears in the film performing sleight of hand magic making candles multiply in his fingers in the Three Broomsticks. He is the only real life magician to perform magic in any of the Harry Potter films.[4]

He was magic consultant and instructor on Martin Scorsese's 2011 film Hugo, based on the magician and film maker Georges Méliès

Television

TV credits as magic consultant include:

Work with other illusionists

Kieve has also acted as magic consultant to David Blaine, Arturo Brachetti, Geoffrey Durham, Dynamo, Jeff McBride and Dominic Wood.

Collaboration with visual and performance artists

Paul Kieve worked with French artist Orlan on Woman with Head, Woman Without Head at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1996 and with multimedia artist Christian Jankowski on the short film The Flock in which he also appeared. with video artist Jonathan Allen He also created a ghostly dove sequence for the performance art project Carnesky's Ghost Train.

He worked with performance artist Rose English on Tantamount Esperance at the Royal Court Theatre[5] and has collaborated with Marisa Carnesky on several projects including Carnesky's Burlesque Ghost Box for Duckie in 2002.

Other work

Kieve was magic consultant to Guinness World Records for its 2004 and 2005 magic sections (the only such sections ever carried by the book), researching with other illusionists including Penn and Teller, David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy.

Awards

Published works

A fantasy-biography of sorts including various magic tricks and backstories on some of the world's most famous magicians, along with an introduction by actor Daniel Radcliffe, who Kieve coached during the filming of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Stage magic historian

A keen student of the history of magic Kieve regularly lectures both on the history of stage magic and his own work. In 2011 he presented a talk on 'The Magic of Theatre' at the Magic Live conference in Las Vegas.[7] He presented Grappling with Ghosts: Staging Ghost Effects in the Modern Theatre at the University of Westminster[8] in 2009.

He has presented at the Essential Magic Conference - the ground-breaking online magic conference pioneered by Portuguese illusionist Luis de Matos[9] and has lectured at the Magic Circle and the Hackney Empire in London.

Paul Kieve owns an extensive collection of historical magic memorabilia, some of which he loaned to the Hayward Gallery for its touring Magic Show (2009-2010) exhibition. He is a consultant curator of The Magic Circle Museum

Trivia

Singer-songwriter Paloma Faith once worked as Paul Kieve's magic assistant.

References

  1. ↑ Rooth, Ben (11 April 2005). "Kieve reveals secrets of the spells". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  2. 1 2 Rees, Jasper (14 June 2011). "Paul Kieve: The real-life Jonathan Creek". The Telegraph.
  3. ↑ Costa, Maddy (28 November 2011). "Matilda's master illusionist". The Guardian.
  4. ↑ Rees, Jasper (16 July 2011). "Q&A Special: Magician Paul Kieve". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ Woddis, Carole (8 June 1994). "Kieve reveals secrets of the spells". The Herald.
  6. ↑ Johs, Ian (10 August 2004). "Still Got The Old Magic". The Times.
  7. ↑ "Magic Magazine website"
  8. ↑ "PDF on Arts & Humanities Research Council's 'Beyond Text' website"
  9. ↑ "Profile page at Essential Magic Conference website"
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