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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
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Australian entertainers Christopher Wayne and Mike Tyler are known for their magic skills and comedic chops.
They have nothing up their sleeves
Two Australians mix
nudity and magic
By MARK KENNEDY
Associated Press
N
EW YORK — The idea came to
them, remarkably, without alco-
hol playing a factor: Two magi-
cians in Australia decided to create a
new kind of show that mixed stripping
and illusion.
That’s right, a naked magic show.
“It’s kind of crazy because magic is
the second-oldest profession ever and
we couldn’t believe that no one had
combined the two things that every-
one loves — magic and nudity,” said
Christopher Wayne. “You know what?
We weren’t drunk when we came up
with this.”
Wayne and his co-creator and co-star
Mike Tyler have successfully toured
Australia, New Zealand and Hong
ZHFRXOGFUHDWHWKHZRUOG¶V¿UVWQDXJKW\
magic show?”’ said Tyler. “Good magi-
cians don’t need sleeves and great magi-
cians don’t need pants.”
A tour last year included three weeks
in America, with stops in Massachusetts
and Florida. It was a test to see if Yanks
outside Las Vegas, where nudity and
magic have been merged before, were
ready for this level of sharing.
“We weren’t sure when we went over
how America would take this show,”
said Wayne. “In our head, we thought
‘Sleeves up, pants down’
Wayne, 31, who had his own TV you guys might be a bit more conser-
series, “More Than Magic,” and Tyler, vative or you might not get our Aussie
also 31, a former competitive swimmer brand of humor. But it just absolutely
and magician at corporate get-togethers, exploded over there.”
The pair said they spent the better part
have been friends for years.
After the release of the Channing of a year making sure both parts of the
7DWXPPDOHVWULSSHU¿OP³0DJLF0LNH´ act were balanced perfectly — the magic
they noticed members of their audience was good and the eye candy was buff.
“We spent so much time making sure
getting a little feisty, asking things like
“How big is your magic wand?” and it was legitimately the funniest show
“Can you make my clothes disappear?” that we could make, and we feel like
“So we got to thinking, ‘What about if we’ve kind of caught some lightning in
Kong. Now they plan to tour the U.S.
“We promise that ‘The Naked Magic
Show’ will be one of the most amazing
magic shows you’ll ever see,” said Tyler
by phone from Brisbane. “We promise
it’ll be one the funniest comedy shows
you’ll ever see. And we do promise
full-frontal illusion.”
The North America tour kicks off
later this month in Baltimore and makes
stops in Eugene and Seattle in late May.
a bottle, thanks to a lot of hard work,”
Wayne said.
“And then we wanted to make sure
that we had something nice for the audi-
ence to look at so we both dedicated
every spare moment of every day to
working out.”
Slowly stripping
They’ve somehow gotten comfort-
able slowly stripping in front of fans.
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got into their birthday suits together.
“We were best mates before we
started doing the show and the moment
had come where we had to get naked in
front of each other,” said Tyler. “Once
we got naked in front of each other, it’s
surprisingly easy to get naked in front of
an audience that’s clapping and cheering
and having a great time.”
And, yes, their parents have seen the
show. It was no big deal. “They saw us
naked when we were kids anyway,” said
Tyler, laughing.
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