Ben Apfelbaum

THE ILLUSIONISTS : DIRECT FROM BROADWAY : MEDIA CALL

Usually when one goes to a magic show you usually see only one magician performing. At the ILLUSIONISTS : DIRECT FROM BROADWAY you get to see eight magicians.                                                                 

Although the majority of the magicians are American this multi magician show had its world premiere in the Sydney Opera House in 2012. Since then the show has toured 25 countries and has returned regularly to Sydney at this time of year. To maintain variety and surprise the show has returned in various guises commencing with the Illusionists 2012 and  thereafter the illusionists 2.0, The Illusionists 2014, The Illusionists 1903, and this year the show is entitled the Illusionists: Direct from Broadway.               

One of the principal illusionists Kevin James, known as the Inventor, in a surprise revelation, stated the Illusionists was only meant to be a three week show at the Opera House. He is as delighted with the continued success of the show after six years in its various iterations.  

Despite its short seasons the shown has created box office records with over 85,000 Sydney Opera House audiences alone having witnessed the non stop spectacle and wonderment of these shows.     

The acts this year  comprise of The Trickster aka Jeff Hobson, a comedic magician, the mentalist aka Chris Cox, whose mind reading feats leave audiences astounded, the Warrior aka Brisbane born Robyn Sharpe, ex gymnast whose act has been described as ‘one of the most dynamic and dangerous displays in the world’, the Inventor aka Kevin James, who is a magic consultant to such luminaries as Penn and Peller and David Copperfield, the Showman aka Mark Kalin, who has brought large scale illusions to stages all over the globe, the Conjuress aka Jinger Leigh, a modern day sorceress, The Manipulator aka Korean born An Ha Lim, whose sleight of hand routine is widely regarded as one of the best of its type in the world, and the Daredevil aka British escape artist Jonathan Goodwin, who over the years has been hanged, buried alive, dangled by his toes from helicopters, burned at the stake and even attacked by sharks.

This show is the perfect show for the family on summer holidays but it runs for an all too brief season from the 19th to the 29th December, 2018. Performance times are 3pm and 7pm except for 1pm on Christmas Eve. There are additional shows on the 27th and 28th December however there is no show on Christmas Day. For bookings 92507777.

http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.