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MAGIC MATT

Master Illusionist Matt Hollywood brings his special brand of magic to the Gold Coast.

WITH A CAREER than spans many continents and several decades, Master Illusionist Matt Hollywood is one of the Gold Coast’s most recognisable personalities.

Known for his grand illusions, he has been named Australian Entertainer of the Year and International Merlin Illusionist of the Year, however, the road to success has not always been easy.

In the early days, Matt was taking up to 400 flights a year, crisscrossing the country and building a reputation as one of Australia’s most popular magic acts.

“Sometimes I would do eight flights a day and for three years I was Virgin Australia’s highest frequent flyer which resulted in me being their first ever Platinum member,” Matt recalls.

“I might do a morning TV appearance in Melbourne, then a corporate booking in Sydney, back to Melbourne for a business lunch and then up to the Gold Coast for an evening show. WORDS RHONDA OXNAM

“Someone told me a long time ago to ‘pack small, play big’, so I learnt to do that very well and that’s what gave me the ability to do the shows in quick succession.

“I was doing gala dinners, business conferences, birthday parties, TV appearances, whatever came my way

“And for a long time I did a lot of television, from The Footy Show through to Rove, which set up my profile, so from there I cruised along and had fun.”

That fun included playing shows for everyone from princes to prime ministers.

“I’ve been very fortunate to play for some very high-profile guests such as Nicole Kidman, Robbie Williams, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Anderson and Gordon Ramsay, as well as a host of presidents, royals and public figures all around the globe,” he says.

These days you will find the Master Illusionist much closer to home, performing regular Friday and Saturday night shows at the Village Theatre Sanctuary Cove and savouring the time he gets to spend with his precious loved ones.

“From travelling so much around the country, I realised the value of family,” he admits.

“While I still love performing, what matters most for me now is not money, it’s time … time with my kids, time with my partner, time with my friends.

“That’s the main reason I’ve based myself at Sanctuary Cove, to be close to my family.”

In fact, it was a family member who inspired Matt’s initial interest in the world of magic when he was just a young boy.

“My great grandfather was a well-known magician back in the 1910’s and 1920s,” Matt explains.

“When I was around 10-years-old he showed me my first magic trick ever and it was amazing, I’ll never forget it.

“He would get a table and he would float it in the air.

“And he made me promise that if I ever became a magician, I would do this trick.

“So even though he’s not here anymore, I always include it because I strongly believe that if you say you are going to do something in life, it’s important to always keep your word.”

While that levitating table is still incorporated into every show, over the years Matt’s illusions have got bigger and bigger, and more and more dangerous.

“As a magician, the sky’s the limit, because you only have to think of something that may seem impossible and then figure out how to make it work.

“But you have to keep lifting your game, it’s got to get bigger, it’s got to get scarier, it’s got to get more dangerous, more on the edge,” Matt explains.

“I have a trick where I get locked, shackled and chained inside a trap with blades that are set on fire.

“I’ve got 30 seconds to escape before the rope burns through, and releases one of the blades which would result in absolute disaster.

“That trick is actually death defying because it is dangerous in every single way so at every performance, I have paramedics on standby should anything happen.”

As the only full-time magic show in Australia, Matt welcomes guests to The Village Theatre every Friday and Saturday night.

“It’s amazing, every show is different because of what the audience do (or what they forget to do),” Matt says.

“We change the illusions around every three to four months, with all the big Las Vegas effects, and because of that people come back again and again and again.

“We start at 6.30pm so it’s not too late for the kids and often the younger audience members become the stars of the show too, whether we make one of them disappear or play some crazy tricks with them.

“We do these big grand illusions and the audience is just ‘WOW’ but they are also laughing throughout the whole show, so they come out and they feel good because they have had such a great time.

“Magic is the ability to achieve the impossible, and a lot of people don’t realise that if you just add a bit of magic into your life and do something a bit different, it can have such a positive effect.”

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