Friday, February 26, 2010

Two Primo Italian Magicians

This week at our store in New York City we had a visit by two famous Italians magicians Andrew Basso and Alessandro Politi. Both stopped by and did some serious shopping before heading out to the World Magic Seminar starting this Sunday in Las Vegas.

The WMS is the premier convention for both professional and amateur magicians sponsored by world famous magicians Siegfried and Roy. The WMS began 32 years ago as the Desert Magic Seminar and is held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to the seminar, Lance Burton hosts a special week-end event is held for teen magicians.

Andrew Basso, 24, is from Trento, Italy is considered "One of the younger and most successful escape artist in the world". 

Engaged in over 120 live shows every year, Andrew is currently leading the Italian television programme "Street Magic" where he puts his abilities to the test, in real settings, "on the road", improvising with the public his incredible magic and illusion experiments and his breathtaking escapes.

Andrew has already accomplished dozens of stunts, including:
THE COFFIN OF DEATH: Andrew has only seconds to free himself from a coffin with explosives before a car drives into it at 80 mile per hour.
THE UNDERWATER CELL: Andrew is chained and locked in a cell that is lowered underwater and has to hold his breath and escape before drowning.
ESCAPE AT 40 METERS HEIGHT: hanging head-down from a crane, 130 feet away from the ground, bound in a real straight-jacket, Andrew performed this air escape in record time!

Alessandro Politi, 33, from Savignano sul Rubicon, Italy is a comedian, cabaret artist and actor. He was named Italian Magician and Comic of the Year in 2006.

He is most famous for his portrayal of a weird Scottish magician Martin Scozzese, that calls himself the "Grande Mago" (Big Magician).  Alessandro holds the Guinness Book of World Record for the greatest number of  magic tricks presented underwater for an audience. Check out this hysterical video.