Illusionist chooses Jungceylon as home for his magic show
Joe Conrad's a bit tied up for now - the illusionist does some magic for members of the International Business Association of Phuket, whose monthly meeting he used as the launch platform for his new theatre in Phuket
His name’s Joe Conrad. As far as we know he’s no relation of the famed writer Joseph Conrad, who wove such stunning word pictures of Southeast Asia 100 years ago.
But popular illusionist Joe is heading for Phuket’s Heart of Darkness, Patong. In fact he’s already here quite a bit of the time, overseeing creation of a 700-seat theatre in the Jungceylon complex, where he and his crew will put on two 1½-hour shows every nigh, with three on Saturday (closed Mondays).
Originally from Pittsburgh in the US, Joe started doing magic tricks when he was 13. He got his big break when he was invited to open for crooner Tom Jones on a tour of Canada in the 1970s. After that he performed on cruise ships, in night clubs and at venues such as Walt Disney World in Florida.
He came to Asia in the 1990s to redesign and perform at a magic theatre in a Korean theme park. After a long run there, he decided to stay in Asia, performing almost exclusively for casinos and for corporations – who find it handy to have a guy on hand who can make products such as cars appear or disappear with a snap of the fingers.
The Jungceylon theatre is a new level of involvement – and investment – for him (creating the theatre and performance is costing US$1.5 million). Joe promises the show will be a feast of unexpected appearances and disappearances, people being chopped, sliced and diced in different ways (and reassembled, of course), and assistants flying gracefully through the air.
The climax, Joe told the Observer with a grin, will be a disappearing elephant. Well, what a coincidence. That just happens to be the climax of the Phuket FantaSea show, too. There’s no comment on that from Joe, but there’s a bit of a wicked glitter in his eyes.
The theatre is scheduled to open on December 15. Tickets will be B900 for adults and B600 for kids. For a taster, see Joe’s show reel and other videos here.
