Isn’t it tempting to kiss your love good luck before the show?! Yes, it is. With the only exception – if you don’t perform magic. So, here comes Rule #1: never NEVER touch a magician before the performance. You never know what may pop out   And do not even think about it if he does a bird act!

When I started my career in magic, the scariest thing for me was to forgetting my choreography or to setting something up. But now, one year later, my worst nightmare is – the prop, when it does not work for some stupid reason. We had to struggle with “Impaled” till it got fixed.  It took me some time to get used to a harness, but last week something happened.  I could not even think about.  For our grand finale, metamorphosis, I opened the sub-trunk lid, my magician was still trying to put the bag on!!! What a mess! Luckily, he was low enough, so the house couldn’t see his spirited efforts. My smile immediately became wider and, I swear, I was never thinking faster than at that particular moment, when the show is in progress and the house is full of people we have no right to disappoint. Finally, he just gave up on that stupid bag and popped out. Relief. Wide smile, last chords of music and a final pose. We did it!

After the show we did talk a lot, trying to understand what exactly went wrong. We practiced, tried new things, we got it. It taught us that no matter how many shows you had, you can still make a mistake. All it takes is to lose your concentration for a one split second. But what does not kill you makes you stronger.

Hi. My name is Elena and I am a magician’s assistant. 

If you asked me whether I ever dreamed of becoming a magician’s assistant, I would say “NO WAY!” It’s exactly the case when a profession chooses you. I had ballet and jazz classes when I was a child, but never seriously thought of making dancing a career. So, I graduated from college with a degree in linguistics.

How many times I saw David Copperfield’s specials on TV and of course, besides all the tricks and secrets you can’t help but notice those gracious beautiful nymphs dancing around him. They, together with the magician, made the magic happen. It seemed to me they were mythical creatures from fairy-tails my mom used to read to me before I fell asleep. It was all about beauty and grace.  At it looked that way.  Now when after every single show I have to heal bruises, cuts and broken nails, I do realize that it’s not as easy as it seems. But it MUST look effortless for the audience.

When we first started to rehearse the shows, I learned everything pretty fast. We did not have any rehearsal room and had to practice in my magician’s “studio”. I mean his garage. No mirrors, no proper floor cover – I simply had to guess. I remember when I first tried “Origami”, I was talking to myself: “this is not a coffin. This is NOT a coffin.” But a good thing about illusion show – once you figure out one illusion, the others are much, much easier to do.

Our first show was a year ago on the Star Princess. I was shaking. I was so afraid to forget something crucial during the performance or preset and let my magician down. But it went on pretty well. And now, one year later after everything we’ve been through I doubt that anything can possibly scare me. We had to perform after the whole night of flying, or when I had a high temperature and hardly could stand straight, or when we had to juggle our act according to the cruise director’s demands. Once we got a schedule that left us 40 minutes between the shows for resetting pretty tough, but… doable.

So, what can I say? I got pretty lucky to have a dream job, to travel around the world and share all this experience with someone you love. What can be better?  I can’t even imagine.

Tonight the curtain will raise at 8:15 on My Experience The Illusion Show Live. We’re in Puerto Vallarta for one night only. It’s Spring Break for the kids up North so our cruise ship is filled with tweens. The great thing about magic is it’s universal appeal. It not only joins generations and families, but bridges cultural and language barriers as well. My crew and I are expecting an exciting evening.

My Experience The Illusion Show is worth checking out, not just for the magic, but also for the entertainment. Tonight’s menu includes a standard fare of tricks as well as some quite spectacular illusions. After the usual run of tricks, including one where I was push 18" tubes through my assistant after sawing her in half, I launch into my most elaborate trick, where I turn my assistant into our ship’s cruise director Sam!

My show features a card trick gone wrong, which I resolve by causing a drawing of the wrong card to come to life and reveal the correct card. I levitate and vanish my assistant with two green lasers. Finally, I exchange places with my assistant in just three seconds. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

I’ve been told that my humor is at times, cheesy. I’m always trying new jokes and lines out. Sometimes they kill – others not. The next tricks I perform involved a borrowed napkin which animates, dances by itself and turns into a real rose which is given to a lady member of our audience. A place a lady into a cube and push 10 deadly spikes through her. In an instant she vanishes and a new lady emerges from the otherwise empty cube! I enter a form fitting upright cabinet with a hole so my chest can be seen. My assistant then climbs through my chest!

All these tricks are impressive, all the more so if you’re sitting right there. I’ve had people just gasp in amazement when they see this stuff for the first time. But after more thought, they tell me they have figured out ways in which they could be done. I’ve never had anyone guess their secrets yet. It’s funny though, with today’s information culture, when a person is convinced something is true, you can’t tell them otherwise. My mentor Loren Michaels once told me "you can’t fool everyone, every time". I say , why not try.