Not many magicians have a song written about them, but that’s only one of many interesting things about Camilo Dominguez, the inspiration for Vancouver’s Said the Whale’s song “Camilo (the Magician).”
Born in Columbia, Dominguez received his first lesson in magic at the age of four from one of many professional magicians who would be his mentors over the years. At 15, He moved to Victoria and began attending Belmont Secondary, where he was drafted to perform for various school events. These shows acted as a good warm-up for his future higher-profile shows.
“When I was 16 I did a show for 500, 600 people,” says Dominquez. “I was very nervous, but it went well. When I was starting I always got nervous; now I only get nervous for the first five seconds, when they say, ‘Welcome to the stage, Camilo the magician!’ I get butterflies.”
At the age of 19, after moving to Vancouver and finishing school, Dominguez decided to brave the difficulties, add the suffix to his name, and devote himself to being a full-time professional magician.
“The hardest thing about being a magician is trying to create something new every time for each show,” he explains. “Magicians occasionally adapt old tricks, but most of the time I create all my own.”
Though Dominguez retains sole credit for his tricks, he says magicians often work together. “We don’t like to reveal most of our tricks to the public,” he says, “but between magicians we do all the time so we can improve.”
Like many magicians, Dominguez likes to put a unique spin on his shows.
“My favourite is close-up magic, like things with cards and coins,” he says. “Close-up magic is usually for a small amount of people but I like big audiences and I like close-up so I put them together. Like close-up, but on a big scale.”
Also like many performers, Dominguez expresses that he enjoys being on stage almost as much as the actual act of doing the magic. Engrossing the audience is always the goal when performing.
“I like to have people forget about everything and have an hour and half of magic,” he says, stressing the audience-participation factor of his show. “The first thing I do as soon as I walk on the stage is bring up audience members. There are always people beside me shuffling the cards.”
And even though he uses virtually any free time he has to practice, unforeseen things are always happening. “My favourite thing is improvising,” he says. “I like when unexpected things happen, but the trick always works out.”
Camilo
8pm Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19
$20, McPherson Playhouse
rmts.bc.ca