Really fun night out at Foxwoods alert! Michael Carbonaro – a magician, a trickster, a funny guy – will be performing his outlandish magic show in Lies on Stage, May 20th. If you’ve ever watched The Carbonaro Effect on HBO, you’ll know what kind of night you’re in for…if you haven’t, read on!
Here’s our Zoom with Michael Carbonaro – it was magic! We may be his biggest fans now.
Zoom chats with Michael Carbonaro!
Bev: Do you have your phone on you? Pull it out and tell us what are your 3 most used emojis.
🙏🏻 🤦🏻‍♂️ 💚
And the prayer hands aren’t like holy or religious, it’s like I use it as gratitude. I’m so hippie today! I’m talking yoga, gratitude, I’m wearing tie-dye. What’s happening? (laughs)
Lora: Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room right now.
Lora: After watching some of The Carbonaro Effect episodes on HBO Max (a hidden camera magic TV show), we were not only impressed with your magic talents, but also the ability to not crack up at the unsuspecting people who are on the show. How do you not lose it?
It’s funny because I’ll watch the show when it’s finished and I think the same thing. I’m like, “How am I not laughing doing that?” Honestly, on the day, it’s a number of things. I’m applying a magic trick I know but using it in a different way. I’m trying to make the people believe that this is a real environment. Making sure the cameras are hidden and they don’t see a microphone. That everyone is standing in the right spot, that the camera will see the trick and that I’m going to execute the trick correctly and not blow my cover. There’s so much going on that I’m stressed out, you know?
I also don’t look at them in the moment of magic. The whole thing about a hidden camera show – it’s voyeuristic and they’re having a private moment, even though they’re in front of me. But if I were staring at them right when a kitten came out of a bowling ball, for example, they’d be looking at me and needing to relate right away. I like them to have that first moment, so I don’t see their face. I don’t see their reaction until I watch the show later, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s hysterical!”
Bev: What was your favorite trick or “job” you played on The Carbonaro Effect?
Ooh, favorite job role…That’s such a great question, I’ve never gotten that one before. I have to say it was fun when I got to dress as a police officer. It was fun to wear that uniform, rocking that out. Even the security guard…I guess I’m into uniforms!
Watch it ⬇️
I always design the tricks to be like, “What would make me believe it?”
I just love that one because it was the most everyday environment and it was just this rough and tough dude who went from being in the middle of his workday to turning into a beaming child. That one just warms my heart.
Lora: Has anyone on the show peed their pants or reacted in a funny way, or even gotten mad?
The craziest one…We’re at a botanical garden and the story is that somebody just got fired because he’d been doing these weird experiments. And we find this pod…and I touch it to an orange and it starts to assimilate the orange. Then my “co-worker” who’s an assistant comes out and she touches it and I’m like, “Don’t touch it!”
She’s like, “Oh, don’t be scared of those things, just get rid of it,” and she leaves. Then all of a sudden the pod that I’ve put inside this bag starts swelling and this big pod starts blooming her face.
The guy was like, “That’s her face! It assimilated her!!”
He RAN out of there, and we tried to stop him and tell him this is a prank show! But we couldn’t catch him in the parking lot and he ran into his car and drove off and we never got to resolve it and tell him this was a show. So there’s this dude out there who really believes that happened!!
Bev: You’re coming to Foxwoods on May 20th. The tour is called Lies on Stage. Explain the name!
I struggled with this title because there is so much negativity in this world and so many lies and it’s like, we don’t need any more lies. And I start the show right out talking about that. I joke with them and say there’s a difference between good lies and bad lies. A magician is a noble liar, he tells you that he’s lying and then lies for your entertainment. And those are the kind of lies I’m going to be showing you tonight. Sometimes I won’t tell you when I’m lying and then we’ll figure it out later and sometimes I will, but it’s all in good fun.
And it was a play on “Live on Stage.” It’s a family-friendly show!
Lora: Tell us 3 things you won’t travel without.Â
- My makeup kit! I wanted to be a makeup artist before doing magic. I love makeup.
- Some energy bars in the bag.
- This is crazy but I have a little stuffed dog that my husband won in a crane game. We wanted to get a puppy and we haven’t gotten the time to figure it out, and I’m on tour now. He won this little puppy named Ashton, so Ashton’s at the hotels as well. [Awwww!]
Bev: What is the audience going to see or experience at Foxwoods?Â
They’re going to experience incredible energy, incredible magic, goofy magic – like I’m going to show you how to magically separate laundry. One effect in the show is where two people from the audience will vanish from the stage. You’ll be fooled, you’ll be laughing, and I can’t wait to have fun with you!
Lora: Last question…why does the world need magic?
And it does. Magic for me, and I believe, it inherently has this quality for everybody, when you see something happen that you didn’t think was possible, you kind of gasp, and your mouth opens, and your mind opens. Magic shows us that the Universe might not work the way we assumed it always worked. And that’s a really freeing feeling. Because we can feel so boxed in that things have to be this way, and they’re only this way, and it’s never going to change, and then you see something that’s like, “Gasp! How did that happen?” We can all jump on that freeing feeling in our lives. I know I do.
Grab your tickets for his May 20th show at Foxwoods!
Behind the scenes/how we prep for interviews…
Photos provided by Jonas PR
Interviewed by: Lora & Bev!