Matthew Laslo Shares Magic on National TV

— by Margie Doyle —

Can’t Fool Us! We know Orcas’ Matthew Laslo is already a legendary magician!

Matthew the Magician is hooked — on magic. And this 16-year-old kid has incorporated lessons in physics, psychology, math, communication, scheduling, and strategizing as his career continues on an amazing trajectory to join the ranks of Penn and Teller, David Copperfield and even the Great Houdini.

Islanders can enjoy his most recent  milestone this Wednesday, Aug. 31, when his appearance on Penn and Teller’s “Fool Us” television program on the CW network (Channel 11 locally) is streamed at the Sea View Theatre. Doors will open at 7 for the free showing at 8 p.m. (The show will be repeated at 9 p.m. on Sept. 2).

“Penn & Teller: Fool Us” features some of the world’s finest magicians performing their best tricks in front of a live, Las Vegas audience. Matthew became a fan of the “Fool Us” show as a 9-year-old. The show lasted one season only, but then it was revived in 2015. “I really wanted to do the show, and I was ready to audition this winter, when I came up with something that I felt was good for the show.”

That “something” was an updated version of the “bullet catch” trick, where the performer catches a bullet  between his teeth. Matthew created his version, however, using a T-shirt cannon and playing cards instead of bullets. Taking a classic trick and making it his own, using “weird  props” and incorporating the laws of physics, were just a part of what drew Matthew catch the show’s attention. Before he made the cut for the national show in April, “Fool Us” producers interviewed 500 acts; that number was cut to 60 and then to 52 acts from around the world, before settling on Matthew and his island assistant, Maria Bullock, for the taping of this season’s shows last April in Las Vegas.

Maria Bullock, Matthew Laslo’s assistant, joins him for the taping of “Fool Us” in Las Vegas

“For me, it’s always a mind game, thinking strategically. I’m always working on something and refining my act, creating many tricks and putting them together in a multi-dimensional show with music, lighting, humor.

“So many things are really magic, depending on how you define it,” Matthew says. “For me, so many pieces of technology are baffling; like how does a microwave heat things completely with no fire? Or superhuman powers, like a mom lifting a car off an injured child; “That’s the magic of if people really want something.”

He finds there are two types of audiences: those who want to figure out the illusion; or “people who really want to see something impossible.”

“Magic is an audience-participation-heavy experience. It calls for super in-the-moment responses” to make something out of what happens in performance.  That friendly and funny improvisational talent is one of Matthew’s gifts. Even though working with a live audience demands that Matthew be fast on his feet, he says, “There’s nothing like it for me. In rehearsals, I may be half asleep, but when the audience comes in, I’m on fire.”

The biggest thrill comes, he says, not from fooling people, but from seeing the delight in someone’s eyes when the illusion works. “It’s not a power trip over somebody, but more like, ‘Let’s have some fun, let’s see what’s happening.’ Whatever you want to believe, however you interpret that, you can do anything.”

The hardest part of a magician’s art, Matthew says, is  creating new illusions and ideas. The trick for “Fool Us” illustrates that difficult process. He says, “I ran into a lot of problems creating and building the trick. You don’t go into a magic shop and buy the trick. There’s a lot of failure on the way to success.”

“For sure” he gets stage fright, but he recalls “the one show I wasn’t nervous was the worst show of my life. I always get stage fright and I always need stage fright.”

His goals are to do as many shows as consistently as possible, to be touring more and more — and ultimately to join the ranks of David Copperfield and Penn and Teller performing regularly in Las Vegas. He’ll be at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle on October 15 and in Bellingham in December.

Closer to home, Matthew will be appearing on Whidbey Island on Saturday, Aug. 27 and Saturday Sept. 3 in Friday Harbor at the San Juan Theater. There’s definitely more in the pipeline, including something mysterious, which Laslo will only describe as “as big as Fool Us; I’m really excited for it.”

Matthew says that magic has a hold on him, because, “I love that it’s not as popular as say, musicians, even though it’s one of the oldest professions. There’s so much that can be done to move it forward; there’s somewhere to go. And I love being at the bottom and working my way up, I love trying to get there. I love practicing, but I love performing so much more.”

“I’m just like everyone else. I’m living my dream, with enough work and practice,”

Orcas followers will have the opportunity of seeing what “living the dream” looks like at the Sea View Theatre viewing party on Wednesday, Aug. 31. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7 p.m.