The Symphony of Illusions Comes to the Omaha Symphony

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First of all, thanks so much for being on our
show today.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I gotta tell you, I love the symphonic music anyway.
I love the symphony. The Omaha Symphony is so fun
to go and just watch them perform. But they do
so many fun types of shows that aren't necessarily specifically. Hey,
let's just you know, grab some Burnstein and like play
some Burnstein for people. And that's what this is about. Michael.

(00:24):
You are not going to be grabbing a violin, and
you're not going to be standing up there, and you're
not going to be singing to people. Tell me about
what you do.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
First of all, it's a good thing. Nobody wants to
hear me sing. Trust I am an illusionist, and I'm
really excited about the show that we're bringing to the
Holland Center a couple of weeks. I've been traveling around
the country for many, many years performing for all kind
of you know, theaters and casinos. But the show that
we put together with the Omaha Symphony is something really special.

(00:53):
We're taking my favorite illusion and we're going to combine
them with the music of the orchestra. So while I
perform Magic. The orchestra they're going to accompany with their
music and it is just a beautiful, perfect fit. It's
really really exciting. I can't wait for everyone to see it.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, and I just know people who are just like, well,
I don't know if I'm going to recognize any song.
I trust me, every single time I've seen the symphony,
they are playing music that I recognize some of the pieces,
and they certainly are going to be doing that. And
this is Saturday and Sunday, the twenty eighth and twenty
ninth at the Holland Center. One of the things about
an illusionist, though, Michael, is that everybody just kind of

(01:32):
wonders how on earth they find a way to do this,
And it starts with just being really interested. So what
did you fall in love with what you end up
doing and how long did it take for you to
feel like you really had a grasp of what you
were doing.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, I'm really lucky. I found what I love to
do really early in life. I found magic when I
was five years old, and I'm a little older than
that now, but I never got off the path. I mean,
it was something from that early point in my life.
It was just you know, the passion in my life.
And I've spent many decades now trying to take magic
into really interesting places. But growing up, you know, it was,

(02:05):
like I said, it was my driving force. And you know,
it took I studied pretty hard. And this was in
the day before YouTube. You had to really either go
to magic stores. You had to go to libraries, remember libraries,
and you really had to dig deep to learn this stuff.
And it took, you know, probably at least a good
ten to fifteen years, you know, until I was around college,
days before I really you know, felt like I you know,

(02:27):
started to have a firm I mean, I was performing
the entire time, but it's such magic is such a profound,
deep art. There's a lot to it, so it took
a lot of study.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
We're speaking with Michael Grand and Natty. He is an
illusionist and he's going to be performing at the Holland
Center on September twenty eighth and twenty ninth with the
Omaha Symphony. Should be a lot of fun with Symphony
of Illusions. Can you explain to me the difference between
an illusionists and just kind of a traditional magician.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, they're both very similar. You know, through magic we
create illusions for the audience. So both terms really apply,
but generally the term usionists means you're doing larger things.
You're making objects float in the air, if you're doing
things that involve things, people and objects on a larger scale.
As a matter of fact, some of the pieces that
I'm bringing to Holland Center, they're going to involve the

(03:12):
entire audience together at the exact same time. So everybody
in the audience together are going to be able to
participate in certain illusions, and they're all going to hopefully
be a made together right at the exact same time.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
That's super cool. Everybody's got influences, I you know what
I do. You know, I talk about different broadcasters and
people that I kind of like use their style or
I was inspired by them in one way or another
as I got into the business. And I'm sure it's
like that for somebody who got very interested in magic
or illusions. There are a lot of famous ones out there, Michael.

(03:44):
Who are the ones that kind of sparked this interest
in you and the ones that you really studied the most.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I'm going to be honest with you. I studied everybody.
I used to when I was a kid, you know,
when I was ten, eleven, twelve, when the TV listenings
would come, I would go through line by line by
line and see any magician who's going to be on
TV that week, and I would you know, says a VCR.
And we used to VCRs on the date myself. But
I would tape everything, and I would study everything, and

(04:09):
I really watched everything, and and you know, there was
there was not really one or two specific people, but
there was a lot of great magicians over the years,
and I've always enjoyed watching, you know, all of them.
There's so much magic out there, you could you know,
it's just even studying all this time, I really feel like,
you know, you've only reached the tippy iceberg of what's
out there. So you know, it's there's a lot to

(04:31):
take in with magic.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's pretty interesting. What has been the effect on your
guys' industry with the advent of YouTube, though, I mean,
everything is so accessible to people that are always people
out there trying to kind of pull the curtain back
on the stuff that you guys are doing, because it
is just absolutely incredible when you just allow yourself to

(04:52):
be suspended in the moment and not worry about like wow,
you know, like I'm really interested to go behind the scenes,
you know you Penn and Teller style and just know
how they did all these tricks and all this stuff.
There is a true magic to experiencing this stuff for
the first time. But what has the effect been on
the fact that all this information is so accessible to
anybody these days?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Well, I mean it's a double edged sword. YouTube things
like YouTube a great because they take magic and they
give it a worldwide audience in a very easy way.
They put everything right at your fingertips. But as far
as learning how the magic works, I always tell people,
trust me, you do not want to know. It's much
more fun not knowing. You know, I've been studying this,
like I told you forever, So I can't watch magic
anymore and feel that amazement. And if you think about it,

(05:35):
there's not too much in our daily lives and give
us a sense of like wow, or you know, that's amazing.
So to rob yourself with that, you know, you're not
harming the magician by watching this stuff, you're kind of
harming yourself. So I say, now just sit back and
enjoy the magic. It's much more fun.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, curiosity did kill the cat after all, right, exactly. Yeah,
So we're speaking with Michael Grant and Netty. He is
going to be performing with the Omaha Symphony at the
Hall and Sane a couple of Saturdays from this weekend
September twenty eighth and also on Sunday, September the twenty ninth,
and Omaha Symphony dot Org has all the information here.
Last thing for you, Michael. I know that you have

(06:12):
done a lot of stuff with people in person. I
know that you've also been filmed. I always find that
kind of interesting as well. It's the difference between trying
to create an incredible experience for people when they're sitting
right in front of you versus having to try to
do that through a screen. What is that difference and
what have you learned from the times that you have

(06:32):
been on television.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, well, you know, we do magic for television. One
of the things that I've always tried to do is
take advantage of it in the way to give the
viewer and experience even better than they would have normally.
We've tried to take the cameras around the illusions and
behind the illusions. If you go on YouTube and look
at some of the pieces where I've made ladies float
in the air. We've done three hundred and sixty degree

(06:54):
shots with it to show people at home. You know,
there's nothing in any direction again giving a very special view.
But what you lose on television that people are going
to have at the Holland Center is that sense of
immediacy and that interaction. You know, the show that we're
bringing again with the Omaha Symphony is extremely interactive. So
the audience isn't just going to sit there and you know,

(07:15):
kind of with their handsfold and watch the show. I
guarantee you, from top to bottom, from beginning to end,
everybody's going to be pulled in and they're going to
be part of this show and they're going to be
you know, playing along with the show. It's extremely engaging
and people all people of all ages. You know, it's
the perfect show for the entire family. Because even we
even get the kids involved and one of them, one

(07:35):
of the kids even gets to come up on stage
and get their own lesson in magic. So that immediacy
and that sense of engagement and interaction, I think is
a strength that you can't get on television.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
I cannot wait to see how this goes, and it's
going to be quite an interesting experience for those who
are going to be there. And if you want to
be there, Omaha Symphony dot orgum buy tickets there directly
from the symphony as well, and it's located at the
Holland Center. Omaha Performing Arts certainly is going to have
this available as well. You can just search Michael Grandetty Omaha.
You'll be able to find this information for Symphony of

(08:07):
Illusions a couple of weeks from now. Michael, this was great.
Thanks so much for being a part of our show today.
Can't wait to see you in Omaha.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I'm Ray, thank you so much. Great talking with you,
and I can't wait to see everyone in Omaha too.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
How about that. You're talking about talking about seeing something
that you just don't get to see everyday, and Illusion
is performing with one of the best symphonies in America
at the Holland Center on September twenty eighth and twenty ninth.
Big thanks to Michael Grand and Netty four being a
part of us. You can follow him on social media
as well. Three forty eight News Radio eleven ten kfab