Damien O’Brien has made his mark as one of the best street and close-up magicians in the industry, turning his biggest sceptics into fans with his astounding magic and cheeky charm.
Not one to use just one style of magic, 25-year-old Damien has mastered a dazzling repertoire of disciplines and tricks, using everything from bottles and coins to watches and fire, in addition to reading minds, levitating and hypnotising a spellbound audience at will.
This versatility, along with his unique style, is what sets him apart, as Flavour finds out. “The way I dress is very street and urban and very relaxed. Most magicians you see will be wearing a suit – it’s not very me. I like to be comfortable, and I think the more comfortable I am, the better I perform.” Introduced to magic at the tender age of 12 by magician Richard Bellars, Damien picked up his cards and never looked back. He took to the streets, pubs and nightclubs of southeast London at 18, performing professionally and blowing away unsuspecting members of the public.
His first paid performance was at a pub called the Rising Sun. “I had a group of guys taunting me, going, ‘Come on, then, pull a rabbit out the hat, show us some tricks.’ They were really winding me up. I plucked up confidence and went over and said, ‘I’ll tell you what, as you’re running your mouth, I’ll start with you.’ I did a mind-reading trick on one of the guys where I knew what card he would be thinking about and totally silenced them, and turned the sceptics into fans.” This is something that occurs often after his performances and is one of the key reasons he became a magician.
The defining moment he realised magic was to be his career was in 2003 when David Blaine stayed in a box for 44 days. “I went and stayed the whole time; I loved the response of how a performance like that could hold such a mass audience. I was there every day performing and thought this is what I want to do all the time.”
After this he used his charm to wow a club owner, gaining entry to the club which led to many performances at exclusive private parties full of celebrities, reality TV stars and talent agents. “I wasn’t even meant to be in the party, I just heard about it. I turned up, said I’d been booked here to perform tonight and managed to get my way into the club. I met the owner and started doing magic for him. The main one, which really got him, was a trick where I took his watch from his wrist without him knowing and put it on my own wrist. Right at the end we shook hands and I went to him, “Have you got the time?” He realised he didn’t have his watch, it was sitting on my wrist. After, he started telling everyone in the club about me, saying, ‘You’ve got to go meet everyone’ and introducing me to people.” Damien became a regular fixture, allowing him to perform in front of some of the world’s most famous celebs.
Performing at many events and after-show parties, including the Brit Awards, Cosmo Awards, T4’s On The Beach, NME Awards and World’s Richest Party at the Atlantis Hotel Dubai, to name but a few, he says his favourite events are “the MOBOs or especially the Brits because they were one of the first places that gave me a chance to perform at the official after-party. I love to perform and go out there and mess someone’s head up and leave them totally amazed.”
Read the rest of the interview here http://www.flavourmag.co.uk/damien-obrien-up-close-and-devilishly-magical/
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