It’s a kind of MAGIC

“That was very funny,” Klok says, laughing. “You know I came out from the age of 10 in the Netherlands, but when we started the show in the US Pamela told me not to mention the fact I was gay until later. Then if we let the story out it will all be big news – and she was right. It was front page everywhere. Magician Hans Klok is gay!

Hans Klok and Pamela Anderson get smoochy! “But it was strange, because it’s not as if there’s something called ‘gay life’ in Las Vegas. It doesn’t exist. So many people among the artists, performers and people who work in the hotels are gay, so it’s just normal life. If you see what I mean.”

Klok began his magic career at the age of 10, doing tricks at friends’ parties. He won the European championships at 14, and his career and skills just grew and grew. At 38, you wonder if he’s had enough. Does it ever get boring? “Not really, no. But doing magic requires patience,” he says. “Recently, I had a long car ride and I was trying and trying to do a new card trick, a brilliant one created by a magician from China. It’s one all about manipulation and the key is to be really fast with your fingers, but I’m still practising it. I know that when I practice for three hours each day for the next three months, I will get it right.

“It’s important to be disciplined. For example, three hours a day on just one trick is one thing. But I have to perform a twohour show night after night on tour, and have to spend lots of time practising my other illusions, as well as inventing new ones,” Klok says. “But I see myself doing it for at least another 10 years.”

Does he ever get nervous before shows?

“Sure, I’m always nervous before the show starts, because it’s so easy to make a mistake when you do magic. To avoid that, it’s imperative to be able to concentrate. In fact, it’s curious that all the most famous magicians don’t keep doing it when they’re old. Maybe it’s the stress!”

Klok’s magical heroes are the famous German pair Siegfried & Roy, who championed him in Las Vegas. “These guys have been performing in Vegas for 35 years. Everyone else there has ripped them off, not the tricks that they do specifically but their influences.”

But he makes sure to go and watch his fellow magicians to see what they are doing.

“I don’t just go to watch them as competitors, but genuinely because I like watching good magicians. With magic it’s so easy to seduce people. I love to be seduced by it. That’s why I became a magician,” he says.

“People always wait for you to make a mistake when they watch you. They want you to because then they think they’ll see how the trick works. It’s so funny. So of course I can’t let that happen.”

Klok is now back in Europe and loving every minute of it.

“I’d love a five-year contract in Vegas. It may be the highest level for a magician, like Broadway for an actor. But it’s also very local – and a lot of performers there have only ever played the Strip, which is a little bit sad. I don’t underestimate Paris, London or Hamburg and I can’t wait to bring my Live from Las Vegas show to everyone here this year.”