Cosentino no boy next door ..
By STEVE KILGALLON for Stuff.co.nz
A generation ago, it was unthinkable that we might see magicians once again on prime-time television. The old rabbit-in-a-hat brigade were hardly cutting-edge entertainment.
But a recent renaissance in stylised, theatric illusion shows has made magic cool again, spearheaded at opposite ends of the world by Cockney wide boy Stephen “Dynamo” Frayne in England and shy Goth boy Paul “Cos” Cosentino in Australia.
Cosentino’s TV show – The Great Illusionist – has now hit 35 countries, including here, and is, bizarrely, big in India. He doesn’t wear tails and a white bow tie, and doesn’t own a rabbit, but his long hair, multiple piercings and peacock outfit have tapped the zeitgeist.
It was a runners-up placing in the 2011 edition of Australia’s Got Talent which launched Cosentino on the big stage (he escaped a locked straitjacket while dangling inverted in the maw of a giant, closing steel trap) and also led him to an important realisation…