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People often think of magicians in top hats and black capes sawing women in half and pulling rabbits from hats. When professional magicians Mike Tyler and Christopher Wayne decided to develop a new magic show they wanted to break those stereotypes so they threw out those century old stereotypes, along with every other stitch of clothing.
“There are no sleeves, no pants, no clothes at all,” said Tyler, who along with his co-star will be performing at the Temple Theater in Des Moines beginning Friday. “We do literally strip away not only the clothes but all those magic stereotypes of the top hats, magic wands and bow ties to really deliver on the name of ‘The Naked Magicians.’”
Tyler, who got into magic to impress a girl (and also noted he was still single), said the idea to do something different and reach a new audience was spurred coincidentally by his first name and a very popular movie.
“The movie ‘Magic Mike’ had just come out and my name is Mike and I’m out doing magic so all of a sudden people come up to me and make stripper related jokes to me ‘How big is your magic wand?’ and ‘Can you make my clothes disappear?’ and all that sort of stuff,” Tyler said. “So I got to thinking about taking magic to an audience that wouldn’t normally go to a magic show and what better way to do that than doing a naughty version of a magic show because it has never been done before.”
The very popular and barely-dressed duo have traveled the world performing their own brand of comedy magic with their “sleeves up, and pants down” since 2014. Now, Tyler and Wayne are kicking off their 2017 North American tour in Des Moines and are promising a high energy, fun and entertaining show.
“We promise three things with our shows,” Tyler said. “We promise it will be one of the most amazing magic shows you’ll ever see, we promise it will be one of the funniest comedy shows you’ll ever see and we do promise we will get naked by the end of the show.”
Magic man Tyler said about 75 percent of the show’s audiences are women and they see a lot of bachelorette parties attend as well, adding the theme of the show lends itself to a fun night.
“Everything is themed around those naughty topics that you only talk with friends about behind closed doors after a few wines,” he said. “All the tricks, while are very magical, they are all themed on naughty topics. It’s all very cheeky, naughty topics and it is a very good girls’ night out.”
Just because the Aussies are performing in the buff, Tyler said don’t expect the magic to be less than astounding.
“We are both full-time magicians so the magic is very, very strong. We did not want to compromise on the complexity, the strength and the professionalism of the actual magic itself,” Tyler said. “We took about 18 months to design the show because we wanted to make sure the show wasn’t two guys standing naked on stage doing card tricks because that would be boring. We are not strippers who just learned some magic tricks. We took some incredible magic from our own professional shows and we ‘sexified’ the tricks around those naughty topics.”
Whether going for the clever costuming or for the magic, “The Naked Magicians” are slated to perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Seats — for audience members 18 and older — are still available but like the magicians’ clothes, seats are disappearing fast. Tickets start at $36 and can be ordered at desmoinesperformingarts.org, the Civic Center ticket office or order by phone at 515-246-2300.
“We actually sold out in Des Moines last time,” said Tyler, adding he hoped Iowa’s winter weather wouldn’t deter people from coming to the show. “It may be cold in Iowa but the bad boy magicians of Australia will bring the heat.”