Summers in Western New York are always to be savored. By late August, everyone around here begins to become aware how short summer's lease is, so soaking in the final drops of Nature's gift becomes a high priority. Yet on August 28, 2006, when Elmwood Magic hosted Kostya Kimlat in a lecture, over 50 Buffalo and Western New York magicians were rewarded for pulling themselves away from their waterfront play and relaxation. Not only was the lecture and magic superb, but Kostya was personable, articulate and polished beyond his years. He agreed to an interview with Joe Malkiewicz which was conducted while Kostya was driving through Pennsylvania en route to Columbia, South Carolina.
JM: Let's start with a basic. When did your interest in magic begin?
KK: I was about 13 years old and a friend of mine was showing me some magic. I thought it was great. I had watched the World's Greatest Magic on TV and I fell in love with it.
JM: You've accomplished quite a bit in the decade that you've pursued magic. What made you pursue it this aggressively?
KK: I never meant for that to happen. It was just something I loved to do. I guess I was just lucky as a kid that I could give my time to it. Things got going, one after the other. I never made it a purpose to do this professionally or do the lectures, but one thing led to another, and I was just lucky enough to go along with it.
JM: Perhaps magic called you.
KK: I'd like to think that.
JM: You certainly have showmanship, friendliness, superb technique. There's a convergence that has been to your benefit.
KK: Thank you. I don't know if it's a calling. I remember thinking as a kid that I had a responsibility if I'm able to do these things. Maybe I got lucky, maybe it was meant to be. Either way, I had a responsibility to continue working harder to do what I'm doing. And if I enjoy it, well, the more so the better.
JM: You mentioned (during the lecture) that you're an avid reader. You referred to Paul Cummins, but are there other writers you read?
KK: Starting when I was about 15, I started reading Jon Racherbaumer's stuff, Marlo, Eddie Fields. All the Paul Harris books were a huge inspiration to me. At the same time, I had a mentor across the coast who referred me to the Fitzkee trilogy, respect for acting, Magic & Meaning. So I was learning the technical side and learning card tricks in Florida, and then I had that influence of learning about theatre and the psychology of performance.
JM: Was this a result of the mentor's role?
KK: Absolutely.
JM: Who's the mentor?
KK: Walt Anthony in San Francisco (of Spellbinder Entertainment).
JM: Let's talk about how you manage your practice, developing your techniques and sleights. Do you have a special regimen?
KK: I just play. That's it. It's all play. It's always a matter of having fun and always having cards and thinking magic all the time. I actually just stopped at a museum in Rochester, NY (The Strong Museum). I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. I think that the best magic happens like that, when you're just playing around. Sure you have to devote specific time to practice sleights and techniques. That came about just over time and having cards in hand all the time. Now it requires more rehearsal time when I develop a routine. Inspiration though comes out of nowhere-when I'm reading a book or just hanging out with friends.
JM: Were you like that as a child? In school, for example, were you often thinking of a lot of different things? Did your teachers describe you as a creative child?
KK: I don't know if I was described as anything, but I was always thinking about magic. In class, I was always writing down ideas and coming up with new things. It was just a passion that kept going.
JM: You clearly come across as a producer of magic not just a consumer. I sensed your playfulness when you did the peanut trick and the trick with the butter knife. Those seemed like outcomes of creative thinking. Do you use anybody's techniques? Or are you just always open to stimulation from many different sources?
KK: I'm open to any kind of inspiration. DeBono's (Edward DeBono, DeBono's Thinking Course) work is great. Roger VanOech's work (A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative) helps when you're working through a block and don't know where you're going to go. Whatever I'm working on, I go with the moment. Nowadays, because I spend so much on the business side of magic and making sure that I can continue making a living, it's nice when I wake up in the morning and say, “Hey, I don't feel like making a business call today, let's go practice the rings or let me work on a new idea.”
JM: How do you keep track of your ideas?
KK: I should keep a better journal. Usually I just start with a general idea. I jot down a few sentences, and then I usually call my friends. We'll go back and forth. We'll play with notions. I'm really lucky to have some cool friends who helped me develop my recent material.
JM: So you utilize the traditional method of sessioning.
KK: That's probably one of the best things to come from being able to travel and meet so many great people. This trip especially, I've been on the road for two and a half weeks now, and I am just reminded how much incredible talent and genius is out there. Many times in the last few weeks I would say “Hey you know I don't know how to do that. Can you show me. It's wonderful how many giving people are out there.”
JM: Did you go out after the lecture?
KK: We went to a cafe for an hour. In fact I just worked a convention with Mike Gallo in North Carolina, “The East Coast Super Convention.”
JM: You said you love bluffing.
KK: I think that first came about when I saw Guy Hollingsworth do a lecture. He asked me to assist him in a card trick where the the deck was a one way deck and all the cards were signed. What the audience saw was not what the spectator saw and yet they were both equally amazed at the effect. From that stemmed the notion, it's all about perception. So if I can change perception, I can do a lot with bluffing, do a lot with just saying the thing.
JM: You've also said that the best way to learn is to screw up lots of times. Have you some great stories where you screwed up in a major sort of way?
KK: It's great to screw up in safe areas. There have been times when I screwed up when I shouldn't have, but was lucky enough to recover. A year and a half ago, I was performing the license plate trick in which certain information is acquired beforehand, and I had the spectator on the stage and I realized I didn't set up what I needed to. I didn't have the sheet prepared. For one split second I could feel the panic in my face, but I gave her the sheet of paper and had her scratch out the numbers randomly and I looked at the paper and at her and just bluffed the whole thing.
JM: Let's talk about your non-magical side. What are your interests?
KK: I like watching sports, but I'm not a huge fan of participation, but lately I've taken my health into my own hands and so I work out. Being on the road, it's hard to eat right, but I do get out and jump rope and feel a million times better.
JM: Any interest in music?
KK: I'm a fan of Dave Mathews band, Grateful Dead. In fact, several years ago, I started listening to jam bands and a couple of musicians who were in their early 20s and starting to travel and perform. They're musicians who are out there online. What is inspirational to me is to hear how these artists grow over the years, how their music evolved and how they changed as artists. Over the last five years this has been a great influence on me to know that things change over time and you continue to evolve as an artist. You have to take risks, go out on the road and put yourself out there and always be willing to make mistakes, to have great moments, bad moments, but to always to continue to create and evolve.
JM: That must be reassuring for you as an artist in magic to have those musicians as sort of a model.
KK: Absolutely.
JM: What about school?
KK: I did everything backwards. When I got to the University of Central Florida, I jumped right into my core classes. I went to philosphy and loved it. My first year, I was taking graduate level ethics and hanging out with my professors and loving everything. I did that for practically all my classes for three years, then I had my general ed classes - the math, history, with 400 kids who didn't really care about being there. I took off and pursued full time work, trade shows and corporate work. I spent the last two years traveling, so I have about five or six classes left that I'm taking online, one every semester, and balancing that with my travel. What I love about that is that I can remain a student, that I'm constantly learning. But those first years taking philosophy really influenced my magic.
JM: How do you keep up with everything?
KK: I'm not a very organized person, but I'm learning. It's forcing myself to be. Just as it is with rehearsing and working out. You have to get into a pattern to make sure you're working hard.
JM: What's on the horizon for the corporate magician path?
KK: My plan was to do that full time, to not do any lectures. Because Magic Magazine (January, 2006) came out with that interview, I got the opportunity to travel and see much more of the world. I went to Scotland and Japan this year. I decided that I can continue to do my work without being aggressive about it. Maybe in a year or two, I can put aside the lecturing and go full time into performing. I don't know what surprises may come, so I try to keep an open mind about it.
JM: Looking forward, where would you like to be in a decade?
KK: I'd like to be happy. I realize that, in terms of magic, I need to make goals when I consider my career, but I'm still very much against it. If you don't make any goals, then you don't have to worry about failing. Overall, there are a few paths I want to take: build up my own business, write more, lecture.
JM: How about producing effects, like your Candelabra?
KK: You know, that's my very first effect that I've ever produced. I've been so excited about performing it and I've built up more methods of presentation, but I've never made that a goal to produce effects. I've always been a fan of writing and I've published as much as I could. The fact that I have a DVD right now is way out of left field for me.
JM: You're saying that you never expected to do something like that?
KK: Yeah, but I guess one of the reasons I wanted to was because it is a collection of live performances as opposed to a studio shoot, so I finally gave in and released it because a lot of people have been asking for a video which I understand. But I'm still a very big fan of reading and hiding everything in print. Most of the stuff I've come up with I've published. I still have a lot more professional work, but most has been put out there.
JM: Perhaps you'll hear from L & L someday.
KK: You know, I really think the magic market is over-saturated right now with a lot of DVDs, a lot of material, tricks that have been put out there. I think that magic has more stuff being published than anything else.
JM: Undoubtedly there's a profit motive, but I suspect that there's also a valid need to archive the material so that you and others can receive the proper attributions for your work.
KK: I think you're right. The archiving is very important. We need to continue to give the credit and establish the history because we do have so much past and we have to build on that. If you have something new to add to the magical literature, then by all means do it and you should receive the credit you deserve. And it's happening everywhere in the world. With the internet, the information is everywhere. It's just not all good information.
JM: Thank you so much for sharing your driving time with me.
KK: I enjoyed this very much. Thank you.
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