We currently live in my hometown where I, Trisha Hawley, was born and raised in Shelby, NC. My husband, Jonathan Hawley, is originally from Nottingham, England. We met 17 years ago while working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean as professional dancers. Jonny was always into magic from a young age as well as dance. While we were sailing around the Mediterranean sea on our second contract we met a magician who soon became a great friend. After four years of dancing, we wanted to become illusionists with our own show and ended up performing his show, a vampire illusion show, for four years while he pursued a career on land in Italy.
We eventually saved up enough money to start our own illusion show, finished with the Vampire show and began Hawley Magic. The only problem was even though we were experienced it was like we were starting from scratch because it was a brand new show. No one would hire us. We were living in my parents’s basement with a dream and completely empty pockets, eating $1 microwave meals and ramen noodles while doing everything we could to promote our show just to try and get picked up by someone, anyone.
That’s when we decided to audition for America’s Got Talent. We didn’t really know what to expect and didn’t think we would get past the first audition. We took my mom’s minivan down to Tampa Bay with the only illusion that would fit and hoped for the best. It was the most amazing experience of our lives! We got a full standing ovation from the audience and got through to VEGAS!! That’s where we performed our double levitation illusion. Jonathan made me levitate 12 feet up in the air and then he too levitated up to me. We felt like we had done a good job but it was still a complete surprise when we got through to the live shows in New York!!
Out of 75,000 acts to originally audition, we made it to the top 48 acts to perform in the quarter-finals. The theme of the season was “go big or go home!” We searched and searched for something amazing to perform that we could get our hands on in time as well as rehearse, could actually afford, and that had never been done on the show before. We ended up finding the one illusion that was the most difficult to pull off. Even though my parents don’t have a lot of money they loaned us the money. It was a huge risk for us. Other magician friends told us we shouldn’t do it on live tv because it was so dangerous and there are numerous things that could go wrong, but it was all we had. He balanced me on the tip of a sword on my back, spun me, then the sword impaled me. In the end, he brought me back to life and made me whole again. Howie Mandel called it the “wife kabob” which was the tag line in most magazine and newspaper articles the next day. One of the show’s producers told us before the results show that each act received millions of votes and we should all be proud, and we were. We still have people come to us and say that they loved what we did on AGT.
We had four successful showings on national tv and after only the first commercial aired showing a clip of our performance we were asked to join Princess Cruise Lines. We couldn’t go on a ship then because we were still wrapped up in the show at the time, but once our time was up with AGT we were hired on Princess and they gave us consistent work for six straight years, sometimes signing 2 year long contracts. We traveled the world with them around the Caribbean, Alaska, South America, Northern Europe, and the Mediterranean.
While on Princess we were chosen to be featured in an award-winning TV show in the UK called The Cruise. My accent was a popular topic on social media because I have a complete mix between Northern English and Southern American. I get picked on no matter where we are in the world.
Now, we are trying to get ourselves off ships and more land-based in order for Jonny to get his citizenship and eventually move his mother over to the states with us. Jonny’s father passed away three and a half years ago leaving his mother on her own in the UK.
He doesn’t have any other family. When she was in her early 30s she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and has been really struggling with it for the last few years. Her name is Sheila Hawley. She is a character with one of the biggest and best personalities I’ve ever seen. No matter where she goes she makes friends and gets hugs and kisses off as many people that will let her. She is one of our biggest inspirations because she has always had the “live life to the fullest” attitude and won’t let her MS stop her from living. She is so strong. We want her over here with us so we can take care of her ourselves and still have job opportunities performing our show. There are not many options for performers in the UK.
So, we’ve begun our journey into booking as many theatres on land as we can and hopefully one day find a theatre we can call our own. While we’ve been performing Hawley Magic we have learned many different skills that have allowed us to produce a great show. We do all of our own photography, videography, lighting, choreography, music editing, costumes, etc. Our show has everything from one of a kind grand illusions to expert sleight of hand close up magic.
Most people that have seen our show usually comment on how fast we are with our illusions and also love the interaction Jonny provides the audience while performing his close up, street style magic. His British accent adds to his loveable personality.
We love what we do and hope to share our love of magic with as many people as we can. Everyone could use a little magic in their lives from time to time.
HAWLEY MAGIC TO PERFORM AT THE TRYON FINE ARTS CENTER
TRYON, NC – MARCH 14, 2020 at 7PM
Illusionists, Hawley Magic are coming back to bring even more magic and illusion to the Tryon Fine Arts Center in Tryon, NC on March 14th at 7pm. They will be performing some of their favorite illusions as well as some brand new magic including a very dangerous escape inspired by the great Harry Houdini which will leave the audience on the edge of their seats. A few of their accomplishments include being a finalist on America’s Got Talent, nominated for Princess Cruises Entertainer of the Year, and featured on UK’s award-winning TV show The Cruise in England. Their show is action-packed and showcases everything in magic from expert sleight of hand close up magic to grand-scale Las Vegas-style illusions. It’s family-friendly and great for absolutely all ages. Howie Mandel called Hawley Magic “Tremendous!”
ABOUT HAWLEY MAGIC
Hawley Magic are internationally renowned illusionists, husband and wife, Jonathan and Trisha Hawley. Jonathan is from Nottingham, England and Trisha is from Shelby, NC, where they reside when they’re not performing around the world. Together they created Hawley Magic from the ground up, working side by side in order to produce a visually stunning show. Since their last show at the Tryon Fine Arts Center they have taken their show to the Caribbean twice, went as far East as Japan, China, Tiwan, South Korea and Vietnam and went as far South as possible to Antartica, Argentina, and Uruguay. They are very excited to perform their show again at the beautiful Tryon Fine Arts Center in Tyon, NC.
TICKETS: tryonarts.org/hawley-magic/
