Antonio Díaz (Badia del Vallès, 39 years old) seems to have the smile tattooed to the face. He greets with a squeeze from who crosses and transmits a kind of childhood illusion with his light walk and his enthusiastic and agile voice. And it is that energy, that of “celebrating being here and being as happy we can”, as he explains, the one that permeates a brand that has consolidated over the years: a project that, if we get to tell ourselves, was born since the humble child of a province of Barcelona played in his small room that the dropelé of his wall was an audience that looked in amazement his magic games. Now he has been filling theaters for years without rest and reaping successes. He is already the highest grossing illusionist in Europe, according to the magazine Forbes, And since last year the show that stars is the one that has raised the most money in the history of Barcelona, achieving up to one million euros a week. His journey is portrayed in the documentary, which opens this Tuesday at Movistar Plus+.
But not satisfied with his vertiginous success, in 2023 he embarked on his. And after a vacuum jump, in the blink of an eye, as if one more trick was treated in its repertoire, the show Nothing is impossibleE of the pop wizard became the first Spanish production to release in the mecca of the theater and the show bussiness. He received praise criticism from some of the most important newspapers in the North American country – “an exciting, exciting and crazy spectacle”, – and broke the collection record in a week for a unipersonal show in the New York circuit, 2,717,000 dollars (about 2 and a half euros). A whole journey that began with the purchase of a theater in Branson, Missouri, a place known as Las Vegas of the family audience.
“If the public knew the trick, it would applaud stronger,” says Díaz to explain the enormous work behind his illusions. With the new film, two years after the feat, the trick that brought him to American success has been revealed: the tireless work of a team of more than a hundred people, a successful marketing and advertising campaign and the detail and leadership of a business magician called Antonio Díaz.
P. A few years have passed since that journey to Broadway, what balance does it?
R. I lived it in a very intense way, there were very hard moments, very difficult moments, continuous real -time learning that cost hours of sleep, money, much effort. But seeing it in perspective, it has been a milestone in our super important career and a step forward for our show and for the next years huge.
P. He reaped criticism and, above all, assistance, did he expect it?
R. He had many doubts. It’s curious, but one of my biggest concerns was my English. In the show there is a sense of humor, how does humor translate? In the end everything was much better than we had dreamed at the time of greater optimism and, above all, taking into account all the difficulties we find along the way. I would have signed to like the show and that people were happy. Everything else has been a huge prize and we have lived it a bit like a dream.
P. Did you feel or feel, in some way, representative of your country?
R. In an almost involuntary way because they tell you that it is the first production of your country that has been there. Well, oysters, it makes you very excited that we have put our grain of sand so that the following who go have a little easier.
P. It is inevitable to ask you about Trump, how do you see the panorama there and for all those that, as you say, can arrive after you?
R. I live everything with … well, I do not like to talk about politics, because I think I do truquitos and that I focus on. But I think a period of uncertainty opens.
P. It makes truquitos and much more. In the documentary there is hardly any magic game, has it cost you to save the pop wizard and show Antonio Díaz?
R. Well, it makes me weird, really. It already makes me strange to see myself doing magic on TV. Seeing me being me because it still makes me very weird.
P. The magicians are used to keeping secrets. Here, without talking about his magic, he reveals many of his way of operating.
R. I am used to that, that my life is to keep secrets and that no one has access to our way of working, our work method. In the day to day I did not realize, but when seeing the documentary has served to remember moments that one forgets and has been an experience.
P. And why do it?
R. Look, they convinced me telling me that there was only a first time that I could go to Broadway and of course for the challenge that meant to launch into a new structure, to a new way of working in a territory where you compete with the biggest shows in the world and you go alone, with your team. I believe that above all it will serve to see that behind the magician there is a team and there is a team in this very great case. In the magic I do, the technique has a fundamental role.
In the end, magic is so absurd, right? That is, you know that what I do is not true, I know that you know and play. With which it is more important how we make you feel than the magic itself.
P. Part of that work is a huge marketing campaign. How much does it influence its success?
R. I have always wondered what the years go by and we continue to have the theater full every day, doing hundreds and hundreds of functions a year, with a show that is expensive and that it is very difficult to maintain the level with the same show for so many years. And I conclude that the biggest campaign of marketing of the show is the show itself. Everything else is very good. I like to attend to the details select the digital campaign well, of the street, work with the team, sharpen the ingenuity to find ways that everyone finds out that we are there. But if you find out that we are there and they are not interested in the show because it would not help us. I think that in the show itself there are reasons to recommend it and there are reasons to repeat.
P. Has built a brand with a very clear narrative: to achieve the impossible, what makes different from its showbeyond magic, is your narrative?
R. I would tell you that it is more important than that of the magic games themselves. In the end, magic is so absurd, right? That is, you know that what I do is not true, I know that you know and play. With which it is more important how we make you feel than the magic itself.
P. That narrative of his seems to come to reality, does not take his smile, don’t he usually get angry?
R. Only in the live. In the meetings, in the previous ones, I rarely upload my pulsations, but if for me the function is super important and I live it with so much intensity that things do very affect me a lot.
P. And the one who gets angry is Antonio Díaz or the pop wizard?
R. I think it’s the pop wizard, yes. I am very quiet. In fact, that tranquility is doing well for many things in magic and I am doing bad for other things, right?
Q. For example?
A. There are moments of tension that may not have to live it so calmly but to transmit that urgency, that importance.
P. And how does it take with the character?
R. Well, love-hate, right? Sometimes I am tired of him, of the days you are already tired and you are on the street that, with all his good intention, he tells you: “Can you make me a magic game?” And maybe it is not the time or the place. But I also live it with great thanks. In the end I am lucky to make the trade that I loved since childhood, to make a show that I am very proud and traveling around the world doing what I like the most. And above with friends and people I love very much, that is, very grateful.
Q. He said he does not feel the pressure of being a leader, but directs more than a hundred people, how difficult is it to coordinate so many people?
A. Well, the truth is that I have a huge luck, I have been lucky that for many years I have worked with top -level professionals, which I am also fortunate that they are my friends too. It is true that the group has been growing and that sometimes growing is very complicated and more in a thing as niche as ours, which requires in a very specific way to work, but the absolute merit is one of the professionals of this house, which is a privilege to work with them.
P. With so much business work, there is time for creativity?
R. It costs to reconcile because in the end something really special comes out requires an obsession, it requires to turn an idea for a long time. Now, for the first time, we try to manage time, because I before 11 months ago, 9 functions a week, and it was very difficult to find that creation time. Now we keep a couple of months a year to improve and every year we try to have two, three new games that raise the level.
P. He has made magic to personalities around the world, is there anyone who still does not and makes special illusion?
R. I believe that for justice I would have to do it to Chris Martin de Coldplay because I think I have used his music so much in all my shows that I almost owe it. And I want, I want to match him or that he can come one day to see our show.
P. It is inevitable to think, seeing the documentary, which no longer has something in mind for the future.
R. Yes, the truth is that we have a challenge now that we still cannot communicate, but we do have a challenge for the next two or three years that greatly excites us and we are working hard on it to continue carrying magic around the world.
P. Here, there or in any other country?
R. Well, we still can’t say anything, but yes, dreaming big.
