Trained in street school and a believer in the “new magic”, Laurent Piron was crowned world champion this summer in Canada. Until the Seduction of David Copperfield! To meet.

A small ball of paper that comes to life, swirls and can be tamed… It is the poetic trick that made the Belgian Laurent Piron world champion of magic, an art learned on the street, in Quebec at the end of July. A month later, today his diary is full of invitations from all over the world, thanks to this edition on which this follower of the “new magic”, who wants to be a storyteller and a creator of emotions, has been working for several years. Far from the grand illusions of showbiz.

On July 30, in competition with a hundred of his peers, the creator of paper ball, an eight-minute act, won first prize in the General Magic category and top honors at the Grand Prix of this triennial world championship. “Many old magicians came to me after my performance to tell me that they had gone back to their childhood and forgotten the techniques. That’s what we wanted with this paper ball. We don’t worry about special effects, the goal is magical emotions!” confides Laurent Piron, who was met in his studio in Soumagne near Liège (Eastern Belgium).

Congratulations from David Copperfield

On his return to Belgium, he discovers on his phone a congratulatory message from the star of world magic, David Copperfield, the American who crossed the Great Wall of China and made the Statue of Liberty disappear. “He loved it, I hope we will meet. Even though he does great shows, he is a true lover of magic. He remains the undisputed master, he knows all the tricks, the tricks. We bluffed him with that number,” says the 35-year-old illusionist, who looks like a young man in a cap and sneakers.

The son of a sound engineer in the entertainment world and a craftsman from an early age, Laurent Piron started practicing magic at the age of 18, learning his first tricks from a friend. They put on small shows together until the age of 22 when he went to Vancouver, Canada, where he met street magicians. “The street gave me knowledge about the trade and the relationship with the public. If the audience doesn’t like you, move on. You have to have enough energy, catchphrases, jokes, attract attention… The street taught me how to develop my character to attract the crowd. After that I got involved in theatre.

We don’t care about special effects, the goal is magical emotions!

After several years of passing the hat ‘following the sun’ in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and summers in Europe, the magician returns to Belgium to find a stronger connection to the theatre. “I’ve always liked theatrical magic, a narrative that produces visuals, not just glitter boxes or a rabbit out of a hat, and then I discovered ‘new magic.'” Seduced by this movement that uses illusion with other art forms to create a new language, he trained in France at the National Center for Circus Arts (CNAC) in 2015.

Proposals in Japan, England or Vegas

“Magic then becomes pure entertainment and we lose the balance of power between the magician and his audience,” explains Laurent Piron, who collaborates on his creations with a director and a playwright within the Alogic company. He hopes that this new trend will bring new value to magic, the “poor cousin” of the performing arts, as circus has done, and regrets that too often magic shows involve artistic exploration of light, the visual and the miss text.

The magician, who after his award received numerous proposals to show his act to the public or to his colleagues in Japan, England or Las Vegas, would like to perform on Broadway, a dream, but for once not an illusion.