Best of 2008: The Gameops.com Review
Best of 2003: The Gameops.com Review
The Famous Chicken Talks Mascotting
Craig Wolfe talks Celebriducks
Watercolor Paint Book
Punch List
Quick Change's David Maas
David and Dania have been wowing audiences for years as the act Quick Change. You saw them on "America's Got Talent" with their rapid costume change act.
This month on Gameops.com we share an interview between David Maas from Quick Change and Jeremy Bradley from SpeakFree Media Inc. www.speakfreemedia.com and www.speakfreecelebwatch.com.
See a full list of touring acts in the Gameops.com Act and Vendor Listings.
Jeremy Bradley - David, most of the world knows you from America's Got Talent. You've been wowing audiences with your "Quick Change" act. But you and Dania have been performing for quite a while. How did you two get started?
David Maas - We both came from a background of entertainment. My wife was originally from the Moscow State Circus and my father was a professional musician by trade and my mother, at one point, was a singer and dancer. Throughout a number of years and being involved in magic and entertainment I was an emcee and quite prominent for a while, actually. I emceed a lot of big events - comedy festivals and stuff like that. Long story short, there was an event called the Eastern States Exposition which takes place every year for 17 days straight in Springfield, Massachusetts. And they put on a variety show up there and the producer had brought in Dania for the very first time from the Moscow State Circus and she did an act with hula hoops. She had won a gold medal in Paris and quite famous in her own right at the time. And then she had come over for the very first time to America with the Moscow State Circus at the Taj Mahal with Donald Trump. But immediately after that she was contracted to the Big Apple Circus in New York and I was the emcee for that show and that's where we met.
Jeremy Bradley - What was your first act together? Is it the "Quick Change" act?
David Maas -Yeah. We met and Dania was single. I was as well. We decided that not only were we going out at the time but we wanted to do something. And obviously something that could keep us together. I had been involved in magic for nearly 15 years when I had met Dania. So the idea started with one change of costume and then it eventually built into what you're seeing now. We wanted something that would really transcend the world of magic. We wanted something that could be very international - no matter what language you speak, it doesn't matter how old you are - it can be performed on a stage or completely in a round. And that was one of our absolute keys to success is that we wanted to do something that could be done magically and completely surrounded. That's very, very rare in the entire world of magic. Most magicians work on a stage and they are one-sided. We decided upon this idea of colour changing costumes and eventually, one, as I was saying earlier, progressed into several and several and then of course, became many. In the beginning we involved a lot of magic.
We wanted to be able to work on a variety stage. We wanted to be able to work in the circus. We wanted to be able to work in a casino in a revue. The majority of the "wow" factor was really when we were doing the changing costumes. Everybody just kind of went crazy when that happened and we said, "You know what, we should eliminate the majority of the magic and really, really just concentrate on change of costume and eventually that's what's happened now. And I think I should stress this too, we wanted to do something that made us very equal on the stage. That's extremely important to what we do now and you can tell somebody this, but you don't really know it… you feel it subconsciously, but it wasn't a magician working on the stage with an assistant. We are very equal. So we went to high level world champion ballroom teachers and we wanted to be very, very equal on the stage. And I think we've accomplished that."
Jeremy Bradley - Oh absolutely.
David Maas -So when you watch us, you watch us together. Of course your eyes are glued on my wife and you want to know how she's changing that dress but at no time ever in over 10 years now that we've done this act has anybody ever left and said, "Hey, that magician and his assistant were pretty good."
Pantone Matching System Colors
Jon Terry Looks Back at the History of Baseball Acts
Krazy George: I am the World's Sexiest Cheerleader
Signs and Shapes Talks Inflatables
Custom Sandles
