Tada Piriyanupong, 26, is a Thai business arts major at ABAC who has lived most of his life in Dubai. Charles-Alexis Guenard, also studying at ABAC but in the faculty of communication arts, is a half-Thai and half-French 20-year-old who was born in France. Together, they form a charismatic magic duo known as "Charles The French and Tada" who perform all over the country in major hotels, shopping venues and occasionally on television. We had a chat with the pair and it was everything one could hope for in an interview — reeking with personality.
When did you individually start doing magic? What inspired it?
Tada: My friend showed me a card trick when I was 12. It shocked me so much that I vowed to figure out how that very trick was done and I never stopped discovering secrets and deception in magic. But after years of performing, my love for magic came when I found out how the art of magic could bring smiles and wonder to people, and it only grows stronger each day.
Charles: I fell in love with magic at the age of seven after seeing "Lance Burton's" magic show in Las Vegas. I told my parents: "This is what I do want when I grow up". I then tried to find all sorts of books about magic in libraries and started doing card tricks and never let go. During shows, I try to pass on to the audience the feelings that I got the first time I saw a magic show.
What was the first trick you learnt?
Tada: The very first trick I learnt was how to do taxes. No, I'm only joking. Reading someone's mind.
Charles: Producing tigers! Nah, it was a card trick, like most magicians. I tried sawing my mum but she didn't want me to. I did it anyways. Love you mum!
How did you guys meet and why did you decide to pair up?
Charles: We met in university. There was this big event where students were invited to perform. We both enrolled as separate acts and were surprised to see another magic act on the line up! We decided to pair up for a few shows after that, thinking that joining forces would make the shows more powerful. Now it's been over 200 shows we've done together.
Tada
How are you guys similar and different, in terms of style of performance and personality?
Tada: We are very sarcastic, we love joking around. Our main goal is always making people smile and we want people to have a good time!
Charles: But I'm the crazy one. Thankfully, Tada is always here to calm me down.
Tada: Calm down, Charles.
What is each of your signature, favourite or most impressive trick?
Tada: There are just too many to name. Just come down and have a seat with me with a deck of cards and I'll amaze you with 52 of my best friends.
Charles: My favourite is the sleight of hand. We usually open the show with it and it's the most challenging act of the show, which is exciting. However, nothing beats tricks with audience participation. That's what makes the show different every night.
How much do you practice?
Tada: We practice together four to six hours a day, or in some cases a whole day. We are huge perfectionists, and in magic, a mistake is very difficult to cover. So there is no room for doubt or imperfection.
Charles
What do you do when you're not magick-ing?
Charles: We make viral videos on a Facebook page called Charles The French. Our videos are student, life, relationship or technology related. We first started doing this for fun, but the page has now garnered more than 300,000 fans and a video view count of around 75 million. Back in September, we parodied the iPhone 7 launch in a video called How The iPhone 7 Should Have Been Announced. This video now has 47 Million views, which makes it the most viewed video about the iPhone 7 in the world. We love creating things and putting our imagination down into videos.
Lastly, how good are you guys? Can you demonstrate a trick on our readers who will be reading this in the technical future?
Charles: Yes, so whatever it is that you are doing now, stop it.
Tada: OK, please think of a card. Any card you'd like.
Charles: Once you have this card in mind, you can't change, so lock that thought.
Tada: So do you have a card?
Charles: Good for you.
See more of Tada and Charles on www.beyondmagic show.com and www.fb.com/charlesthefrench.
