As a child, I always wanted to be Danny Amatulo, the most useless of all the protagonists of Fama, the one who was closest to being out of tune and who was never seen dancing in any of the episodes of the series. Amatulo was the most ghostly white of all the students at New York's black-dominated performing arts school, and he aspired to be like him because he was the European who made his way in New York despite all his shortcomings . Succeed in New York as Amatulo, a good-for-nothing guy who lived out his youth on Broadway, where the school's students danced the show's opening scene, collapsing 46th Street, and Irene Cara was heard singing : "Fame, I wanna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly high".
A four-minute walk and only one street above, 47, a guy from Badia del Vallés who always wanted to be a magician and work on Broadway premiered this evening in NY, matinee in Europe, his show Nothing is Impossible, a show which has been advertised for a few days in Times Square next to the whiskeys offered by Keanu Reeves or Mariah Carey or the trailer for the last season of the Billions series. It is surprising that, in the middle of so much night light that forces us to wear sunglasses so that our irises don't explode, the Pop Magician appears in motion with a defiant attitude near the entrance door of the Hard Rock Café, where Leo Messi now announces some inedible chicken sandwiches and right next to where you can eat the worst shrimp in the world market at the well-known Bubba Bar.
Walking through Times Square, I received a message from Antonio Díaz on Friday to have lunch at Friedman's, right in front of the Ethel Barrymore theater, where Mago Pop is premiering. Antonio was waiting for me at the bar next to Mag Lari, an essential person to understand the enormous success of the show. I sit in front of the two magicians who transport me, without a blindfold and without a curtain, to ten years ago, in 2013, when Toni Clapés, who as it could not be otherwise is also today in New York, forced me into the middle from the corridor of RAC1 to go and enjoy a magician who performed at the Borràs theater in Barcelona. I left The Great Illusion on a Sunday at noon, levitating because of what I had (not) seen and from there we signed him to do the most difficult thing: magic on the radio with celebrities.
One Thursday while doing the show in Madrid, Antonio Banderas came as a guest and did a card trick where the Mago Pop asked the actor to sign one, shuffle the cards as he wanted and put them face down . Then the magician took a coin and with a cotton ball lit a small fire that pierced the deck until it stopped on a letter that was, of course... the one signed by Antonio Banderas. Banderas began to shout: "Oh man, oh man!" putting his hands on his head. That same day, at the RAC1 studios in Madrid, the Málaga actor offered Mago Pop a contract to perform at the Starlite gala in Marbella the following summer. And so it was. And word of mouth became noisy, tickets sold out and what was called magic and which used to annoy many of us became a pilgrimage both to the Parallel in Barcelona and to the Gran Vía in Madrid. And along came the Discovery Channel, Stephen Hawking, the purchase of the Victoria theater and the purchase of a theater in Branson (Missouri) with almost 3,000 seats... and Broadway.
Today the premiere is geolocated in New York and I demand from both Antonio and Lari that the next madness be in Las Vegas and that they save me a ticket for the premiere like yesterday.
- How many times have you seen me? - Mago Pop asks me.
- Eighteen - I answer.
And he also puts his hands on his head. We leave the restaurant and he leaves to prepare for this afternoon's preview while Lari says her goodbyes, as she is returning to Barcelona because she has a party in Ascó and will not be able to attend the official premiere.
We immortalize the moment in front of the theater in New York. And before I leave I ask him if he changes anything about the show, and the magician tells me that the beginning, although it continues to be heard (now in English): “According to the laws of aerodynamics, it is impossible let a bee fly Its wings are too short and its weight too high. But no one told the bee that it couldn't fly... and it flies."
What insane envy I feel and, at the same time, what unbridled admiration. Now the Magician Pop does fly. Fly to Broadway, fly to New York. Like Danny Amatulo.
“Fame, I wanna live forever, I’m gonna learn how to fly high”.
