Mago Pop's debut in New York has been a success of unexpected dimensions even for him, to whom nothing ever seems impossible. The dream of opening on Broadway was his peak, he has fought against wind and pandemic, and it has finally arrived. And in what way I was convinced that it would initially be a dream in which I would lose a lot of money. And yet, the success is being such that he will probably leave the city, he admits, with profits. After the teleportation trick he did for NBC's Today Show, the next day his was, he explains, the best-selling Broadway production. But not only that, after Sunday's electrifying debut with a standing ovation at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway, a few meters from Times Square, the city's major theater companies are now clamoring for his show. So, he has not been able to rest and since Monday morning he has been listening to proposals, although for now he will not sign anything.
They directly offer him that the show does not end this Sunday the 27th, that it continues, that it has a season, but Antonio Díaz, the Mago Pop (Badia del Vallès, 1986), confesses to the Spanish press that he now wants to rest and take a vacation at the Masnou, to be with his family, eat some rice and slow down to make good decisions. "Everyone came to see us at the premiere, the most important groups. We would not have imagined this welcome, now all meetings are urgent, everything is for today. We will listen, I have to stop or I will hurt myself, I am very tired, I want two weeks of vacation, I haven't had one in two years. Gathering strength for the challenge of coming back and trying to do very well", he confesses.
And he points out that for him it is not negotiable not to do the season he has scheduled from October at his Barcelona theater, the Victòria. "They don't want us to leave, but for me Barcelona is unmovable, I want to spend this Christmas there, I lost my father, I want to be with my mother. And for the Victòria theater it is also important", he remarks very confidently. For now, the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, will come to his show at the end of the week, in October he will return to the city of skyscrapers to collect the Hola award for outstanding Latin artist of the year, which already they have Antonio Banderas or Andy García, and he has scheduled interventions in major television programs in the United States. And they are already stopping him on the streets of New York to ask for photos after the success of his appearance on the Today Show. An overwhelming success that he takes calmly, although in the long round of applause on Sunday his emotion was palpable and tears came out.
A success that, he admits, may cause him to rethink American plans. He bought a huge theater in Branson, Missouri, a bit like the Las Vegas of American family entertainment with 14 million visitors a year. Almost three thousand locations where the season will start in May. But then, he admits, he had no idea what would happen on Broadway. "I thought it would be a lion's tail here, but tail, tail, I didn't imagine the debut like this. It may change the plans a bit. I had a long term plan, now let's see how we do it. I don't want to rush," he explains.
Sunday's success was overwhelming. The actor Christian Slater, when he came out, said that he had found the show "surprising", "exciting", "brilliant", "he is a mysterious man". An official at the Shubert Organization, which owns the Ethel Barrymore Theater and about 16 others on Broadway, the largest group in the theater mecca of the United States, says that seeing Antonio Diaz's illusions, from card games to to amazing teleportations, it has been "incredible", "dazzling", "fantastic", after clapping excitedly with his right foot. And he points out that "it's not the type of shows we usually have and it's clear that it can attract another audience to our theaters, we hope it will return soon".
El Mago Pop explains that "after the show, the person in charge of Shubert told me not to listen to the critics, because the audience is in charge here, and they left exultant". But even so the critics have been unanimous in the unappealable quality of its magic. "I'm a control freak. I knew the New York Times critic was coming and where he was sitting, he could see him, I thought he was making a face that he wasn't liking it. And today you see the criticism and it's overwhelming", he smiles. "A running man with a magical touch", is the title of the review, which emphasizes that his tricks with cards and balls are the most mind-blowing. "Who needs a helicopter when you can do magic like this?" concludes the review of the great New York newspaper with reference to the previous appearance of this device on the scene.
"About fifty reviews have come out today and they are all very positive. I didn't expect it. I thought they would be more forceful negatively, I am aware that things need to be improved in the show, that I myself want to change", he confesses, and says about the only notable criticism received in some medium, which says that the magic is impeccable, but there is too much self-promotion explaining his own trajectory between issues. "I agree", he says shamelessly, "but it was complex to come from so far here, you have to explain yourself before you start, I don't like self-promotion, but sometimes it's necessary, it's a strategy of marketing that we had to do, although for me the show is much worse with that", he says, and hopes that it will only be necessary for this time.
Díaz, whose idols are Houdini and David Copperfield, continues to dream. The new dream is for "Mago Pop to be the most important brand of magic in the USA, to make history and to settle in Barcelona in the last years of my career to contribute to making it one of the great avenues recognized worldwide in performing arts, it can be, it has all the ingredients and an incredible city”. For now, he has decisions in front of him, so far he has produced himself and now investors are knocking on the door to give the show even more size and face the enormous financial risks that means doing a season on Broadway. "We got here alone and I doubt it. A long season alone on Broadway is dizzying, but if possible, deciding makes me very happy", concludes the Catalan magician.
