Perth Voice Interactive

IT’S no illusion: the next time Perth magician Sylvia Marinai takes the stage at Fringe World it’ll be the first festival she performs as a woman.

Assigned as male at birth and living most of her life that way, Ms Marinai started transitioning a little over a year ago. Before then she performed as “Jean-Luc, the Cool Conjurer” for 10 years.

The former army serviceman, professional water-skier and actor has long felt female, but kept it hidden.

“I always did borrow my mum’s or girlfriends’ things since I was five-years-old, always trying to slip the shoes or clothes on, and I understood it wasn’t ‘correct’, it wasn’t accepted by society, so I had to live as I was,” she says.

As a child in France she recalls a strip of Paris where transgender prostitutes would ply their trade and it contributed to her keeping her thoughts to herself: “for me I was having that association — transexual means prostitute”.

She was sent for military service in Tahiti where transgender people are more accepted.

“Being transgender is quite normal,” she says, and in some Polynesian cultures, “the third-born child … is raised as a woman even if born as a man”.

But back in France she began to feel “alone” again, and the competitive water-skiing gig made a transition unlikely since it required a fairly beefy upper body.

Her first time in plain view as a woman was in a transgender beauty pageant back in 2004.

“It was very scary because all the other women were Asian, they had very fine faces, small, petite, and they all looked so feminine and they were much younger than I was! I felt a bit weird but they made me feel welcome and they were kind to me, and I was the first caucasian to participate in that pageant.”

It wasn’t a magic show but she’s been experimenting with her female stage persona “Zatanna” for a little while now, with test shows in Japan and China, and started transitioning in her personal life over the past 18 months.

“As soon as I had the costume on, I thought, I’m pretty sure it can work, people in Perth are quite open… I don’t know if I was performing as trans in France it would be the same thing.”

Before coming out Ms Marinai says, “I felt very nervous, I couldn’t sleep”, but when she did tell people it was a huge relief.

“I feel much better, since I took that decision to come out to my friends and family. Ninety-nine per cent of them were really open and nice, and I couldn’t say it was easy for everyone but they were more than welcoming of me as Sylvia.”

Ms Marinai says other Perth magicians “were very welcoming”.

“They said you’re part of the family and you stay part of the family. I went to the funeral of two magicians last week… and they ask me to come as myself, Sylvia, as female… that proves a few things.”

Plus, she says magicians have bigger secrets to worry about: how tricks are done. “They’re friends, but they’re competition as well. We’re still hiding things from each other. Some secrets we like to keep.”

There are a few practical considerations for a working magician who’s transitioning: Zatanna has dropped some of the more “masculine” tricks from her repertoire, and for clients who’d already booked her in advance as Jean-Luc she offers to perform as her old persona if they prefer. She’s also kept her female assistants, a classic standby in magic shows for a good reason: when it comes to fitting into a magic box “you need to be small, and very flexible”. “I try to fit inside myself, I’m not flexible enough. I need to take some yoga and pilates lessons”.

Zatanna has two shows at Fringe in February, her all-girl big illusion show and her Theatre of the Mind show with mentalism. Dates and tickets at http://www.fringeworld.com.au

by DAVID BELL