Known worldwide for his love of magic and animals, Jay Owenhouse has erected his tent across from Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip to house his latest show, Jay Owenhouse The Authentic Illusionist, featuring his family. The illusionist chatted with Las Vegas Magazine’s Em Jurbala.
You’ve billed yourself as the authentic illusionist. What does that mean to you?
Actually, I didn’t bill myself that way. I kind of got that name; it was actually an article. A journalist just started her story with the headline “The Authentic Illusionist” and it went up. We were on tour that year, and other media would Google me and that would come up, so they just started calling me that. It kind of stuck and I just kept it. I think it’s just about being authentic, being real. The show is about the things that I love, which are my family, animals, and my love for magic. It’s just trying to create an authentic experience.
Was family magic something you had always hoped to do, having your children perform on stage with you?
Well, it came about through our family tragedy that happened years ago. In 2013 my wife, Susan, died unexpectedly from a rare autoimmune disease. We had just come back from an extensive tour to Asia, and that rocked our whole world. My kids were young at the time. I was kind of burned out and I thought I’d just leave this whole profession, do something else, because this is something my wife and I had built together. And then a couple years went by and my kids were like, “Hey, we should do this as a family,” and that's how it started.
This show in particular doesn’t have any live animals performing in it, but you still found a way to incorporate them. Why was it so important to you to do so?
Because that’s a part of what our family’s about. We’ve been dedicated to endangered species for like 30 years; at least I have, back before any organization was giving it any attention. It’s just been something that’s been a passion of our family for a long time, and we love sharing that with audiences. We don’t have the tigers in this show, but they’ve been in our previous shows when we’ve toured. People love seeing them, learning about them and interacting. So we still wanted that since it’s a part of who we are authentically. We wanted to still be able to talk about it and make it celebrated in the show.
With using animals in your performance being something you're known for, what sorts of challenges arose as you set out to create a show that didn’t use them at all?
It was difficult. Like you said, a lot of the things that I’m known for throughout the world is the stuff that we’ve done with animals. So it was hard at first, but other than missing having my animals with me every day, I don’t think it’s really affected the message or the quality of the show. I miss it because they’re part of my family, but I’m enjoying the opportunity to explore other things, too.
I couldn’t help but notice everyone on stage is dressed so fashionably. What was the inspiration behind that?
We wanted, in a modest way, to have a more vintage feel to the show. … One of the things I’m fascinated by is early Las Vegas shows. I love the Rat Pack and looking at the history they had with The Sands ... and what people loved about that show with the Rat Pack–with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., is it had a very up-close, authentic feel.
3951 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 5+. Jayowenhouse.com
