A MAGICIAN couple who appeared on TV's Britain’s Got Talent are bringing their new show to North Yorkshire.
Husband-and-wife magicians Alan and Kat Hudson's 'Married at First Sleight' will be appearing at Helmsley Arts Centre next week.
The show combines magic, mind-reading, comedy, sketches and audience participation with something rather harder to rehearse: the realities of being married to your stage partner.
Both Alan and Kat had established careers as solo magicians before eventually deciding to work together.
Alan has been performing professionally for more than three decades and is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. He has performed internationally, including at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and ITV’s The Next Great Magician, and successfully fooled Penn & Teller on Penn & Teller: Fool Us.
Kat is an Associate Member of The Magic Circle with Silver Star and has appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Italy’s Tu Si Que Vales. She has also performed in the West End production Wonderville.
Her route into magic began after meeting Alan.
Kat said: “When we got together Alan was a magician and I just picked it up at home by living together.
“I saw that he was getting to travel to glamorous locations like Hollywood and I thought, well, if he can do it…”
Despite both becoming professional magicians, performing together was not initially part of the plan.
RECOMMENDED READING:
The possibility came up while they were appearing separately on Britain’s Got Talent.
Kat said: “I remember Ant & Dec asking us if we would do a double act and we both said no.
“Dec said that was probably a good idea because ‘one of you always ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting’.”
They eventually changed their minds and created Hudson & Hudson, developing material specifically for two performers rather than simply combining their solo routines.
That approach became Married at First Sleight, which uses the possibilities of having two magicians on stage while making their real-life marriage part of the comedy.
Alan said: “I thought together we could do something different, something audiences hadn’t seen before, and make our magic more amazing with two people instead of one.”
The Helmsley show includes mind-reading, audience participation, a bullet catch, a routine involving a dictionary and a finale the pair say audiences will not see coming.
Much of the humour comes from the couple’s relationship, with scripted material frequently giving way to genuine exchanges between them.
Both Alan and Kat are from Hull, and the pair say Yorkshire audiences tend to bring a particular energy to the show.
Alan said: “There’s always something a bit special about performing back in Yorkshire. Audiences here are warm, quick and not afraid to let you know what they think, which is perfect for us because so much of the show depends on the banter and what happens in the room.”
The couple say they have deliberately created Married at First Sleight to work for audiences who might not normally choose to see a traditional magic show.
Alan said: “This is all of our best stuff in one show. It’s got comedy, sketches. It’s a magic show that is great even if you don’t normally like magic shows.”
Hudson & Hudson: Married at First Sleight is at Helmsley Arts Centre on Friday, October 23.
Tickets are available from:
https://www.helmsleyarts.co.uk/whats-on/hudson-hudson-magicians-married-at-first-sleight-