Ali Cook discusses sleight of hand and his directing aspirations
There are few people working in the entertainment industry today who can boast a CV quite like Ali Cook’s – as a jack-of-all-trades comic entertainer who specialises in extravagant magic shows. With a tour pending, and a role in the British thriller Get Lucky – it’s been a busy year for Cook, and we caught up with him to see how things are coming along.
Discussing his role in Get Lucky – a film which he wrote additional material for too – Cook also tells us of his dreams of directing himself one day, how he balances acting and magic, while also telling us about his upcoming films Epic and The Anomaly. Oh, and as per usual, we ask him what he’s a fan of…
You’ve got so much going on at the moment – are you enjoying being so busy, or are you looking forward to having a break?
I enjoy being really busy. I’m just that kind of person. You know, if you do magic tricks for a living, it’s not stressful is it?
Not if you know how to do them.
Yeah, that helps! But it’s not life or death if your card trick doesn’t go according to plan. So I enjoy being busy, but the travelling can be the tricky part.
So tell us a little about your character Kirby in Get Lucky?
He’s an opportunist thief. His back story is, he was taught by his uncle in quite an old school way, things you would have seen in the 30s or 40s – how to pick pockets, how to pick locks… He was brought up by an old school thief, but he’s just a bit of a chancer really.
Not to compare him to yourself too much, but must have been fun to play a character with such a good sleight of hand – allowing you the chance to combine your talents?
You mean he’s good at sleight of hand and he’s from Yorkshire? Okay, I’ll do that! That’s what good casting should be, you pretty much play what you do. When the script first came along I had no idea magic was even in it, because originally the scams were only being done by the lead, and then I said, well obviously because I am a magician, we might as well take advantage of that fact, and that’s how it ended up.
You co-wrote the screenplay too – it must have been fun constructing a script with so many twists and turns?
It is fun. Screenplays are quite a frustrating process though, because a lot of people are involved. Technically I wrote additional material for the screenplay, co-writing is a slightly different thing. But yeah I really enjoyed every minute of it and I had a really good time with T.J. Ramini, who is the film as well playing Raphael. We just hit it off with each other and had such a laugh and what happened, was when the film went into production, the director comes in and puts his stamp on it basically.
Do you think it helped that both yourself and T.J. had roles in the film and were also a part of the creative process behind it? Did it help to take the words from script to the screen, so to speak?
Yeah it definitely does. Although the director’s vision was different to our vision – that’s what happens often in films. In this particular film, it had been through four different directors by the time it got to Sacha Bennett, so you end up with a different take on the script each time. One of the earlier guys made this very much a comedy, whereas this one became more of an action heist thriller. Sacha also made it quite film noir as well, making it a homage to films from the 30s, as it’s very cooly lit with lots of shadow and also lots of twisting and turns with a femme fatale in it as well. It had a real classic film noir feel to it.
Can you ever see yourself directing one day?
I’d love to actually, yeah. Cy Endfield who directed Zulu, he was actually a very good card magician and even wrote a book on card magic that is considered one of the best books on card magic there is in the whole world. There is actually quite a relationship between people who can direct something and those who can come up with magic tricks – because all you’re doing in a magic trick, is directing people’s attention to where you want, that’s all a magic trick is. So there is a strong similarity there, and definitely an appeal for me. I’ve made short films and things, but in the future I’d like to a feature.
There is a real comedic element to your magic shows – have you always felt that magic and comedy go hand in hand?
It’s interesting, because what happened with myself is that I was a very serious magician for years, performing at private parties – but when I eventually decided I wanted to become a commercial performer, and you realise when you’re on stage, it’s got to be more than just talking through the tricks, so that’s when I developed a love of comedy. I was very influenced by Steve Martin, who had actually started as a magician himself, and for almost 10-15 years he included magic in his comedy act, before eventually he weeded out the magic simply because he was making comedy albums, where, back in those days, of course nobody could see the visual jokes he was performing, so that’s how he became more of a stand-up. I really got into this because of him.
Can you see yourself ever dropping magic one day, and moving towards dramatic acting more?
It’s really weird because I performed at one of the best comedy clubs, the 99 Club and I hadn’t performed there for three years because I have been so busy doing other things. But I was there recently and it was such a great night and sometimes you forget, you know, they’re just very different disciplines. When filming a film you do the same three or four lines over and over again an they keep moving the camera around, and often there is a lot of technical skill in that you have to hit a mark or pick up a cup at exactly the same time you did before so they can all edit it together – and it’s a slow process, with no-one watching you, no audience. When you do a comedy club it’s the complete opposite, the pressure it totally on you and there are 300 people watching you – and there isn’t a buzz like that in the world. I’d like to carry on doing both. I just try to be good at things I enjoy doing, I don’t have much of a plan other than that.
So if someone stopped you on the street tomorrow and asked you to describe yourself – would you say writer, actor or magician?
[Laughs] I don’t know what to say any more. I just go for ‘renaissance man’. It’s because a film producer introduced me to another film producer once as a renaissance man and I thought, I’m going to keep that – that’s my new title. I’ll put it on my business card!
You’ve got a couple of big projects coming up soon – Epic and The Anomaly. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
They’ve both been filmed so I’ve done four this year. Epic was filmed in Germany in February and that’s a really greta project. I would say that’s more dark, they call it a gentle, black comedy. The script on that film is phenomenal, one of the best I’ve read in a long, long time. Very excited about that film. But you know, you do your bit and then you’re off – that probably won’t come out until next year. Then I got the chance to do the biggest film yet, which I finished recently and that’s The Anomaly, which is a science fiction film, directed by Noel Clarke. That was a very different film, and I’m playing an FBI agent from the future with a laser gun – what more could you possibly ask for! It’s a film completely aimed at 13 year old boys and it’s a fantastical story, a really great story of an evil scientist that can mess with people’s DNA codes and create different viruses and is trying to take over the world. It’s a comedy with a high-concept plot behind it, and it’s great and exciting role to do.
And my final question is… What are you a fan of?
Wow. I can tell you that I’m a fan of something obscure… I’m a fan of Juan Tamariz, who is a Spanish magician. He is the greatest living close-up magician there is. I’m a fan of Steve Martin’s and I’m a fan of Ricky Jay, who has also been in a lot of films. I’m a fan of David Mamet, the playwright. I’m also a fan of Star Wars… What can I say?
GET LUCKY IS OUT NOW AND ALI COOK’S TOUR BEGINS AT THE END OF AUGUST