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Stuart Lightbody is a multi-award winning sleight of hand artist and psychological illusionist.
Many years ago Stuart was taught that our lives are not measure by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Since then he has made it his life’s work to create elegant moments of wonder and astonishment; to engineer experiences of strange and impossible beauty.
Stuart Lightbody has been a lecturer at the College of Magic since 2004, and won the Grand Prix Trophy at the South African National Magic Championships in 2005, becoming the South African National Magic Champion. Since then he has performed, representing South Africa, at the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas and in the World Magic Championships in Sweden, and has Lectured for his fellow magicians at the International Magic Experience convention in Las Vegas.
These days Stuart focuses on a theatrical presentation of Sleight of hand artistry and psychology. He has toured 6 shows (“52”, “Sleight of Mind”, “Telling Lies”, “Stuperstition”, “Dark Imaginings” and “Illusive”), some of which have toured to Australia, the UK, Prague and Amsterdam. He has recently been invited to present “Illusive” at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.
These shows have received numerous 5 star reviews and great critical acclaim; including three Standard Bank Ovation Awards and 2 Silver Ovation Awards from the South African National Arts Festival, making him the only performance artist to have won this honour for three consecutive years. He was also won a weekly Best of the Festival Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, was nominated for the Performance Award and the Artrage Theatre Award at the Fringe World Festival in Perth, and was nominated for the Creative Award at the Prague Fringe Festival.
Stuart performs at numerous private engagements and has had the pleasure of entertaining sporting legends and peace prize winners, as well as entertaining for leading companies in the corporate sphere (including GlaxoSmithKline Limited, Old Mutual, Pick ‘n Pay, Coca Cola, Vodacom, BMW, Woolworths, Foschini Retail Group (Pty) Ltd, Deutsche Bank and Allan Gray to name a few)
“Every part of the performance is breathtaking and so elegantly executed you find yourself, if only for a moment, believing in magic.” – Cape Times “His performance is measured, graceful and unpretentious…” – Cape Times
“Sleight-of-hand gets a shot of elegant theatricality…” – Cape Argus
“…an unreal experience that relies on pure artistry to entertain.” – Cape Argus
“…beautifully impossible while still being impossibly beautiful.” – Cape Argus
