South Africa-born, Vancouver-raised Gabriella Lester took to the Sydney Opera House stage last month as one of the international illusionists cast in Now You See Me Live.
With a resume that includes Las Vegas stages, TEDx Talks, a New York Times feature and a turn on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us, the 21-year-old Lester is ready to showcase her sleight-of-hand and escapology in a new setting.
The new theatre show is based on Lionsgate Films’ hit movie series by the same name, which features an ensemble cast (including Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, Lizzy Caplan, and Morgan Freeman) performing seemingly impossible and thrilling heists using their “magical” talents.
The three films in the franchise have combined earnings of more than CND$950 million. Unsurprisingly, a fourth instalment is in development.
In the live stage adaptation, Lester is the youngest and sole female member of the cast playing the films’ “Horsemen,” who will be performing in the high-tech theatre experience featuring illusions, stunts, fast-fingered tricks and more.
“It’s definitely an honour to be selected along with performers from the U.S., France and Italy, but it does feel like something I’ve always been doing,” said Lester. “I had magic kits as a kid and knew by age 10 that this was what I wanted to do. As soon as I was old enough that I could hold a deck of cards, I was performing for everybody, including classmates at school in Port Moody.”
A carpal tunnel diagnosis from over-shuffling at age 12 and repeated trips to the principal’s office for performing tricks in class didn’t dissuade Lester from her passion. Mentored by Canadian magician Shawn Farquhar, she had her first performance at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas at age 14, doing Harry Houdini’s classic upside-down straitjacket escape.
Her Penn & Teller appearance included a variation on this classic stunt that so impressed the two hosts that she was hired as an associate producer on the program in 2024. Lester has also been a magic consultant for films such as We Need a Little Christmas for Hallmark and Disney’s Descendants. She has also taken her passion for motorcycle sports into the cinematic world, doing stunt-double work.
“I finished high school early, at 16, and my plan was to go out on the road performing,” she said. “But then COVID hit and put the breaks on all of that, so I wound up working in a bike shop. You have to have something to fall back on and the next best thing to performing magic was working on motorcycles, right?”
Lester earned her first official paycheque as a magician at age 14, but admits that she was already well on her way to paying the bills with sleight-of-hand before then. Her “cardistry” is featured in a number of Hollywood North films that she won’t name.
“I would go into restaurants that had bars and make bar bets with people watching sports games and challenge them to beat tricks,” she said. “Maybe not the most exotic setting, or even a legal one, but that was what I had until I appeared on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us right after COVID. It was the biggest performance of my life and I hadn’t been on a stage for over two years, so it was nerve-racking but opened up the door to everything afterwards.”
While she didn’t beat Penn & Teller, Lester admits in retrospect that her nerves might have gotten the best of her during the filming. It was still during the time when studios were empty and the experience of being alone in front of two artists she had admired since childhood was distracting.
“Honestly, it was a dream to be on the program, which I’d watched since it first aired,” she said. “When they were talking to me after and insinuated they knew what I had done, I kind of didn’t hear it and agreed. Magicians never want to give up secrets.”
To others watching the performance, Lester came off far more confident and professional than she recalls. A lot of work followed.
She continued developing valuable performing experience through regular tours at magic clubs, everywhere from L.A. to Chicago and New York, standing out as a young woman in a mostly male milieu. Now You See Me reached out to her to audition in early 2025.
“They let me know that they were considering me for the role, and I really thought it was a one-in-a-million chance that I would get it,” she said. “I still don’t believe that it’s happening.”
Lester is joined by American Adam Trent, a sleight-of-hand virtuoso blending live stage magic with viral digital flair; France’s Enzo Weyne, known for large-scale, breathtaking illusions; and Italian Andrew Basso, a daredevil escape artist renowned as a World Escape Championship winner. As someone with all of the above skills, Lester is likely to have several roles in the show.
Now You See Me Live tours Australia before heading to Singapore, with more dates to be announced. Lester is looking forward to the experience and learning more about her chosen trade. She figures that getting behind the camera someday is likely, but all in good time.
Every new stunt involves conquering your fears and things go wrong “all the time.”
“I look a lot more skilled online and onscreen than I am in real life. The truth is, stunts like that straitjacket video are scary,” she said. “Magic is interesting because it is built off of things that shouldn’t happen, but do. And it makes you go through the world constantly wanting to create different things. Is there a new way I could walk through that wall, or make that card appear somewhere, etc.”
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