Hans Klok - Biography

Biography

Hans Klok was born in Purmerend, the Netherlands. On his tenth birthday, he received a magic set as a present and began performing for friends at their birthday parties. He started his professional career in magic as a teenager. At the age of fourteen, he became youth-champion of the Netherlands and Europe in conjuring, and won the 'Wenegini Prize'.

Hans Klok's Illusionist career

Hans Klok is one of the world's best illusionists and is known as “The fastest magician in the World”. In 1990, Hans and his assistant Sittah won the ”Grand Prix” of the Netherlands and the “Henk Vermeijden Cup” with “the fastest metamorphosis in the world”.

The following year he performed in 'The Winter Garden Opera House' in Blackpool - England, France, Japan, South America, the United States, the Caribbean, and all Western European countries. He won the first prize at the ‘International Magic Fachkongress’ in Germany and performed in television shows at home and abroad.

By age 23, he was part of a touring show with Dutch comedian André van Duin.

In 1992, he was the opening act for the F.I.S.M. in Lausanne – a professional convention for magicians and illusionists, where Hans got the opportunity to present his own show. The theatre in the theme park in Duinrell got remodelled and arranged according to his wishes. This show drew 170,000 visitors. The following year he returned to Duinrell with a new show.

In 1993, Hans performed as a 'special guest' in the André van Duin Revue. For Hans, the performances in Duinrell and the collusion with André van Duin meant a definite breakthrough in the Netherlands. Hans was asked to perform a series of shows during the 'Dinnershows' in Studio 21 in Hilversum. He also performed during the World Press Photo Gala.

In 1994, he performed for the first time on the Las Vegas Strip, as part of NBC’s The World's Greatest Magic, broadcast live from Caesars Palace to an audience of 60 million people. Hans used the period after that to prepare his first theatre show, which had its premier in October in the Luxor Theater in Rotterdam.

In 1994-1995, Hans starred in Gerard Joling's Theatre Tour, performed in Las Vegas, at the Hotel Loew's in Monte Carlo, and in large German shows such as 'Der Grosse Künstler Preis' and Linda de Mol's 'Surprise Show'.

In August of 1996, Hans received an invitation from NBC for a show at the ‘Caesar’s Palace’ in Las Vegas as part of 'The World Greatest Magic' television show.

In 1997, Hans and his team got second place in the “illusionism” category during the Magic world championship in Dresden. He performed in the ABC special 'Champions of Magic' in the same year.

In 1998, Hans had a second theatre show, 'Magic Live on Stage', followed by 'Magic Impossible'.

In the beginning of 2002, his father Klaas died unexpectedly. Klaas Klok had been the driving force behind Hans Klok's company. His brother Wouter Klok took over his father's tasks. In the summer of 2002, Hans Klok performed in the Wondrous Efteling Show in the new theatre with 1,200 seats in the Efteling. From 27 December 2002 onwards, Hans performed throughout Europe for three months with his show 'History of Magic'.

At the close of 2004, Wouter Klok presented the idea of a show in Ahoy. At the start of 2005, Hans Klok performed in Ahoy for three nights, all tickets were sold out. A conversation with Joop van den Ende, who wanted to do business with Hans Klok, followed shortly after.

In 2006, the proposed collusion led to the establishment of Stage Entertainment magic, a new company in which Stage Entertainment (Joop van den Ende) and Hans Klok Illusions both had their own input.

On December 9, 2005, Hans Klok performed during the draw of the World Championship Football 2006. He gave a show for an audience of millions of people in which he made the trophy appear by magic.

In August 2006, Hans took a tour of all the locations of Holland Casino. During 2006, he was busy with the preparations of his new show "Faster than Magic", which had its premier on January 5, 2007 in Cologne. This became his grandest show ever. In this production Hans told his life story with music and illusions. Next to Hans Klok, his three assistants: Nathalie Hoop, Zarina Potapova and Debbie Verhey also worked on stage.

During the opening of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, about 500 million football fans in 152 countries saw Klok make the 18-carat gold World Trophy appear out of thin air in a glass cage.

In 2007, Klok had a show on the Las Vegas Strip. The Beauty of Magic was a 90-minute production presented in a large theater at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. It debuted on June 1 and closed in mid December. The show included Pamela Anderson, who paraded onstage in a glittering bathing suit for about 10 minutes as one of Klok's assistants, participating in a couple of illusions. Klok had previously featured Carmen Electra in his illusions. The show ended mid November 2007.

Klok had worked on Klassetv, an English program for Dutch kids. He is taking help from English Children in the British School of Amsterdam and possibly the International School of Amsterdam.

Back in the Netherlands, he joined the Stardust Circus International owned by the producers, a couple named Henk van der Meyden and Monica Strotmann.

In 2011, Hans Klok was the first illusionist to perform in a sold out Koninklijk Theater Carré for 5 weeks with the Circus Hurricane show, a combination of magic and circus, followed by a national tour.

After their first joint Dutch theatre show “Hurricane”, his own Christmas show followed at the close of 2010, which Hans performed in the big cities of Germany and Austria.

In the meantime, Hans Klok had already been a guest in the annual show” Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde”, aired by the French TV Cinq.

During a 2012 visit to the UK with his stage show The Houdini Experience, Hans made a guest appearance on the BBC TV show The Magicians, during which he broke his own world record for the number of illusions performed in a five minute period. During the same visit, he also performed at Stella McCartney's London Fashion Week 2012 party-themed fashion show. There, he entertained the invited VIP guests with a number of tricks and illusions, including the levitation and sawing in half of TV presenter and model Alexa Chung. When interviewed on the Channel 5 talk show LIVE with Gabby, he revealed that his appearance at the Stella McCartney show came about after model Kate Moss saw his appearance on BBC TV's The One Show publicising his UK visit and suggested to McCartney that she should feature him in her show. The original plan for his appearance at McCartney's show was that Moss was to act as his assistant, and she spent several days working with him to rehearse the levitation and sawing illusions, plus a third illusion (not performed in the final show) in which she was beheaded by a guillotine. However, she was unable to perform in the show after suffering a temporary paralysis of her right arm a few days beforehand, and so Chung stepped in at short notice to replace her.

In the finals of The Magicians on the BBC on February 11, 2012, Klok broke his own world record on live TV by performing no less than 12 large illusions in 5 minutes. On March 19, 2012, he was named a member of the Inner circle with Gold Star by Jack Delvin, president of The Magic Circle, a title which is reserved for a few select members.

For 5 weeks, from February 23 until March 25, Hans Klok performed The Houdini Experience in The Peacock Theatre in London's West End. Both press and public were unanimously enthusiastic about his show. The Mail On Sunday wrote that Hans Klok was the first in 100 years to equal The Great Harry Houdini.

A Dutch tour of Circus Hans Klok performing The Houdini Experience will follow this year.