Jeremy Bradley-  David, most of the world knows you from America's Got Talent.  You've been wowing audiences with your "Quick Change" act.  But you and Dania have been performing for quite a while.  How did you two get started?

David Maas-  We both came from a background of entertainment.  My wife was originally from the Moscow State Circus and my father was a professional musician by trade and my mother, at one point, was a singer and dancer.  Throughout a number of years and being involved in magic and entertainment I was an emcee and quite prominent for a while, actually.  I emceed a lot of big events - comedy festivals and stuff like that.  Long story short, there was an event called the Eastern States Exposition which takes place every year for 17 days straight in Springfield, Massachusetts.  And they put on a variety show up there and the producer had brought in Dania for the very first time from the Moscow State Circus and she did an act with hula hoops.  She had won a gold medal in Paris and quite famous in her own right at the time.  And then she had come over for the very first time to America with the Moscow State Circus at the Taj Mahal with Donald Trump.  But immediately after that she was contracted to the Big Apple Circus in New York and I was the emcee for that show and that's where we met.

DAVID MAAS

DANIA KASEEVA

JB-  What was your first act together?  Is it the "Quick Change" act?

DM- Yeah.  We met and Dania was single.  I was as well.  Decided that not only were we going out at the time but we wanted to do something.  And obviously something that could keep us together.  I had been involved in magic for nearly 15 years when I had met Dania.  So the idea started with one change of costume and then it eventually built into what you're seeing now.  We wanted something that would really transcend the world of magic.  We wanted something that could be very international - no matter what language you speak, it doesn't matter how old you are - it can be performed on a stage or completely in a round.  And that was one of our absolutely keys to success is that we wanted to do something that could be done magically and completely surrounded.  That's very, very rare in the entire world of magic.  Most magicians work on a stage and they are one-sided.  We decided upon this idea of colour changing costumes and eventually, one, as I was saying earlier, progressed into several and several and then of course, became many.  In the beginning we involved a lot of magic.  We wanted to be able to work on a variety stage.  We wanted to be able to work in the circus.  We wanted to be able to work in a casino in a revue.  The majority of the "wow" factor was really when we were doing the changing costumes.  Everybody just kind of went crazy when that happened and we said, "You know what, we should eliminate the majority of the magic and really, really just concentrate on change of costume and eventually that's what's happened now.  And I think I should stress this too, we wanted to do something that made us very equal on the stage.  That's extremely important to what we do now and you can tell somebody this,  but you don't really know it… you feel it subconsciously, but it wasn't a magician working on the stage with an assistant.  We are very equal.  So we went to high level world champion ballroom teachers and we wanted to be very, very equal on the stage.  And I think we've accomplished that.

JB-  Oh absolutely.

DM-  So when you watch us, you watch us together.  Of course your eyes are glued on my wife and you want to know how she's changing that dress but at no time ever in over 10 years now that we've done this act has anybody ever left and said, "Hey, that magician and his assistant were pretty good."

JB-  Right. 

DM-  They just want to know, "How in the world did that lady change into that dress?"

JB-  Now, I'm sure you've been asked that many times.  And you know, it's in no disrespect, but I don't want to know how you do it.  It would take the fun out of watching, you know?

DM-  We've had a lot of people say that very same thing.  I think that's the intelligent response, Jeremy, I really do.  And it is fun that way.  It's kind of hard for me to say that because I'm the one who's doing this act, but that's absolutely right.  When I watch a great magician, guys that I idolized over the years growing up, it was the same way.  Of course I was very curious to find out how a specific effect was done.  But on the other hand I would sit back and never in a million years would I sit in conversation with one of these guys and say, "Hey, you know what, you've gotta give me the inside of this and that."  You appreciate it for what it is.  But of course you get the crazies out there that'll sit there adamantly and send e-mail after e-mail.  We've had some very big names, who I'd prefer not to mention, but some very high level magicians from around the world that have asked to buy our rights.  And we've put a patent on the effect because it's been so successful for us.  We have a copyright on the act and we have a trademark under two names.

JB- So has anyone figured you out?

DM-  Well, you know… to answer that question, Jeremy, the idea of transformation was not our idea.  I'd like to say in this conversation with you that I was the genius that invented this and that it's never ever been done but that's not the case.  You can date the idea of transformation of costumes back a hundred of years and maybe even more.  There have been acts that we've studied through the years.  I don't think to this day, and I'm pretty much the expert on this, anybody has ever taken it close to the level of speed and the amounts we can do.  In fact, we can do it right in front of you, completely surrounded, and you can watch it in big basketball arenas, you know we're one of the official acts of NBA Halftime.  Whether you're 20,000 people in the arena or 300 people in the theatre you can watch it and it's still pretty amazing to watch us work that way.