Cameron Woodhead
LA-based magician Katrina Kroetch (aka Magical Katrina) is heading Down Under for the first time to perform at the 19th annual Melbourne Magic Festival. If you’ve seen the music video for Chappell Roan’s Red Wine Supernova, you’ll know her already.
In the clip, Kroetch plays the pop star’s sapphic romantic fantasy come to life – a glamorous, flame-haired lady magician who descends on Roan’s suburban home with an arsenal of tricks up her sleeve, including making a homophobic neighbour disappear.
“I’m bisexual and have a girlfriend of five years, so [that] was really, really cool to do,” Kroetch says.
Originally, Roan approached her as a magic consultant, to teach an actor how to perform illusions, before realising that Kroetch had acting training, comedic presence and a natural rapport with the camera that made her perfect for the role.
Kroetch is “a big, big fan” of Roan’s music and admits she had to restrain her “fangirling around set” and act cool on the shoot. The thing that most impressed her about Roan, however, was the star’s respect for artists.
“I often get approached by stars – I won’t name names – and they’ll often ask you to work for free, or they’ll haggle with you,” Kroetch says. “Chappell Roan did not do that, and in an industry where people routinely use their clout to screw over artists, it was refreshing.”
‘I’m like super anxious and I have impostor syndrome, and I’m always worried and a perfectionist.’
Katrina Kroetch, magician
So, how did this self-described “theatre kid” come to launch an international career in magic? It’s still a rather male-dominated scene, after all, even if the classic image of a magician sawing a “lovely assistant” in half is a thing of the past.
“As a little girl [of] … my generation,” Kroetch says, “we weren’t given like magic kits in the same way that boys were … So, my kind of touchstone for magic growing up was Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The most magical women I looked up to as a kid were like, witches, right? I desperately wanted to be a witch. And a vampire slayer. And a vampire.”
Performing for Alyson Hannigan – who played Willow in Buffy – during an appearance on Penn and Teller: Fool Us was a dream come true for Kroetch, and strong, queer female characters continue to fire her imagination.
“I grew up with The Rocky Horror Picture Show … and so drag and queerness, gayness and glamour and burlesque are very important parts of my internal landscape … But my celebration of the hyper-femme is also about being able to be a badass,” she says.
Her latest work, I Am Not A Spy, This Is A Magic Show, certainly fits the bill. Kroetch will transform into a lesbian super spy (who also does magic) in a race against time to get the girl and save the world.
Kroetch watched about 100 spy movies before starting to write and describes her show as character- and narrative-driven. It’s also a different creature to Magical Katrina: The Whimsical Witch, the children’s magic show she’s also bringing to the festival.
“I would say that the kids show – this is a terrible metaphor because it sounds violent – it’s more like a shotgun approach of taking 14 years [of experience as a magician] and seeing what sticks. Whereas the spy show is more like a sniper rifle: I know exactly what I want to do.
“I want a time bomb. I want to fake my own death. I want to be gay. I want to be a spy. I want to literally kick ass in a skirt. And I want to do all of this in 45 minutes.”
For all the chicanery involved in the art form, though, the talent and ambition of women in magic is a reality that will be proudly on display at the Melbourne Magic Festival. Other women artists programmed alongside Kroetch include Calista Sinclair – the Sydney-born, Paris-based magician who came third at the World Championships of Magic in Turin last year.
And in addition to her two shows, Kroetch will be giving lectures to fellow magicians in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, and she hopes to expand her spy show into a full 90 minutes, take it to Vegas and perform it on the Strip.
A final question: if magic were real, and she could cast a spell to change something about herself, what would Kroetch choose?
“My first thought was to get rid of this horrible acne on my face that I’ve had for months,” she says. “My second thought was, ‘That is so shallow. That’s a bad answer.’
“And then I thought, you know what? I’m like super anxious and I have imposter syndrome, and I’m always worried and a perfectionist, so I would probably … try to have a more chill demeanour and not be so stressed. I need to not be my own pageant mom.”
The Melbourne Magic Festival runs from June 29 to July 11.
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