Billy Kidd is a force to be reckoned with. She is a street magician (with a straight jacket escape as her signature trick), but she is best known to the general magic community as one of the Wizards on the SyFy television series "Wizard Wars" (produced by Rick Lax) in the second season. Born in Canada, she now resides in Bath Spa, England with Gazzo. So now you see her connection with street magic.
She actually came into magic later in life than most male magicians who generally get interested in their adolescent years. Billy was 21 when she first saw and was influenced by a stage magician. As a drama major in college, she was already involved with and had a passion for theatre. But she saw the potential of being her own person as a street performer and creating her own stage wherever she was. She met Gazzo who took her under his wing and mentored her in the ways of the street and, well...the dominoes fell.
Street Magician, NIck Nickolas, was the inspiration for Billy Kidd. You can get a sense of his style in this video. You can learn more about Nick at www.nicknickolas.com
Billy traveled with Gazzo on his recent lecture tour of the U.S. and stopped by as my house guest. I talked with Gazzo on a podcast with the intent of bringing over Billy to chat, too; however, Gazzo had so much to talk about that it filled the hour. I felt that Billy would have enough to fill another hour talking about her experiences as a female magician in our male dominated art and the challenges for a woman magician on the street.
I was not wrong.
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Not just a good read for the holidays, but a great read anytime with wonderful stories about magicians and Steve Spill's magical life.
