Luc Apers (1969) has been a Flemish professional artist since 2000, known for his nimble-fingered card magic. He is one of the most renowned magicians in cabaret and one of the few who, thanks to the narrative character of his shows, tours the cultural circuit.
Visual reference
From lawyer to magician
Apers took up magic from the age of eleven. He studied at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwecollege in Antwerp, in Namur and at KU Leuven, where he earned degrees in law and economics.
It was not until 2000, after seven years as a lawyer at the Antwerp bar, that he made magic his profession. He won various national and international prizes with his acts.
Narrative magic
Apers creates and produces his own shows, appears on radio and television programmes and has directed several stage acts. He is the creative consultant and mentor of Nicholas, which has run on VTM since 2015.
In 2008 he made a French-language version of his show Double Face, with which he began touring outside Flanders. In it he tells the story of little Paul Cres (an anagram of his name) and uses a camera with live projection, breaking down the boundary between close-up and theatrical acts.
The line between fiction and reality
Since 2014 Apers has toured with Leurre de Vérité, of which he also made a Dutch version under the title Het Uur van de Waarheid. That show tells the story of little Luc Feri (an anagram of Lucifer), who is gifted with a paranormal talent.
By imitating supposedly paranormal effects with theatre techniques, he blurs the line between fiction and reality: what others present as reality might just as easily be fiction.
Luc Apers proved that magic can also be a form of storytelling and reflection. You will recognise that same refined combination of technique, story and wonder in the work of Sudesh Roman.