How a Port Moody local will star in one of the biggest shows in magic

When Gabriella Lester got a phone call to audition for Now You See Me Live — a live magic show based on the movie franchise of the same name — she jumped up and down on her bed and tried not to scream. 

A few weeks later, she found out that she got the gig as the female lead. Starting in December, she’ll be in Australia, kicking off the world tour at the Sydney Opera House.

“And I’m still jumping up and down,” Lester told the Dispatch. “I’m just trying to take in every moment and really acknowledge the fact that I’ve dreamed my whole life of doing a show like this and living in that dream just feels extraordinarily special.”

Lester is originally from South Africa, but she immigrated to Canada with her family when she was quite young.

“The Tri-Cites, Port Moody, for me, it’s home,” she said.

Like many kids, she fell in love with magic at an early age. She saw her first magic show at age 10, when Shawn Farquhar, a Vancouver magician, performed at her middle school, Eagle Mountain. But unlike many kids who might have moved on to other interests, her passion for magic stuck.

“That was the show that really ignited my passion and led me down this career path,” she said. 

Lester started learning card tricks. She practiced and shuffled so much that her teacher confiscated her card deck. By the time she was 12, she got a carpal tunnel from all the shuffling.

“Which was crazy,” she said.

That same year, one of her middle school teachers, Jeff Christensen, invited her to take the same stage she had watched Farquhar on two years prior.  

“I was an absolute nervous wreck,” she said. “I felt like I wanted to throw up the entire time. But I still somehow got off stage and knew that that was going to be the only thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

To this day, she says she still feels anxious before every show. “I think that that fear reminds me how much I care about what I’m doing,” she said.

From mentee to role model

Lester was self-taught at first, but quickly found a lot of mentors who helped her hone her craft, including Farquhar.

Magic, Lester explained, is best taught person-to-person, since it “is so much about secrets . . . and it’s so much about the audience and performing and style.

Magic has traditionally been a male-dominated industry, but Lester says the community has supported her — and she credits many of her opportunities to others.

“It’s like having 1,000 dads that are all looking out for you.”

And one of the most rewarding aspects of being a female in a male-dominated industry is that she’s now a role model to young girls.

“There’s nothing that feels as good to me as a little girl coming up to me after a show, or her parents saying that she’s inspired by me or wants to be like me, that stops me dead in my tracks every time,” Lester said.

Making a career of it

After that middle school performance, Lester said she was “performing anywhere and everywhere:” kids parties, corporate events, school fundraisers, and volunteering at senior centres. She said yes to every opportunity, and by the time she was 14, she had her first show in Las Vegas.

She finished high school early, at 16, with the goal to start performing full time. But COVID hit shortly after, so she used that time instead to “practise and perfect” her craft.

As soon as she could, she was back on the road. In 2021, she went on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, a national TV show.

Last December, Lester moved to Los Angeles. She was travelling so much between Vancouver and LA, and she wanted to be closer to opportunities. 

While the move was beneficial for her career, she said she was “terrified” by the prospect at first. It was hard to leave her parents and Port Moody. She’s been travelling for shows since she was a teenager, and she said she has always been excited to get back to B.C.

“The older I got, the more grateful I felt to live in B.C. and what I think is the most beautiful place in the world. I remember I could be away for 24 hours and already feel homesick. So being away for a year has definitely tugged on my heartstrings.”

While the only two countries booked on the Now You See Me Live world tour are Australia and Singapore, Lester said she hopes that the show will be coming to Canada.