The Melbourne-born magician has been coined Australia’s greatest illusionist and escape artist, and has conquered the international magic scene with his sell-out live shows and TV series, which have been broadcast in 40 countries.
While Cosentino is now one of the biggest pioneers of magic on the national and international stages, the road to success wasn’t always a smooth ride.
In his recently released autobiography Anything is Possible, Cosentino sheds some light on the “grind” and years of dedication that it took to establish himself as a celebrity of an unprecedented nature.
Cosentino’s love affair with magic began in a local library when he was 12 years old.
“I had a lot of learning difficulties in the beginning with reading, writing and spelling, and you don’t want to be in the library when you don’t like reading,” he says.
While scanning the puzzle section, the young schoolboy stumbled upon a magic book and unknowingly embarked on a journey towards stardom.
The magic book found a new home that day, and Cosentino’s mother read him stories about the adventures of famous magicians.
By following the instructions in the back of the book, the charismatic magician also learnt his very first magic tricks.
“That process of breaking down the words and applying them to my hands really allowed me to understand the language, because previously when my mum read me a story I’d just drift off,” Cosentino says.
An obsession was sparked and there was only one thing standing between Cosentino and his passion to learn more about magic: reading.
“There wasn’t YouTube or Google, so I had to read books to learn,” he explains.
Not only did Cosentino’s fascination with magic provide an avenue for him to learn how to read, it also revealed his innate talent for performing and entertaining people.
Fast-forward a few years, and the budding magician was dominating in competitions and astounding audiences with his performances.
But the entertainment industry is a tough one to crack, especially when magic wasn’t yet “mainstream” in Australia.
Many sacrifices were made, and Cosentino even dropped out of his business degree at Monash University to focus on pursuing his dream full-time - a risk which took years to pay off.
“I was winning awards and putting bums in seats, but it just wasn’t connecting on a commercial level,” he says.
To commemorate the centenary of Houdini’s famous Queens Bridge escape stunt in Melbourne, Cosentino decided to pay tribute to the renowned magician in a way that would capture Australia’s attention.
In a stunt dubbed ‘Anchored’, Cosentino was dropped underwater at the Melbourne Aquarium with 60 kilograms of concrete attached to his feet, before freeing himself from a padlocked contraption.
As if the pressure of potentially drowning wasn’t enough, the stunt was filmed live on Sunrise and broadcast across the nation.
Cosentino managed to pull it off in just under three-and-a-half minutes, despite having troubles with one of the locks.
“It went all over the world but it didn’t really open that many doors,” he explains.
“What opened up the doors commercially was AGT, which was a last resort because I didn’t want to be on a competition show.”
After having already rejected the offer to compete on the show a couple of times, Cosentino finally accepted, hoping it would give him the big break he so desperately needed.
Given that the winner scores a recording contract and the prize money is put up by a record label, Cosentino went into auditions knowing that he would never come out the other side a winner.
“I just hoped that if I could reach the top 10, I would get enough exposure,” he says.
Not only did he make the top 10, he came runner up and propelled his craft into the national spotlight.
“I got lucky in that the show was the highest rating show of that year, and all the stars aligned,” he says.
As soon as the competition wrapped up, calls began flowing in from managers and agencies.
It’s not hard to guess how the rest of the story goes.
Cosentino’s new autobiography is dedicated to his family, who have been nothing but supportive of his unique profession.
Cosentino’s father came to Australia from the small Calabrian town of Melissa when he was 11 years old and went on to become a structural engineer.
His mother also came over from southern Italy, growing up in a poor family to become a principal.
He notes the sacrifices that they have made, which have in turn allowed him to live his life with a little more freedom.
“My father was encouraging in terms of his engineering background in that if I needed a prop he’d help me build it,” Cosentino says.
“My mum raised three boys: she worked, she cooked and cleaned and did everything that mums do, and somehow, amongst all of that, she always had time to watch a magic trick.”
Cosentino’s family have backed him from day one, and one of his brothers still works with him full-time, while another offers his engineering expertise during the production of TV shows and major tours.
His mum and nonna Elisa still sew costumes and accessories to this day, and just recently completed a cloth for his performance at the AACTA Awards.
“It’s a family business and it all kind of happened by accident to begin with; we didn’t sit down and have a master plan to create it, it just slowly organically grew,” Cosentino reflects.
“That’s why I dedicate my book to my family, because I don’t think it would exist without them.”
Anything is Possible is more of a piece of art than the average autobiography.
Instead of a mass of text with a few photos crammed in the middle, Cosentino’s book is filled with vibrant photos, stunning illustrations, instructions to a handful of magic tricks and, of course, pages dedicated to his heroes.
“People see me wearing a fedora hat and think Michael Jackson, but it’s really Gene Kelly,” he says.
“I want people to be educated on me, on where things have come from and on my craft.”
Cosentino also hopes to inspire us readers to stick to our guns and stay true to ourselves in whatever it is we do.
“What has made me successful was what originally deterred people for so long,” he says.
“I broke through when I was forced upon people through a reality show where they had to play me; it wouldn’t have happened any other way, because according to some people it was ‘too different’”.
While Cosentino is certainly not your typical “boy next door”, it appears Australia is ready for something other than the same old cookie-cutter celebrities we’ve seen come and go on our screens for decades.
Having single-handedly carved out a space for magic in the mainstream Australian entertainment industry, Cosentino is living proof that with a little determination and a dash of magic anything really is possible.
