Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 8:21 a.m.
Information
It's magic in a flamenco sort of way.
Dressed in leather riding boots and a matador's coat, Joaquin Ayala produces flames and doves from empty space.
He lunges flaming metal rods into boxes containing (or so it appears) his long-legged assistant and belly dancing fiance, Tanya Garofalo.
His broken English and firm physique create a charming stage presence, and his Mayan and Aztec ancestry are incorporated into his act.
But Ayala's trademark in the world of magic, he'll tell you with piercing eyes and hypnotic hand gestures, is simply his passion for life and performance a passion that has led him to stages in Mexico, Japan, Lebanon, Paris, South America and Las Vegas.
Sitting at a cocktail table outside the Sultan's Palace at Caesars Magical Empire, where Alaya and Garofalo are performing a 25-minute version of their show, "Ayala and Tanya, a Magical Passion," through June 15, the 38-year-old Las Vegas resident discusses his magical journey and how much he loves to perform.
Even more so, how much he loves his life.
And what's not to love about life when you're a man who travels the world dispensing illusion via fire and swords? The interests have engrossed Ayala nearly all of his years.
Ayala's journey into the world of magic began 32 years ago when he was a child watching television in his Mexico City home.
A magician named Chen Kai came on the television screen and performed a few sleight-of-hand tricks. The feat stunned a wide-eyed Ayala, who accepted Chen Kai's open invitation to viewers to join his weekly magic club that met Fridays in downtown Mexico City.
"That made the pattern for my life," Ayala said. "I started magic right away."
With a newly learned five-minute act that included two different card tricks, the young Ayala and his mother went the following Friday to an office space in Mexico City where Chen Kai held his magic club.
It was a place, Ayala recalls, where tuxedo-clad and turban-wrapped hobbyists and professional magicians shared secrets among flickering candlelight. Suddenly among them was a 6-year-old boy.
"I was the only (child). It felt like some kind of weird place -- just like the Magical Empire," Ayala said with a laugh, as he gestured to the fiery hall of the Magical Empire.
But it was an impressionable experience, one that sent Ayala home to learn more tricks. To become a member of the magic club he would have to prove himself.
"They were deciding whether to let this kid in," Ayala said, recalling his days with his magic mentors. "I put together my act. I did my magic. I got a standing ovation. I never missed any meetings.
"Three years later all the magic you could find in books didn't satisfy me," he said. "So by neccesity I decided to create my own tricks, my own stuff."
Climbing the ropes
Soon Ayala was performing at parties, conventions and festivals in Mexico, and later on television. By age 14 he was performing with birds and employing his younger sister as his assistant.
"I finished school at 1 p.m.," Ayala said. "At 2 (p.m.) I was in my room in front of the mirror with my birds.
"I wanted to express myself as a performer, and magic was a tool to express myself," Ayala said, recalling his early interest in magic.
"I was so shy when I was a kid," he added. "Besides that, I was like the nerd. I wasn't popular. I was in my own little world when I started to do magic. I started to become special. I was doing something nobody was doing."
To round out his performance Ayala studied theater and dance in high school.
When he was 17 he represented Mexico in an international magic competition held in Las Vegas. Though his presentation didn't win him any awards, the exposure to magicians performing steady gigs on the Strip gave him a goal: "I wanted to headline in Las Vegas. I really wanted to be here."
Ayala returned to Mexico and polished his act. He continued performing at magic conventions throughout the world, met and married (and later divorced) Lillia Lopez, who assisted him in his shows. Their daughter Nadia also became part of the act when she was 3 years old. Now 15, his daughter lives in Las Vegas and performs with him occasionally.
Ayala's big break came in the early 1990s when he was featured in Dick Foster's "Spellbound" at Harrah's in Reno. In 1992 the show came to Harrah's on the Strip, and was a mainstay for several years.
By 1997 Ayala was the featured headliner with Lopez assisting him. (The show closed nearly two years later to make room for singer Clint Holmes.) Ayala and Lopez divorced, and Ayala began touring his act, appearing on television specials and at special events throughout the world.
Longtime Las Vegas magician Lance Burton, who first met Ayala when Ayala was 17 and watched him evolve over the years, said, "It's difficult to establish a career in magic. There are a lot of magicians and entertainers out there looking for work.
"To establish a name for yourself, I think Joaquin's done that. He has a persona and a style onstage that's his own. I always look forward to watching him work. I know he's going to have something different, something I've never seen."
'Ayala and Tanya'
Two years ago Ayala teamed with Garofalo. They first met while Ayala performed in "Spellbound."
"I was a big fan of his," Garofalo, who is in her early 30s, said with a smile. "The thing I'm most disappointed about now is that I don't get to watch him anymore," because she is onstage with him.
In 2000 the duo opened "Ayala and Tanya, a Magical Passion" at Harrah's in Laughlin.
Garofalo, from Alliance, Ohio, began dancing at age 3. She was 5 years old when she became fascinated with belly dancing, and by age 9, she said, she was belly dancing professionally in New York clubs.
At 18 Garofalo worked as a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines and in 1998 moved to Las Vegas, where she performed at special events and in production shows, including "Splash."
Never wanting to be a chorus girl, she said she appreciates the ability to be a solo dancer in their shows.
"We love to be on the stage together," Ayala added. "There's a lot of magic on the Strip. But us, we have something unique, our style our passion. We are very romantic."
The show at the Magical Empire features the duo, who incorporate music, dance, comedy and romance in their act. He designs the costumes. She choreographs the shows.
Impressing audiences that are mainly wowed by the high-tech special effects of the digital age isn't always easy, they say.
In magic acts most audiences have already seen all the splashy magic tricks and trends that come and go, Garofalo said.
"You have to get back to the basics. You have to be a good performer. You can't fool people anymore.
"Everyone has their own style," she said. "You only get a name in magic if you're original."
"Right now my biggest competition is 'Star Wars,' " Ayala said with a laugh.
archive
