COURTESY OF LES AU
Les Au and his wife Terri make a bewitching team. Terri assists her dentist / magician husband in the office and on stage.
Whether it's pulling teeth as a dentist or pulling birds out of a glass ball as a magician, you can count on Les Au to be a real trouper. Sinking their
teeth in magicGary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com
For the past two decades, he has made a solid reputation in both fields. But this Sunday, he and his wife and assistant Terri will re-create some of the showroom magic -- complete with exotic birds -- that made the couple a popular staple at the "Yes! Encore!" Hawaii show staged at the Polynesian Palace.
The 2nd Annual Spring Family Magic Show 'Magical Moments'
Where: Pikake Room, Neal Blaisdell Exhibition Hall
When: 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $10 and $15
Call: 526-4400
Although the 9/11 incident led to the demise of Yes!, Au still performs at the occasional convention, corporate gig or first birthday party around town, while maintaining his busy dentistry practice.
Terri also assists her husband in the office, but daughter Crystal is filling in while Terri cares for the couple's 5-year-old son at home and holds down a nighttime waitress job at Nashville Waikiki.
It was while waitressing at the disco club Cilly's at McCully and Ala Wai that she and Les met. He was performing at a private function for then-regular visitor Dolly Parton and her family. What initially turned out as a self-described "hard-luck story, getting away from a bad divorce," turned into a happy ending when the two married, and Terri became part of the act.
Cheryl, who began helping with the magic act when she was 7, will be behind the scenes Sunday as her mom and dad reprise an abbreviated version of their act at "Magical Moments," the annual spring family magic show presented by Glen Bailey Productions.
The show will also feature visiting children's entertainer Mama Clown from Hollywood, and magicians Terry Lunceford of El Cajon, Calif., and Tom Yurasits of Northampton, Pa.
A couple of local junior magicians -- Stacie Hata and Kevin Tsunoda -- will perform as well. Tsunoda's father, the late Ben Tsunoda, gave the Aus their first big break in the Princess Kaiulani show he performed in.
Throughout the '90s, "Les Au & Terri" were regulars in the "Splash" show at the Riviera in Las Vegas (prompted by their win of a coveted 1991 award for "Best Magician Award of Excellence" given by their peers) as a warm-up act for "Legends in Hawaii" and a feature act in "Yes! Encore! Hawaii."
Au has also been recognized as one of the better dentists in town, according to the results of a survey of Honolulu magazine readers.
AU JOKINGLY promises there will be "no drill levitation" during the act, although he's been known to do an up-close magic trick or two for his young, sometimes nervous patients.
Although there's a dearth of magic jobs out there, "after 11 years of really pumping, both doing two shows six nights a week and the dentistry, it's really nice to just concentrate on the dentistry and the family," Au says.
And he's used some of the time for reworking his bird act with a more ambitious ending.
Au first became involved in magic when he was an 8-year-old growing up in Aina Haina. "It was fun to do because there were secrets involved and you could amaze your friends," he says.
Even though he was warned that a show-business career would be tough going, he continued to practice magic while following his dentist father's lead into the medical profession.
It's his work with his 20-plus birds -- "macaws, cockatiels, doves, parakeets and, at one time, a duck" -- that has distinguished himself from the rest of the magic pack, even though the results of some of his tricks have upset some of the children in his audiences.
"Once I performed this trick for some kids at St. Andrew's Priory where some of my birds would be put in this round ball, and then I'd run it through with torches and a large macaw would appear when I opened the ball up," he says. "Well, some of them were upset because they thought I killed the other birds, so I had to show them afterward that they were really OK."
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