Darcy Oake used to be the lesser known Oake, following in the shadow cast by his Gemini Award–winning, sports broadcasting father, Scott Oake. Since his top 10 finish on Britain’s Got Talent, the younger Oake is on the rise, and he’s playing to sold-out houses around the world thanks to his death-defying feats. His Edge of Reality tour hits the Sony Centre Nov. 14.

Am I right in saying that Britain’s Got Talent has transformed your career?

Absolutely yes, 100%. That was just such a massive exposure for me and it just skyrocketed everything.

I’m going to go back in time a little bit here and ask you about your past and how you became a musician, I mean magician! Do people make that mistake a lot?

Every time, haha. It’s usually the first thing when I say I’m a magician, they say, ‘oh ya? What instrument do you play?’ Like no, no, no, magician.

Do you have many magician friends?

Well, ya, pretty much just a few from what I do right, so I’m constantly talking to other guys doing it and sharing info, not necessarily secrets or tricks or anything but you know, the business side of it sure. So ya, a lot of my friends are in the industry.

Okay, so there’s a sense of community, you’re not just making your own way with no other sounding boards.

I mean, it’s interesting, the magic community is full of characters I guess you could say. The thing about the magic community is there all sort of under the impression that one person’s success directly affects the level of success that you have. There’s a lot of ego in the magic world for sure, but the friends that I have within the community are fantastic and are lifelong friends. But I mean, a lot of guys have that sort of ego and insecurity if you will, and anytime I see somewhere out there doing it, working at it, and you know trying to hone their craft, I have nothing but respect for that.

So, I did a little bit of research, and I heard you say in an interview that your dad triggered your interest in magic, is that really how it happened?

Ya, he did a card trick by accident basically. He had me pick a card, put it back in the pack, shuffled them up, randomly picked out one card and it was mine, and I was completely blown away. Because it worked out, and he played it off like he meant to do it, and the fact that I just didn’t know how it was done and had no explanation was what sort of started me on this journey. But he has zero magic knowledge or ability.

How old were you when that happened?

I was probably like nine … eight or nine.

And it really stuck with you, like the memory of even just that one card trick?

Ya, well, everybody has that memory of seeing a magician or seeing somebody do ‘a trick’ and ya, I think that’s probably mine, and it just so happens that it was a complete fluke.

Your dad, he’s in show business, obviously he must be a bit of a performer, is he kind of like that at home as well? Like does he perform?

Well, he doesn’t really perform in his job, he’s not a performer if you will, I mean he’s more of, you know, a commentator, a broadcaster, but it’s not necessarily a performance, but more speaking ability. So, I’ve learned from that but I wouldn’t say he’s practicing his public speaking at home or anything like that.

When did you begin performing?

Basically, right after I saw that trick, I tried to learn what I thought were little tricks and weren’t even really magic, looking back on it now, they were probably horrendous, but ya, it was right after that I started learning little bits here and there, and ya just never stopped learning. So, basically it was from that point on, eight or nine, when I saw that accidental trick.

Did you have audiences from early on? Who did you perform for?

I’d do like kids birthday parties and stuff, and I would basically perform anywhere that would have me! Basically, I started in Winnipeg and I would do shows around town as much as I could, I was constantly working on the act at the time I guess but ya, basically time went on, I was in school and whatnot and then after school, after I graduated high school, I really started obviously pursuing it as a career and that’s like what I was going to do. And then a few years passed, I started doing cruise ships a lot, and it was good, it’s just a different demographic, different dynamic out on the cruise ships. You sort of get lost out there, you’re not really actively establishing a career anywhere outside of cruise ships, so at that point I didn’t want to get stuck doing that for the rest of my life, and that’s when I went and did Britain’s Got Talent.

I also heard you say you sort of kept your skill to yourself in high school but then you did one performance where it was kind of like the big reveal and you showed everyone what you could do, was that a memorable moment for you?

Ya, absolutely. It was like I was doing shows and stuff throughout high school but I just knew the stigma associated with doing magic, especially in your high school days. It’s like I had this vision for it, and this passion for it that I knew it could be something amazing. But it's very difficult to get other people to see your vision, especially at a young age like that so I just made the conscious choice to not make it a public thing. I didn’t want to be that weird magician kid, you know? And then graduation rolled around and everybody knew I did it, I just didn’t make it a thing or constantly do it. So, I came out at graduation and did the act and nobody had any clue that was kind of what I was working on, and everybody went nuts and it was just a really special moment.

And your parents, I know you said they were very supportive, did they also understand that in high school nothing was really grabbing your attention, it was just going to be kind of a ‘throw away’ as you said?

I wouldn’t say it was necessarily encouraged, like “Oh yes, just do magic, don’t worry about school,” it was, of course, take your school seriously, and by no means was I like failing out of school or anything like that it was just sort of me not putting my all into what was happening with school because of the interest I had outside of school. And then when school ended, that was when I could dedicate a hundred percent of my time to it and so I did and eventually it kinda worked out for me I guess, so.

Do you have like a magic mentor or mentors that you look up to or aspire to?

I would say inspiration not so much mentor, nobody’s really taking anybody under their wing, you know, so you have to come up kind of on your own, or at least I did. But ya, I mean there’s guys that I see that inspire me for sure, like David Copperfield, David Blaine, those two guys right there are masters in their niche, so that’s inspiring to me.

What kinds of things are you introducing for your act this tour?

Well, one of them, the big one, is something that we had come up with for the UK tour and it was designed to be the closer because like, it is extremely, extremely dangerous, and we had two, I guess you could call them mishaps in rehearsal and so. We cut it out of the UK tour, and so now, in between the two tours, we have a couple weeks to hone this bit that we’ve been working on, so that’s going to be in the Canadian tour and I’m super excited and nervous about it because it is super dangerous.

Can you give me a hint?

Ya, it’s an escape that involves water but it’s not like the typical Harry Houdini water escape, it’s like next level and it’s legitimately dangerous to the point where I had to cut out my closer for the UK tour because of that, but it’s ready now and I’m super excited about it.

See, with that kind of thing, I wonder how your parents feel!

Well, that’s the thing, I don’t really ask them because I know they don’t feel good about it, so I just don’t tell them what I’m doing.

Are they gonna come see the show?

Oh ya, of course.