● Previous Incarnations

MAYA THE GODDESS OF MAGIC WITH DOUG HENNING

My first meeting with the soon to be internationally famous magician, Doug Henning, occurred at his apartment. The living room was a bare rehearsal space with a set of handcuffs hanging from a chain suspended from the ceiling. On a shelf lay a copy of ‘The Last Unicorn’ by Peter S. Beagle. He took me with him in his Volkswagon van, ‘Beauty’, that had gaping holes in the floorboard under my feet, to audition young women from model agencies to be his ‘lovely’ assistant. He had big dreams for a rock magic show. After the last model had gone I turned to him and asked “Don’t you want to audition me?” I gave him a quick demonstration of slow motion dance but it seems he had already made up his mind long before this. I was now in the world of magic…

I became Maya, The Goddess of Magic in Spellbound at The Royal Alex Theatre and it was originally planned that I would go to Broadway with Doug. However a change in writers had the cosmic female become a cosmic whore and there went my part…

Poster of Maya from Spellbound” (Royal Alex Theatre) Photo credit: George Pastic

Programme for “Spellbound”

Doug Henning: Sawing

MARS AND MAYA

There are not many people on Earth that you can share humorous stories with about being partner to such a magician as Doug. Mars and I were studying dance at the time with Len Gibson and could finally laugh together about magical moments and secrets on the road. I had been dreaming of an illusion I called ‘the moth and the flame’ based on magic I had performed in ‘Spellbound’. During International Woman’s Year a producer found me and hired me to do magic in a variety show at the St. Lawrence Center. “I want 10 minutes.” She told me. I can’t dance with a candle for 10 minutes! That is the moment Mars and Maya began…

Mars and Maya: The Moth and the Flame

Mars and Maya: Gypsy Magic

Mars and Maya: Sophisticated Sorcery

Mars and Maya: Arabian Nights

Mars and Maya: “Thrill of a Lifetime” (TV Show)

MAYA IS MAGIC

Mars and Maya were ahead of their time as women in magic and very successful. We traveled with the Canadian Armed Forces on a tour to provide entertainment to troops based in Europe and the Middle East. Mars met her husband on that tour and moved to Ottawa. Maya became a solo… many memories of a life in magic…including performing on the floor of the Toronto Stock Market bare foot and pregnant…