With the help of her telepathic earthworms and sassy voodoo doll Agnes, longtime Westside resident Krystyn Lambert has become a household name in magic and is currently preparing to hit the television screen this Friday.
Lambert began practicing her craft at the age of 10-years-old and has found her life to be one long magical experience ever since. After all, she’s traveled to Thailand, toured with Criss Angel in Las Vegas and is now set to appear on The CW’s Masters of Illusions seventh season.
Airing at 8 p.m. Friday, Lambert said in an interview this week that viewers can expect a number of surprises in the episode where she intends to make use of her creeping invertebrates.
“The piece that I’m going to be doing on Friday is one of the first works that I came up with; of course, it has gone through many iterations but this is the framework for one of the first earthworm tricks I ever did,” Lambert said, detailing how there are many different forms of magic so it’s not too common to see bugs used in a routine. Nor is it common to see a leading woman in the industry.
As a young girl, Lambert’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer so, in an effort to distract the future magician, Lambert’s mother soon started immersing her daughter in a number of different activities.
“I had seen magic growing up here and there, and I always really, really loved it,” Lambert said. “I was very active in theater and film, but magic really appealed to me.”
So, she put all of her energy into the craft, and anyone who walked in the house was subject to a magic show by The Great Krystini, illusionists to kings.
“And, you know, it didn’t really occur to me that magic was something that girls didn’t do. I mean, I knew I hadn’t seen any women performing but I never thought specifically about it so I didn’t know that it was a big thing until I joined the Magic Castle Junior program at age 12,” Lambert said, detailing how she walked into the room for the first meeting of the prestigious program and noticed only two other female performers. “But now a little girl watching Masters of Illusion is going to be able to see 10 different females performing, which is a really exciting thing to think about when you consider how different it was even back in the 2000s.”
Lambert would remain in the Magic Castle Junior program until she graduated to become a full member, which is a status she retains today. Within a few short years of her graduation, Lambert started to win international competitions and eventually starred in the award-winning documentary, Make Believe. She has also used her philosophy degree from UCLA to deliver a TedX Talk and has had the opportunity to tour Asia on behalf of the United States’ State Department.
One of her most memorable experiences was having to swallow razor blades with Angel while she was taking antibiotics to treat MRSA.
“Performance is really magical. I’ve been keeled over with sickness, and then the announcer says, ‘Krystyn Lambert,’ and, all of a sudden, I can stand up straight and go on out there,” Lambert said. “I’ve had all kinds of injuries from the different stunts that I’ve done, You name it, I’ve had it and still have had to go out and perform. There’s something about the magic of performance where you can just get out there and make it happen no matter what you’re facing.”
Lambert added, “Magic requires a dedication in the same way that a sport does. You have to practice, practice, practice, because the goal is to create something that is essentially going to fool someone, so you have to get it perfect… There are plenty of books and DVDs and teaching methods that give you the scripts but if you’re really doing it right, then you’re creating everything originally.”
It’s been years since Lambert has used The Great Krystini moniker that family and friends on the Westside were first exposed to years ago, but the former Malibu High School graduate hopes to wow her hometown — and the rest of America — when they tune in Friday to see the show.
“You can watch it on The CW’s website,” Lambert said, “if you aren’t able to see it on Friday.”
