David Maas, Half of ‘Quick Change’ Magic Act, Dies of Covid-19

David Michael Maas was born in March 1963 to Jerry, a music director for the Circus Hall of Fame in Sarasota, Fla., and Frances, a singer and dancer. As a child he would sit ringside, and as a teenager he would begin creating his own illusions and performing as a ringmaster.

He met Ms. Kaseeva, who had recently come to the United States as part of the Moscow State Circus, at a show in 1995 in which he was the ringmaster and she performed a Hula-Hoop act. After they began dating, they decided to create a two-person show to keep their romance alive, coming up with their own twists on the quick-change concept that had long figured into magic shows, if not so elaborately.

“Our relationship couldn’t work if I was on the road 200 days a year,” Mr. Maas told ESPN in 2011. The network declared them “the most successful halftime act in sports.”

To prepare, Mr. Maas lost weight and trained in ballroom dancing, as Ms. Kaseeva and a Russian seamstress scoured through New York’s garment district to create their complicated costumes. They began performing the act in 1996, and appeared on national TV for the first time in 2001 on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Ms. Kaseeva survives him.

On “America’s Got Talent,” they encountered one critic in the form of Piers Morgan, who considered the act to be too one-note. The other two judges on the program disagreed, and Mr. Maas stood up to Mr. Morgan and forcefully defended the routine.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/arts/dance/david-maas-quick-change-dead.html