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Our fascination with magic lies in the mysterious and inexplicable. Interest in magic and grand stage illusions strengthened in the 1990s, nurtured by performers such as David Copperfield, Siegfried & Roy and David Blaine, and that interest was mirrored in two moives that were released in 2006, “The Illusionist” and “The Prestige.”

Now there’s a new kid on the block in the world of magic — an illusionist and performing artist with a Japanese father and a Moroccan-French mother. Going by only his first name, Cyril, he has made it his mission in life to bedazzle audiences with stunning maneuvers, leaving them in awe and wondering “How did he do that?”

Already a big star in his father’s country, Cyril’s arts will soon be shown to a wider audience throughout Asia, in a TV special called “Cyril: Simply Magic.” The original production by Sony-owned TV channel AXN will premiere on Nov. 19 across Asia.

The three-episode special takes Cyril to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan, where he enchants unsuspecting locals with his illusions and street magic. AXN has aired similar TV specials featuring magicians David Blaine and Criss Angel, but those two illusionists performed in front of American audiences.

“I feel very honored to be put on the same level as [Blaine and Angel],” Cyril said during an interview at the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore earlier this week. “What sets me apart from [them] is that I am here, in Asia, for the Asian people. You will not see David Blaine or Criss Angel coming out here, but I am coming to the countries these people who watch the show live in.”

During a sneak preview, a selected audience got a flavor of Cyril’s magic.

The location for his performance was well-chosen: Singapore’s Fountain of Wealth, one of the largest fountains in the world, and said to bring fortune and luck to those who walk around its base three times. Cyril incorporated this belief into his magic: wearing black leather pants, a yellow T-shirt and a black jacket, he stood in the middle of the fountain and, to the sound of a Coldplay song and the surprise of spectators, pulled banknotes from his fingertips. First one, then two, then, with his swift movements, it appeared to be raining money at the Fountain of Wealth.

While audience members were still trying to catch the money, Cyril had already moved on, this time to a physical maneuver. He slowly leaned backward, dropping lower and lower until his body appeared to be hovering parallel to the ground, except for the lower part of his right leg, which supported him. Cyril is well-known for this gravity-defying, “Matrix” pose, and once again it had the crowd applauding enthusiastically.

The easy-going illusionist wouldn’t reveal the secrets of his magic, saying with a smile that if you were told the punchline of a joke before the joke, it wouldn’t be funny anymore. The same applies to magic, he said; if he revealed how his performances work, there would be no more surprise.

He said he first became interested in magic as a young boy, while growing up in Hollywood, California. “I went to a Las Vegas show, a variety show,” he said. “I saw topless dancers — I was like 7 years old — I saw ice skaters, singers and then, suddenly, out of nowhere, this mysterious guy came out and snapped his fingers. Birds came out of his fingertips, which later turned into a beautiful assistant. He cut her in half and made her levitate, and I was totally amazed. When I saw this, completely unexpected, it really changed my world.”

Cyril became a junior member of the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, better known as the Magic Castle, which promotes and teaches the art of magic.

“There, I learned to create performance magic on stage in a theatrical environment with music and lighting,” he said. “Back when I was a kid, I made white doves and cards appear from my fingertips, and then I later traveled around the world and learned about so many different magical facts and developed my skills, doing magic in everyday situations, and eventually that led to doing magic anywhere and everywhere.”

When he was a teenager, Cyril moved to Tokyo to learn about his Japanese roots. He fell in love with the country and stayed there for many years, traveling back and forth between Japan and the United States. It was rough in the beginning, he said, to make a living as a magician.

“Magic was not as in demand as it is nowadays in Japan,” he said. “Trying to follow my passion as an artist in Japan was very difficult.”

Initially, he worked in a restaurant to make ends meet, but then quit because he “didn’t travel half around the world to become a waiter.”

“Making that choice made my life very difficult, I often wasn’t able to meet bills,” he said. “But I followed my instincts and I followed my passion, because nobody can take my passion away from me.”

Cyril was voted the Magic Castle’s Magician of the Year in 2007, following in the footsteps of David Copperfield and Siegfried & Roy, and is referred to as the world’s first cyber-magician as a result of being the most downloaded magician on the Internet.

“It is illegal to upload copyrighted footage,” Cyril said, with a smile. “But I am very grateful for the people who have put me up there. Because of that, my magic has spread around the world and I am who I am because of that.”

Ricky Ow, senior vice president and general manager of Sony Pictures Entertainment Networks, said that one of the reasons AXN chose to produce the special was Cyril’s consistency in terms of innovation and invention.

“He has done 15 TV specials in Japan — two each year,” he said. “So every year, he had to come up with new ideas for those specials, magic that has never been done before by any other magician anywhere, otherwise people won’t be interested to watch anymore.”

Ow said he vividly remembered his first encounter with Cyril, and how he watched him doing magic at the dining table.

“The first time I met him was for lunch in a hotel in Tokyo. After lunch, we had a Polo [mint], and he just took mine and made three out of it, for the other guests who were with me. I still keep mine in a little container in my fridge; I don’t want to eat it.”

Even though Cyril is famous in Japan, other parts of Asia are not yet familiar with him, and he sees introducing himself to the rest of the region as the next big step.

“The challenge [of doing the show on AXN] is that I have been taken out of my element,” he said. “Japan is like a second home to me, or my home, I should say. And going to countries that I have never ever traveled to before in my life, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, made it very challenging, in a sense that I didn’t know anything about these countries. We are on a very tight production schedule, and it is an unscripted show. I don’t come here prepared knowing what I’m shooting. In a way, it’s a reality program, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He sees a difference between audiences in different countries.

“In America, where I grew up, the audience is very supportive of everything that you do,” he said. “It is almost irritating sometimes, there’s applause every second. Then I went to Japan, and they were very quiet, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, they don’t like my magic,’ but it’s not that, there’s awe in silence. Nobody really reacted, it hits them after the performance: ‘Wow, that was amazing!’ ”

‘Cyril: Simply Magic’
On AXN
Premieres Nov. 19, 8 p.m.
Weekly until Dec. 3
Rerun on Dec. 25, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.