Fear no illusion for Cosentino
As an illusionist, magician and master escape artist, Cosentino is used to looking death in the eye.
He was once dropped into Melbourne Aquarium, handcuffed, shackled and locked to a 60kg concrete block with mere minutes to set himself free, and he has been suspended above a flaming set of steel jaws in a straightjacket, ready to be devoured once a thin rope burnt through.
But the 2011 Australia's Got Talent runner-up will perform what he dubs his most dangerous escape yet when he returns to TV screens for his second one-hour special for Seven, Cosentino: The Magic, The Mystery, The Madness.
While he is tight-lipped on just what the stunt entails, the 30-year- old admits that any fear the viewers see is genuine and there are times when the performer worries if he can pull off his death-defying tricks.
"It happens - things go wrong," Cosentino says by phone from Melbourne.
"It's scary and sometimes that doubt, that little gremlin, does creep in and it makes getting back on the horse much more difficult.
"But this is what I do; this is what I love, so I am always trying to push through that pain, that barrier."
Cosentino is certainly one of reality TV's great success stories.
Following his turn on AGT he has gone on to tour the country with his sold-out Distortions show and last year won the nightly ratings for his first Seven special, The Grand Illusionist, which pulled in more than 1.9 million viewers nationally.
Proving the Victorian has even more magic up his sleeve, the new special is a mix of stage illusions, street tricks and escapes, which he says are elaborate, baffling and "literally on steroids".
Cosentino began writing the show in November 2012 using a unique approach to dreaming up the original stunts.
"I try to think like a child," the Guinness World Record holder says. "I have a lot of nephews and nieces. When I show my five-year- old nephew an illusion, such as making a coin disappear, he immediately says 'Oh Uncle Cos, that's magic'. When I show my dad he says 'Oh, that's a really cool trick'.
"The difference is that my nephew doesn't have any preconceived notions or ideas so his explanation is that it happened because I have magic powers. If you can get into that mode of thinking then anything is possible.
"You start to open your mind and think 'If I was a child I'd like to walk through walls and levitate and disappear'. If you can imagine that, then you can start to be creative."
It was as a child that Cosentino first fell in love with magic, a hobby that helped him learn to read and master his shyness.
Family has been a constant throughout his journey to stardom, with the artist's nonna helping to sew costumes and his two brothers both involved with his career, one as a manager and the other as a trainer.
But imagine telling your parents you want to be a professional illusionist, full-time.
"You've got to understand, my mother is a principal and my father is a structural engineer," Cosentino explains.
"Both my brothers have higher education and then I became a magician. There was a lot of pressure on me because it's not a normal job. And not only that but in Australia there was no one who had done it at that level.
"My parents couldn't get their heads around it. They have been so supportive but it's kind of hard and daunting as well. But they are very proud of what I have done even though it's crazy."
After his latest TV venture Cosentino has plenty more work ahead of him with more specials planned and a new nationwide tour soon to be announced.
In particular, the performer is looking forward to returning to WA as soon as possible.
"Perth is a really great place to perform," Cosentino says.
"It makes it very enjoyable as an entertainer because you go there and the audience is very responsive.
"As a magician I really love that because you are getting the laughs and the gasps, and that's what I live for."
