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SANDPOINT – The promotional material for David DaVinci’s magic show sets a high bar for his upcoming date at the Panida Theater. On Dec. 9, the illusionist and magician will take the stage with his wife and assistant, Sandpoint native Jamie (Morris) Womach, for two shows.

According to his website, DaVinci is a “thrillusionist.” By way of description, a thrillusionist is “not a magician, not just an illusionist, but a thrill-seeking, mind-bending master of prestidigitation who creates an alternate world of fascination with gravity-defying hair and leather pants (required).”

Lest we chalk this professional bio up to nothing more than sizzle and send-up, consider that the young performer has completed multiple world tours, starred in and co-produced “Magical Flight” at the Hyatt Regency Saipan, headlined on five Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Productions, starred at theme parks all over the U.S. and on Disney, Holland America, Princess and Norwegian Cruise lines traveling around the globe. He also has won multiple national and international awards, including the Pacific Rim Professional Stage Championship and the Masters of Magic Award.

So how did Womach, the daughter of Gil and Kathy Morris who grew up playing sports on local teams, wind up as part of this globetrotting duo? Did she, in actual fact, run away with the circus?

“Yeah, we really did,” she said. “But I’m used to changing and moving, because my parents moved a lot. We changed houses over 21 times by the time I was 17. I’m a person who craves change. The traveling? I thrive on it.

“David had the opposite life,” she added. “He grew up in the same house and never moved.”

That house was in Spokane, where the young magician got his start performing for pretty much anyone who would sit still for it.

“I got bit by the magic bug early on, when I realized I could make money from it,” he said. “At first, it was charging the neighbors a quarter to come see 30 minutes of bad magic.”

Through elementary and middle school, he continued to sharpen his skills and, by the time he reached high school, DaVinci was balancing mundane things like homework with a busy show schedule at Spokane-area restaurants such as Red Robin, Chile’s and Blue Bayou.

“By 9th Grade, I was making a full-time income as an entertainer before I could drive a car,” he said.

The couple first met when they were teens and David was performing at the Coeur d’Alene Fair. Their paths continued to cross, as Jamie ended up at his shows in Spokane and North Idaho College. A self-described “concert junkie,” she kept an ongoing list of shows she’d attended online, where DaVinci discovered his name among the performers and contacted her during one of his stints as a cruise line entertainer.

They met for dinner when he got back home and, three months later, were married. Along with a new husband, Jamie found herself launched into a new position as an illusionist’s assistant. It was not a job she ever considered and certainly nothing that had appeared on her list of career options.

“No, I never looked at a magic show and said, ‘That girl is going to be me,’” she said. “Going into it, I thought it would be easy – and it should look like it’s all the magician’s doing – but it’s a lot of hard work.”

One revelation was that, in the assistant’s world, appearances are everything – right down to how she stands, the gestures she makes and her ability to move effortlessly in high heels.

“I didn’t know how to walk – I’d never worn heels,” she said. “I didn’t even know how to do makeup.”

Thanks to the generosity of veteran performers she met on tour, those skills were imparted by a variety of artists.

“A contortionist taught me how to do my show make up, while a trapeze circus artist taught me how to use my hands and arms elegantly and point my toes properly,” said Jamie. “A dancer on Princess Cruise Lines taught me to balance on my own two feet, and a Cirque choreographer taught me how to perform movements and choreography specific to how my body moved naturally.”

To hear DaVinci tell it, the couple’s star has ascended thanks to a series of chance encounters and lucky breaks, though he describes luck as that point where preparation and opportunity meet.

“Getting to network with other performers, especially in places like the circus, you never know what doors will open,” he said. “One of the big breaks we had was to go down to Kansas for a week to work with a tiger trainer, which led to a gig at the Hyatt Regency in Saipan.”

No tigers in the current national tour, but the couple is traveling – along with their 4-year-old daughter, Capri – with six doves, a macaw and three parrots as part of the show coming to the Panida. Both David and Jamie are professional bird trainers and mix their main stage and “close-up magic” shows on cruise lines with workshops on working with birds.

“If a dancer’s upset, you give them more money and they’re OK,” said DaVinci. “It’s not that way with birds. Parrots have a mind of their own and, as trainers, it’s our job to convince them to be part of the show. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they love it.

“It would be impossible for the show to become monotonous for us,” he went on, “because the parrots keep it interesting.”

Earlier this week, the couple spoke from their hotel room in Evansville, Ind., where they had just completed rehearsal for one of the eight arena shows they’re doing in that city. Booked these days for everything from high-end corporate parties for a small crowd to hundreds of passengers at a cruise ship performance to thousands of people in the audience for an arena date, DaVinci said he finds every venue rewarding in a different way.

“But I challenge any performer to say that it’s not exciting to hear 20,000 people in an arena break into a cheer when you’ve just done something amazing,” he said.

Amazing is definitely on the menu for the couple’s shows in Sandpoint, where the audience can expect to see a series of “mind-bending illusions” – including new material developed for the current tour.

“If people have seen us before, they can expect to see many new illusions at the Panida,” DaVinci said.

To cap things off, there will also be a photo opportunity with the performers and their birds following the 90-minute show.

David DaVinci – Thrillusionist, will perform two shows on Dec. 9 in Sandpoint, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are available online at: www.panida.org and at the box office before each performance, if still available.

To learn more about the couple’s performing background and watch videos of the illusionist in action, visit their website at: www.daviddavinci.com