Some couples may wish their spouse would disappear, but Murray Hatfield and his wife Teresa actually do that for a living.

This Saturday afternoon the Hatfields will bring their magic show to the Civic Centre to astound Merritt audiences for the first time.

The pair performs an act that consists of stunning illusions on stage, audience participation and comedy, Murray Hatfield told the Herald.

“You’re going to see a little bit of everything. This is a show that incorporates a lot of our favourite routines [and] effects. So you basically are getting – I like to call it – the best of Murray and Teresa,” Hatfield said.

The duo first worked together long before they were married.

“Basically, Teresa and I first started working together back in the ’90s and she was a dancer that I hired for a touring show that I produced, and took across Canada for the last 20 years,” Hatfield said.

“She was an awesome dancer, excellent on stage, and we just started working together more and more. She eventually became choreographer of the show, and then became my principal assistant and somewhere along the way we kind of realized that we liked each other,” he said, noting they were married in 1998.

Although not a magician herself, Teresa is much more than the “girl in the box” type of assistant, Hatfield said.

“Teresa is my partner on and off [the] stage,” Hatfield said. “Teresa is equally responsible for designing the show, music, costuming, all that kind of stuff. We work very well together, and the things that she’s good at are things that might be less my forte and vice versa, so our talents complement each other and together we come up with what you see on stage,” he said.

Being a performing couple can be wonderful but also challenging, because unlike an average couple, these two spend all of their time together, Hatfield said.

“When you’re a performing team, you are working together, travelling together, living together, being together 24 hours a day, and unless you’ve got a strong relationship, that can be a challenge,” Hatfield said.

He also said that he thinks their magic show has strengthened their relationship.

“We both rely on each other 110 per cent when we’re performing, sometimes in a thinking context, sometimes in a physical context – some of the illusions that we do are very physically demanding – and if each of us isn’t in the right place at the exact right moment, it can be detrimental to the illusion,” Hatfield said.

He also said it can be physically dangerous for the two of them as well because they use swords and boxes in their act.

“The more we know each other, the more we can rely on each other and, absolutely, know that the other person is there and got our back,” Hatfield said.

The pair is based in Victoria, but they’re rarely home, Hatfield said.

He said his magic has taken him to 40 countries around the world.

Hatfield said the magic show they bring to Merritt will be one for both kids and adults.

“Anyone, any age, whether you have kids or not, there will be some magic that I guarantee will shock you, surprise you and hopefully thrill you to some degree,” Hatfield said.

Murray Hatfield and Teresa will perform at the Civic Centre on Saturday at 2 p.m. as the third in the Nicola Valley Community Arts Council’s 2013-14 concert series. Tickets are available at Black’s Pharmacy, Mandolin’s, the Baillie House and at the door.