Popular entertainer and Quick Change NBA dancer, David Maas is dead

Sad to report that popular entertainer of Quick Change’s David Maas has died due to COVID-19 complications.

David And Dania were fan favourites at numerous Thunder and other NBA halftimes.

Confirming the news was Nathaniel Zinn on Facebook,, he said:

“So sad news to hear that David Maas of Quick Change magic halftime act lost his battle with COVID-19. He was always great to work with in his visits to the Coliseum over the years and put on a great show!”

This year 2020 has been a very difficult year, The team at the Tricks & Illusions Program regrets another broken wand

He died yesterday, the victim of the covid-19, the magician DAVID MAAS, who was partnered with Dania Kaseeva.

Hate this. Many enjoyed their entertainment. Rest in peace. RT @okcthunder: We’re sad to hear of the death of Quick Change’s David Maas due to COVID-19. @DavidAndDania were
fan favorites at numerous Thunder and other NBA halftimes. 💙 pic.twitter.com/28aEdTzSnR

— KentuckySportsReport (@MyKSR1) November 24, 2020

David’s mom, Frances, was one-third of her sister’s popular singing and the dancing trio known as The Boyer Sisters. The sisters came close to achieving the same level of fame as The Andrews Sisters. It was inevitable that Jerry and Frances would cross paths on the music circuit. Before long they were married. Relocating to Sarasota, Florida, Jerry took a job with the Circus Hall of Fame. As music director, he wrote musical scores and orchestra charts. The Ringling Circus used his creative musical talents for original scores and musical arrangements. Eventually, he became a conductor and bandmaster for the Royal Hanneford Circus.

David came into the world in 1963 and grew up around the circus business. While his father was the musician, like many young men, it was the circus magician that enchanted David. The first magician he saw was the magical ringmaster Philip Morris, who now owns and operates Morris Costumes in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the time, Morris worked with several circus producers providing wardrobe for the large themed scenes known as “spectacles.” His background also involved radio, television, ghost shows, and his own illusion show. Morris had a close relationship with the Royal Hanneford Circus, and his sense of timing and audience control made him an ideal ringmaster, And there was a bonus. In the circus world, having a second act you can add to the bill is called “doubling.” Morris always doubled with his large-scale illusion spot.

Young David Maas would sit on the side of the centre ring. He would raise a handful of sawdust high in the air and let it flitter to the arena floor as he watched Phil Morris pull a live duck from a flaming pan. The duck ended up in a small box and survived being punctured by a dozen swords. Then another duck was brought out of the same box. But that was not all — a girl also came bursting out! David thought, “I have to keep dazzling them to the point where they can’t imagine how I can top what they have seen. Then, I have to top myself.”

David grew mature enough in his late teens to put on his own fancy red tails and perform as the ringmaster. He also bought a few illusions that could be worked in the centre ring. The audience warmly accepted him, but the illusions were not very different from other magicians they had seen. He needed a hook, a shtick, a concept that he could call his own.

Dania Kaseeva, like David, grew up in the circus, She is a second-generation circus performer; born in Rostofondon, Russia.

Her mother and father were animal trainers and had a big bear act, which Dania’s mother and brother continue to perform. In addition to working with the bears in the centre ring, Dania was trained in ballet, gymnastics, and dance.

Like most circus acts, Russian girls also develop a second speciality skill for the show. Dania became an expert at twirling hula-hoops, able to keep dozens of them whirling around her slender body. In l9gg, at age 21, Dania travelled to Paris won a gold medal for her high-energy hoop act and at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain.

In the late 1980s, as the Iron Curtain was coming down, the Moscow State Circus, seeking a global audience and income, looked for opportunities to perform in the American market. Dania travelled across the ocean with the Russian circus for a run at Trump’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in 1990.

This was her first trip to America, “a strange land with an abundance of everything.” She spoke Russian and very little English.

At the conclusion of the run in Atlantic City, the Big Apple Circus picked up Dania’s hoop act for their 1991 season.

By this time she had been given a special status by Russian officials and allowed to have a work visa to stay in the United States. David Letterman, always on the lookout for the unusual, invited her to perform on his late-night TV show.