How I Got Here


By here, I mean to this point in my magic career. Prior to embarking on a career as a full-time magician, I actually did have another job. Here's the Cliff's Notes version.

I started performing magic as a kid. I got my first magic set when I was 6. Little did my parents realize what they were setting in motion. All throughout my childhood I was fascinated with magic. I performed shows for birthday parties, and the occasional show at my school. When I was 14, I spent a week at a sleep-away camp for budding magicians. This pretty much sealed the deal for me. It was my first exposure to real professional magic performances, and I was hooked.

While I did continue performing for the next few years, around age 19 or so, my interest waned. The rigors of attending college full-time and working 40 hours a week to pay for my tuition left little time for hobbies (apart from the usual teenage pursuits...), and so magic got relegated to the back burner.

Finally, around age 23 , I saw an old acquaintance on the cover of a magic magazine. That spurred my competitive juices, and I sort of felt that I should have been there instead of him. I got interested and began performing again, mostly birthday parties and smaller events. I discovered that the time away rekindled my love for performing, and I was off and running.

Along the way, I graduated college, started on a career in market research, and earned my MBA. All the time, I still kept performing part-time. At 28, I got married, and continued working at my market research job. Shortly after the wedding, though, I began feeling like my career was not heading in the direction I wanted to be going. I started having trouble envisioning myself working in this field for the next 40 years. I grew more and more unhappy. Finally, about a year after we got married, I told my wife that I was extremely unhappy in my job, and wanted to try to become a professional magician. Apparently, she was so relieved that my moodiness was job-related and not marriage-related, she was more than happy to give her blessing to my newly chosen path.

It took about 14 months from the time I made my decision until I actually quit my job. During that time, I read as much as I could about being self-employed, small-business marketing (far different from the grad-school MBA stuff!), and of course, developing an act. I realized that it would be difficult to make a living working only birthday parties, so I set about the come up with shows that schools would be interested in. I finally settled on a reading motivation show for several reasons. One, I wanted a show that schools would have a need for. Two, I wanted a topic that I really believed in. Also, I wanted a show that would have longevity and not something that was hot at the time but wouldn't be for long. Reading is a passion of mine, and I figured I'd have the most fun and success talking about something I really loved. That was one of the best decisions I've made.

When it finally came time to take the plunge, I was nervous. While I was unhappy at my job, depending on performing to pay the bills was a complete unknown- I really didn't know how good or bad things were going to be. When I told my boss that I was quitting and what I was going to be doing, he actually thought I was kidding. When he realized I was serious, he did wish me well, and assured me the door would be open if things didn't work out. I knew that I would never consider that option. My only regret about quitting my job was that I didn't savor the experience more. Very few people ever get to quit their job to do something they really want to do, and I don't think I really appreciated at the time how much I should have enjoyed it.

It's been 15 years since I made my decision, and I have never regretted it once. There have been ups and downs, but things have gone very well. I have performed thousands of shows in that time, and I'm pretty happy with my act. Things can always be improved, but all in all, I like what see. I've raised my profile in the field via writing for several magazines, including "Laugh-Makers" and "The Funny Paper", and in fact was featured on my first magazine cover on the July/August 2003 issue of "The Funny Paper".


I've spoken at magic conventions around the country, and have accomplished far more than I expected I would 15 years ago. And the best part is, I've still got a list a mile long of things I want to do next.

The World's Most Practical Magic Trick

When you are a self-employed entertainer, you need to have an arsenal of skills at the ready to keep yourself working. If someone calls to book a show and wants to give you money, it pays to be able to do what they want. During the course of my performing career, I became interested in memory work- mnemonics. The idea of being able to memorize and recall large amounts of information was very interesting to me on a personal level, although I was never entirely sure of how to make such an act theatrically viable.

Since I've learned how to use mnemonic systems, I've come up with several ways to integrate it into my performing work, and I'm still honing it. At this point, one of the best things I've found to use it for is pre-show warm-up work. To wit- this morning, I had a show at a day camp for kids ages 3-6. While we were waiting for the groups to enter the room, I took the time to memorize the names of all the kids present- about 20 or so kids. I've done this many times, and it never fails to impress the heck out of the adults present. Basically, I go through the room and ask each child his or her name. I repeat it once, and move on to the next kid, only this time I repeat both names. I do this for the entire group, as time allows. The effect on the adults, as I said, is amazing, but it also has another purpose.

When kids are in an audience and decide to start making trouble, one of the things that emboldens them is their anonymity. There is a grown-up in front of the room who doesn't know their name, which allows them more latitude in acting up. However, when that grown-up can address said attention-seeker by name when asking him to please stop talking and take his seat, it carries a lot more weight. Not only that, but hearing his or her name also give the attention-seeker the validation they need to feel like they have won. In one fell swoop, everyone is happy.

The ability to quickly memorize names and facts isn't limited to entertainers. Anyone who meets lots of new people in the course of their business life would do well to learn this skill. It has been said that the sweetest sound each of us knows is the sound of our own name. Use this knowledge to your advantage, and start learning how to remember names (and faces.) Here are a couple of resources to get you started.

Quantum Memory Power: Learn to Improve Your Memory with the World Memory Champion! (Audio CD) by Dominic O'Brien

Remember Every Name Every Time: Corporate America's Memory Master Reveals His Secrets (Paperback) by Benjamin Levy