Getting YOU on Stage

The “en-trance”: There are many different ways to get to the center of the stage. One way is to have the curtains open and you are revealed. Another is to open by walking through the audience onto the stage. Yet another is to walk onstage from the wing. All have their advantages. The curtain reveal: Many magicians use this opening reveal, but it puts you at the mercy of the...

What if I Get Caught?

“What do you do if you get caught?” The room got very quiet. The young questioner instantly felt it had been a mistake to ask this question, that the question was somehow inappropriate, somehow wrong. Before he asked, the questioner thought it was a good question. It was also one that he really wanted answered. The truth was that he had been “caught” while performing his...

Lessons Learned

“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.” — Chinese Proverb I must admit: I’m obsessive when it comes to keeping a journal. Who could blame me? I get to spend many hours (sometimes months, as in the case of our recent Atlantic City adventure) with some of the greatest minds in magic. I was inspired to begin sharing my notes during a recent...

The Mask & Mirror Act

We talked about the mirror sequence. You mentioned that the underlying meaning behind the mirror sequence is that you’re trapped in your own creation, and the removing of masks you have created. Is there a deep underlying overall meaning of your entire act, or was that it? My full-evening show is an initiation through the elements of magic: air, fire, water, earth and spirit; and it has to...

Cultivating Our Imagination

How little in our culture do we cultivate our imagination! We treat the imagination as if it were a poor relative of the rational mind. A somewhat distracting side journey on the larger logical journey of life. And yet, when we look at it, we realize that through the centuries most of the important discoveries and innovations in art, religion, and even science, were generated not so much by...