Wanted to share some exciting news...

Last night, after 15 months of virtual performances, I had my FIRST IN-PERSON EVENT! An intimate company team building dinner at Taplin Cellars, the oldest family owned vineyard in Napa.

The entertainment portion of the evening was a surprise for the team, so the folks at Taplin put me up in their cottage which doubled as a greenroom. After a fantastic meal prepared by The French Laundry, I was introduced and performed al fresco overlooking the vineyard.

What a joy to be back!

Is this the end of virtual performances?

Well, only time will tell. But calls are coming in fast-and-furious for in-person events and it's looking good.

That's all for now. Be well.

“My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear.”

— Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 - October 31, 1926)

This has been tucked away in my notes since September 2018. Dusted it off, made some edits and is now posted here for our edification.

To set the scene, I was performing at my residency last night for about eight people. We were gathered on couches and ottomans around a low, glass table. Throughout the evening, guests drift in and out of the performances, but this one lasted about 30 minutes.

Close-up magic is quite intimate and casual and, if done “right,” the audience and performer really get to know each other.

This particular audience was a gathering of eight friends. I was sitting on the couch next to Mario, who was from El Salvador, and his wife who was from Germany. They lived in Hanover but visit San Francisco every 4 year to see family.

“The Magician is an initiate of secret and hidden knowledge of all kinds.
And this is the important point. All knowledge that takes special training to acquire is the province of the Magician energy.”

— King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette

As often happens after a performance in this particular venue, guests will often ask questions:

“How did you get into magic?”

“Do you have a teacher?”

“Did you go to school for it?”

One woman commented that “you must have been born with it?”

Mario said he could never do anything like what he experienced.

When I asked what he did for a living he replied that he was a chef but “it's nothing like what you do.”

"Yes, it is, Mario. It's exactly like what I do."

Ghabrana Nahi is a web show hosted by Rafea Moshin of Evenement, an Event Management and Solutions Company based in Pakistan.

Honored to be featured on their 20th episode as their first international guest!

Discover what sparked my interest in magic, the challenges faced and surmounted when moving west, and how I’m currently making adjustments to meet this moment.

And of course, there’s a bit of magic as well.

We had a fantastic time and hope you’ll have a look!

History

After arriving in the Bay Area in 2012, I challenged myself to make as many connections as I could to rebuild my business. Sometime in 2013, I connected with The Elios Society, A Company of Friends for Hellenic Heritage. I joined one of their meetings and performed after their meal. It was great to connect with that many Greeks under one roof. It felt like home!

As we sheltered-in-place and my business pivoted to performing virtual shows, I began reaching out again to past clients and The Elios Society was on my list.

Planning

I approached with the idea of putting together a virtual magic show where members can connect over cocktails and an evening of entertainment.

But it was on the very first call with the Executive Director when the idea began to expand.

The owners of The Argentum Project, and Elios Society members, would put together a fabulous menu that included mezedes (that’s Greek for appetizers!) dinner, glyko (Greek sweets!), and a bottle of wine to everyone who RSVP’d for the event. 

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Execution

A total of 108 meals were delivered to 40 households across the Bay Area and a handful were even overnighted to the east coast arriving just in time for the show.

On Saturday, August 8th, attendees simply heated and enjoyed their meals with family in the comfort of their own homes. And at 7:30 PM everyone logged onto Zoom for the show. 

Each meal also came with a deck of playing cards, generously provided by the Eldorado Reno. Yet another member of The Elios Society stepping up to make the evening a success!

Why did each member need a deck of playing cards?

Well, VIRTUAL DECEPTIONS, is a highly-interactive experience with guests participating directly in the show!

It was a fantastic time and we had a blast!

Are you looking for a virtual magic show to create a truly unique experience for your association, organization, or group? Let’s find a creative solution that will suit your needs.

One of the first and most memorable gigs I had came soon after we moved to the west coast in 2012.

The venue was a “maker space” in the Mission District of San Francisco. It was my first time in that part of town and had no idea what to expect. As I parked the car and walked around the corner to find the graffiti filled front door, I thought “well, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

The place was filled with tables, shelves, and workspaces of electronic gear. It looked like the laboratory of a mad scientist except it felt like there was some method to it all.

At the time, I was temping to support my family and rebuild things here in The New Frontier, using skills I developed while studying and working as an actor in New York City. But I was also taking any magic gig I could get my hands on.

This particular evening was a short performance before dessert for a group of about 20 gathered to celebrate a friend who was changing jobs. For years the guest-of-honor had worked as an editor for gay porn films and now he was starting a new gig at a company that made straight porn.

And man, did they roast him. They even had a custom cake made that looked like…er, on second thought.

As it turned out, it was a fun group to entertain and we had a blast. Yeah, I’ve been wrong about these things before.

Anyway, as I stood in the back of the house waiting for an introduction, my eyes drifted around the room taking in the audience, the set up of the performance area, the decor, etc. Eventually I noticed something scrawled on the wall.

If you weren’t standing right next to it you would have missed it. I snapped a picture and it was my cell phone wallpaper for over a year.

Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend. He’s a semi-pro with a solid “day job” who does magic on the side and regularly produces his own one-man show, which has quite a following.

We were on the phone some time in May talking about what we were going to work on while shut down and sheltered-in-place. He had a plan based on the fact that, as things began to open up, people would be interested in hosting smaller, more intimate events and he asked what I thought about his idea.

“Does doing that or anything else you’ve done in magic make you happy?” I asked.

I don’t think it’s about “the marketing plan” at all. That’s a necessary evil to get your work seen. The question that needs to be answered is “does it bring you joy?”

Everything else lines up around that.

Actual size. Almost.

At times, the “problems” in my business or personal life seem so immense. There would be no way to surmount them or even know what steps to take first and move forward.

It’s just me, you see.

I still building the habit of consistently using a to do list to stay organized, balance family/home life and business, and still find ways to stay creative in magic and express oneself. I struggle with it. Something about the chaos of (for lack of a better word) “the artist’s” mind?

It seems logical that when you’re passionate about something you should devour everything you can about it. That might mean reading a lot of magic books, periodicals, and visiting websites. Keeping abreast of the latest new magic product and following people on social media.

But there’s something to be said of leaving the space and looking beyond your tiny world.

Back in NYC, one of my senpai (seniors) once told me that I’d never get good at aikido because I had too many other interests. “You’re into magic, you’re working as an actor, and practicing aikido? You’ll never progress quickly. You have to focus.”

At that precise moment, Sensei joined the conversation and commented, “too much aikido makes a dull person.”

The dojo is where you might “train” yourself but it’s outside of that space where you learn. It’s in the real world where we test the principles and apply them to life. You do your best to see how it all works then come back to the lab, do more research, make course corrections, adjust, and get better at what you do. Then you go and test again.

I also found it laughable that senpai didn’t even consider that any of the other arts or self-imposed courses of study I was interested in didn’t inform and expand on any of the others.

How many artists — painters, musicians, actors, writers, film makers, <fill-in-the-blank> — are solely practicing their art and have nothing else, I wonder?

Right now the competition are all doing the same thing and striving to be first.

What if you were to be the only?

There’s a ton on information out there right now about what you “should be doing” during this time.

Take care of your self. Work on that project. Don’t waste a good pandemic. Did you know there are dozens of new Facebook groups in the magic community where everyone has the answer and we already experts on virtual magic?

Easy. Easy.

Opening up and listening, I still hear the same message: slow down.

Yes, being forced to isolated — with my wife and kids, who are all safe and well — can be useful if done right. But check in with yourself and absorb it all for a moment. It’s exhausting, isn’t it?

We each have our own set of unique circumstances and to try and live up to any expectations right now, whether your own or society’s, is not only impossible but also really stupid.

One thing that had to change were my 2020 goals. I’ve given up on everything I wanted to accomplish by the end of the year. There are now only daily and weekly goals.

Yesterday, I called Sensei and he relayed his impressions. He does that.

The message is clear and unwavering. Work on “inner/finer.” Take care of yourself and everything around your falls into place. Change yourself and the situation changes. It’s universal.

There’s nothing new here. That message appears in my notes countless time since I met him in 1996. It’s a basic.

You can’t control or change anything out there. Even in the martial arts, you can’t really control an attacker. You can only control and change yourself. Do that and things around you naturally line up and fall into place.

There is only one project I’ve formally taken on.

I always resisted making content for public consumption. So, I made a decision to put out one piece of magic every week to about 200 people on my mailing list. After the first couple of episodes, it dwindled down to every two weeks and now it’s about every 2-3 weeks.

There was a moment when I got upset about backsliding on the timing. I’d look at what my peers were doing and came down hard on myself for being lazy and unprofessional.

Easy. Easy.

They have nothing to do with you. Allow yourself to change and the world around you changes.

David Ben - Photo credit Paul Alexander

David Ben is the Artistic Director of Magicana, an arts organization dedication to the exploration and advancement of magic as a performing art.

And he’s always up to interesting things…

Magicians and Fake News

Here’s an interesting opinion about Magicians and Fake News contributed to The Global and Mail.

“This is more challenging in the digital age, when people prefer answers immediately – even if they are based on false memories and narratives – rather than embark on a journey to the realization that perhaps there are some things better left unexplained.”

— David Ben, Artistic Director, Magicana

Illusions: The Art of Magic

Adolph Friedländer, Comedians de Mephisto Co. Allied with Le Roy-Talma-Bosco, 1905.

David has also guest curated Illusions: The Art of Magic, which runs from February 22nd - May 18, 2020 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibition includes some amazing experiences, including live talks, performances, films, and other events.

Magicana

David’s organization, Magicana is a fantastic resource to explore — whether you’re magician or not.

Enjoy.

I met Emily Balcetis many years ago at the Tribeca Ball, in New York City. She was a guest of the organizer and I performed bit close up magic for her and we got to talking.

One thing led to another — as things often do — and she invited me to visit her class and talk about Visual Perception in Magic with her students at NYU’s Psychology Department. We did this a handful of times over the course of a few years and it was a great learning experience for me.

Here she is speaking at TED:

Anyway, Penguin Random House is publishing Emily’s book and I’m thrilled to have a couple of pages all to myself!

You can pre-order it here.

Thanks, Emily! It’s an honor.

And congratulations on your success!