The Audience Likes To Be Taken On

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie — Who Wants To Rouse 'em?

There Was A Guy Named Ed Mishell. He Was This Grandfatherly Guy Who Did All The Illustrations For The Catalogs And Reviewed Magic Effects For The Magic Magazines, So All Of The Magic Dealers Would Send Him Magic Effects For Free-it Was A Great Deal. His Basement Was Full Of This Stuff. He Took Me Under His Wing, And He Would Sneak Me Into The Society Of American Magicians Meetings In New York. It's The World's Oldest Magic Organization.

I Learned That There Were Two Ways I Could Live My Life: Following My Dreams Or Doing Something Else. Dreams Aren't A Matter Of Chance, But A Matter Of Choice. When I Dream, I Believe I Am Rehearsing My Future.

For Me, I Was Watching Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Orson Welles, Victor Fleming Movies, And I Said, "i Want To Tell Stories Like That. I Want To Move People Like That. But I'm Good At Magic, So What Am I Going To Do?" So I Started Using Magic For The Right Reasons - To Get The Girl.

A Few Years Later, When I Was Still Going To These Meetings, I Was Also "second-acting" Every Broadway Show [walking In With The Crowd After Intermission]. I Snuck In To See Grease With John Travolta In Kind Of A Secondary Part And Adrienne Barbeau Playing Rizzo, Into Pippin, Hung Out With Ben Vereen And Bob Fosse. It Was An Amazing Time For A Teenager.