When I started “Chamber Magic^®“ 16 years ago, my goal was to help raise public respect toward magic as a performing art. I wanted people to consider going to a magic show instead of the opera, or the ballet. It is highly gratifying to see that my vision has been recognized by so many others. Take a look at this line-up:

The top 10 Theater & Concerts in NYC:

1. Lion King

2. Wicked

3. Jersey Boys

4. Kinky Boots

5. Beautiful – The Carole King Musical

6. The Phantom of the Opera

7. Steve Cohen’s Chamber Magic^®

8. Radio City Music Hall

9. Metropolitan Opera

10. Les Miserables

I’m incredibly grateful to my fans for all of your support. I pour my heart into this show each week, and care about every person who walks through my door. Thank you, too, to the Lotte New York Palace for being the greatest supporter of my work. Here’s to many years of success!

The post #7 Top NYC Show on TripAdvisor appeared first on Chamber Magic.

The post Chapter in “TUNED IN” book appeared first on Chamber Magic.

• I have been playing at the Waldorf Astoria New York for 16 years. Over 500,000 guests have visited the show.

• Chamber Magic is ranked on TripAdvisor as the #8 show in NYC, including all Broadway productions (for reference, Hamilton is #15).

• The Waldorf Astoria will be closing on March 1, 2017 for 3+ years of renovations. The hotel was purchased in 2014 by Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese holding company, for nearly $2 billion. They intend to gut renovate the hotel, converting the upper floors into ultra-luxury condominiums, and the lower floors into a smaller boutique hotel.

• When I announced that the Chamber Magic show must move to a new venue, I was flattered to receive inquiries from seven top luxury hotels in New York. After numerous site visits and discussions, number-crunching and soul-searching, I have signed a contract with an iconic landmark hotel in midtown Manhattan.

• In partnership with my new hotel venue, we will be making a public announcement in the media. I really can’t wait to share this with you — including gorgeous photos of my new showroom. Frankly, it’s breathtaking.

• Chamber Magic will continue — uninterrupted — in its new home, to be announced shortly. I intend to keep New Yorkers and out-of-town guests believing in magic for years to come!

The post Moving, not Closing! appeared first on Chamber Magic.

Now you see him

The post Luxury Listings Magazine – Feature Story appeared first on Chamber Magic.

As you may have read in the media, the hotel will undergo a massive renovation starting in the spring.

As a result, there are only six months remaining to see Chamber Magic at its original venue, the spectacular Waldorf Astoria.

Book your tickets now to see the show at the hotel

where it became famous! 

I will perform the last show at the Waldorf on February 25, 2017.

To accommodate the increase in demand for these final six months, we have added Thursday night shows from October through February. Tickets are available by clicking here.

PS: After February 25, the show will move to another luxury venue in Manhattan so I can keep New Yorkers and out-of-town guests believing in magic for years to come! Stay tuned for an exciting announcement.

The post Six Month Countdown at the Waldorf Astoria NY appeared first on Chamber Magic.

Due to popular demand, we have added two additional Chamber Magic^® performances at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Sunday, December 27.

These additional Sunday performances on Christmas weekend offer an additional date for you to share some holiday magic with your loved ones.

Additional Performances:  

December 27 (Sunday) at 2:00pm

December 27 (Sunday) at 7:00pm

Check availability and book your tickets online

We look forward to welcoming you to the magnificent Towers of the Waldorf Astoria!

The post Additional Holiday Performances at the Waldorf Astoria appeared first on Chamber Magic.

When I started “Chamber Magic^®“ 15 years ago, my goal was to help raise public respect toward magic as a performing art. I wanted people to consider going to a magic show instead of the opera, or the ballet. It is highly gratifying to see that my vision has been recognized by so many others. Take a look at this line-up:

The top 10 Theater & Concerts in NYC:

1. Jersey Boys

2. Lion King

3. Wicked

4. Beautiful – The Carole King Musical

5. The Phantom of the Opera

6. The Metropolitan Opera

7. Kinky Boots

8. Steve Cohen’s Chamber Magic^®

9. Les Miserables

10. Aladdin on Broadway

I’m incredibly grateful to my fans for all of your support. I pour my heart into this show each week, and care about every person who walks through my door. Thank you, too, to the Waldorf Astoria New York for being the greatest supporter of my work. Here’s to many more years of success!

The post #8 Top NYC Show on TripAdvisor appeared first on Chamber Magic.

A cluster of of well-to-do couples huddle in the lobby of the Waldorf Towers in New York City, buzzing with anticipation. At the stroke of 8:45 p.m. on Saturday evening, a tall man in a tailored suit ushers everyone into a gold-plated elevator – the same one that the President of the United States rides when he stays in New York. Primping and fidgeting, the group lines up at a suite at the end of a hallway on the 35th floor. 58 people file in for tonight’s magic show in Steve Cohen’s living room, run solely by word-of-mouth.

Steve Cohen, also known as the Millionaires’ Magician, has performed his show at the Waldorf Towers 3,000 times — for 250,000 people.

Cohen’s “Chamber Magic” shows inspire an intimate, old-timey parlor feel. Attendees, many of whom have purchased tickets months in advance, are expected to dress well. He doesn’t bother with hats, rabbits, or sleight-of-hand tricks; instead, he uses one gleaming tea kettle to produce five different drinks at the audience’s request.

At age 10, Cohen worked the elementary school circuit, appearing at kids’ birthday parties and Cub Scout meetings. Now, he brings in about 300 viewers each weekend – including high-profile guests like Martha Stewart, Barry Diller, and David Rockefeller  – and a seven-figure annual income. “I put people in an environment where anything can happen,” Cohen says, pausing to sip Kombucha tea (the ginger helps his throat). “People start thinking, Maybe there’s another force in the world, and this guy has control over it.”

Age: 41

Graduated from: Cornell University, psychology major; Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan

Based in: New York, N.Y.

Years as a full-time magician: 17

Previous jobs: After graduating from Cornell, I stayed in Tokyo for five years as an English translator. It involved sitting at a desk with lots of legal work and patents.

That seems like a pretty far stretch from your current line of work. The translation work was terribly boring, but lucrative. I was eager to do magic, so I got some part-time jobs performing in hotels, and those got more and more lucrative. I came back to New York and started from scratch as a consultant for other magicians. Then, I started doing my own shows.

Who – or what – brought you into the world of magic? My uncle. He was very talented with cards, and taught me the fundamentals of card magic that you need to become a good magician. I spent all my times at family parties with him. He gave me a book called Magic With Cards, a book from the 1890s that is very hard to find.

How did you turn a childhood hobby into a multimillion-dollar business? For two years, after moving back to America from Japan, I lied to my wife and told her we were breaking even. But we were losing money every show; I lost about $200,000 of my own money. I was about to throw in the towel when an editor from DailyCandy.com came to review the show. Overnight, the show sold out for a year in advance. Then CBS Morning did a segment on me, and by the end of the week, I had sold $1 million worth of tickets. I had to add more shows.

Is the Waldorf your permanent home? I stay here on weekends. I have another apartment on the Upper West Side with my family – my wife and two kids, ages 12 and 8 – during the week.

Do your kids love magic? They each practice one trick each year, and on Father’s Day, they perform it at my show. But my daughter is more into it than my son. She’s a ham. But there’s not that many women in magic, if you think about it.

Why do you think more men than women are into magic? I’m not sure. But I don’t really recommend becoming a magician to anyone. People are constantly making gags about it. Imagine going into your child’s school for a parent-teacher conference, and the teacher says, “Your child seems to think you’re a magician of some sort.” You always have to explain what you do.

In your grand finale, two audience members shuffle two separate decks of cards. Then, you reveal that each card in the first deck falls in the exact same order as each card in the second deck. The audience really goes wild for that one. People seriously go bananas – they have heart palpitations. They can’t sleep that night. And I’m jumping up and down like Willy Wonka.

It’s funny you mention Willy Wonka. You remind me of him — Gene Wilder’s version, at least. The character of Willy Wonka has been a role model for me. I like his transition from mysterious man to crazed maniac – peeling away layers and seeing more and more about this nutty guy.

Did he inspire your three-piece suit, too? In London, I saw Prince William wearing this exact outfit – a morning coat, a vest with a little lapel, and striped trousers. So I went to the store where the princes shop, and bought that exact outfit. I think it’s so appropriate in this environment.

Cohen uses as few props as possible in his shows; he believes they create barriers and cheapen the experience. The kettle is an exception.

It plays into the magician archetype. People want the character of a wizard or a magician to come into their lives and give them hope and possibility. Why do you think Harry Potter is so popular? I’m not doing wizardry here, but I feel like Harry Potter or Dumbledore. People squeal in delight. During my “Think a Drink” trick, a woman in the front row actually cried. [For this trick, five audience members wrote down their favorite drinks, from vodka to banana smoothie. Cohen then produced these drinks from a small kettle.]

Best part of your job: Immediate feedback. I can tell by looking at audience members’ eyes whether I have them under my thumb. When people’s eyes are glowing, I know I’ve done my job. I’ve learned what captures people’s imaginations.

Most challenging part of your job: Nobody else in the world is doing this type of performance, so I don’t have a support team. I’ve lost the camaraderie of fellow magicians; a lot of them are jealous.

Resources for new material: The Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York has a database with every secret that has ever been published in magic, from the 1500s to present-day. You have to be a member or have special access.

Any pre-show traditions? David Copperfield once told me that he brushes his teeth with a certain toothbrush before every show. I joke around and say that I floss before every show. But the fact is, no. I’m very relaxed. Everything in my show is meticulously planned. Without fail, I know the precise minute that I’ll be saying a certain line.

The last time you got nervous: When Woody Allen came in and sat in the front row. I had cotton balls in my mouth, but he was the greatest audience. He laughed at all the right times.

What would people be surprised to learn about your job? You can buy and sell secrets. I once licensed a trick from another magician for my show, but after the terms of the legal contract expired, he wanted the trick back. So I had to create my own version of the trick.

Your most expensive trick: I spent $10,000 for a trick that only lasts two or three minutes, but it’s a really good trick. I fill a flower vase with all different flowers and cover them with a handkerchief. Then, I ask an audience member to name her favorite flower. Say she responds with yellow tulip. I take the handkerchief away, and all the flowers have transformed into yellow tulips.

How do you deal with uncooperative audience members? People have predispositions toward magic shows. Those who give me problems – maybe they got embarrassed at a magic show when they were little. I handle them the same way I would handle kids, and try to diffuse the challenge by making my show lively and interactive.

One weekend, Warren Buffett paid Cohen to cancel all his shows and fly to Omaha (pictured above).

Your website boasts some of your more famous clients, like Warren Buffett. I still get people coming in here all the time, like, Warren sent me. I always carry with me a card that he signed.

Physical parameters of your show: I need to be inside of a room with no other distractions. People must be completely riveted on just me. I can’t have people thinking about what they’re going to make for dinner. 

Your required reading: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. It’s about how and why to persuade people to see things your way.

You never leave home without: My deck of cards. I rarely do magic outside of a venue, but it makes me feel good that I could, if I needed to.

Have you ever pulled a rabbit out of a hat? Yes, and it’s wonderful. I don’t do it regularly, though, because then you have to keep a rabbit as a pet.

LAUNCHING YOUR CAREER>>

Find a venue that is appropriate to your vision of magic, and become the person best suited for that venue. If you’re really good at performing at Bar Mitzvah parties, for example, become the very best Bar Mitzvah magician out there, and work tons of them.

Tickets for Chamber Magic range from $75 to $100; priced separately for private company events. Follow Steve on Twitter and on his Facebook page. All photos courtesy of Steve Cohen.

Originally published: http://nojoeschmo.com/2012/12/04/the-magician-in-the-waldorf-astoria/

The post Guest Author, “The Magician Who Lives at the Waldorf-Astoria” appeared first on Chamber Magic.

I’d like to thank all of you who came to the show. I’ll always remember the electric anticipation you projected as I walked on stage. Looking out at you, I felt anticipation too — like we were creating a historic moment together.

Walking out from the stage door

Making my entrance onto the stage at Carnegie Hall

Throughout my career I’ve always believed that magic has the potential to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other performing arts, such as ballet, opera and orchestral music. Magic can be more, much more, than a simple diversion. The artistry required to construct and stage a theatrical magic show is on par with the training, thought and creativity required to present other traditional art forms.

My personal goal in staging a magic show at Carnegie Hall was to prove that the art of magic is capable of accepting its due respect, if only we give it the chance. It was immensely satisfying to see that the public supported this belief; the entire theater was sold-out months in advance.

Because I am used to performing for small audiences of 50 people at the Waldorf-Astoria, the nearly 300-seat Weill Recital Hall presented some challenges. I did my best to cross the footlights and reach out to the entire audience, even up to the balcony.

In this blog, I’ve composed a full report of the evening, from my perspective as performer and producer, along with photos taken by David Linsell. (Click any photo to view larger)

Theater of Wonder poster, designed by Darren D’Agostino

HOW THE SHOW WAS CONCEIVED

In November 2010 my dear friend, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter was visiting New York from Munich. She was in town to perform a series of music concerts at Carnegie Hall. On her off-night, we met up for a drink in the Bull & Bear (at the Waldorf-Astoria) and she asked me, “What’s next? You’ve been performing here for small audiences for many years, and you can keep doing this as long as you wish. But what is next?”

Anne-Sophie told me that a world-class act deserves a world-class stage, and that I should attempt a larger show that could be seen by more people. “After all,” she said, “look at me. I’m performing in Carnegie Hall tomorrow night.”

That comment inspired me to take action, and I immediately contacted my collaborator Mark Levy. I asked him, “Are you in?” He replied, “Without a doubt.”

Fortunately the executives at Carnegie Hall had heard of my Waldorf-Astoria shows, and they were willing to take a meeting with me regarding a potential date. At first they declined my request, insisting that magic shows are not the type of performance that they typically present. My manager Holly Peppe and I had to explain that this was not a Las Vegas style show with animals and explosions, but more of a spoken word performance.

After a great deal of negotiation over the following three months, we decided on a date in the Weill Recital Hall – January 12, 2012.

I had ten months to prepare.

Fast forward to the day of the event…

ARRIVING AT CARNEGIE HALL

A production van picked me up at 3:00pm at my Upper West Side apartment. My father and brother helped load the van with my show equipment, and we arrived at the stage door of Carnegie Hall fifteen minutes later.

Entering through the stage door on W 56th St.

The stagehands assigned to my show put me at ease right away, and loaded my equipment into a large rolling basket. We entered the service elevator and got off on the third floor.

Here are some photos from the outside of the hall, taken the day before:

Show poster displayed outside Weill Recital Hall

Listed on street-level poster for the month of January 2012

In order to perfect my Carnegie Hall material, I had been rotating the newer routines into my Chamber Magic^® shows at the Waldorf for several weeks. Fortunately this gave me a lot of time to practice the newer acts “under fire,” and feel how they fit together as a whole. One week prior to Carnegie, I gave one complete run-through of “Theater of Wonder” at the Friars Club, where I am a member. Nearly two hundred members showed up for that performance, and I had a chance to refine the blocking for the stage show.

Since I am used to working in a smaller setting at the Waldorf week after week, standing on stage at Carnegie Hall was a bit awkward at first. The two hour rehearsal time (from 4 to 6pm) gave me a chance to tread the boards and internalize the space. Performing on a new stage is like trying to cook in somebody else’s kitchen. You reach for a spatula, and it’s not where you expect it to be.

Mark Levy was in the balcony during the rehearsal, shouting out comments as I moved about the stage. By the time the rehearsal was over, the show was blocked and I had a good feeling.

Mark Levy watching my 2 hour rehearsal

The stage furniture was all provided by Carnegie Hall, since they have a rigid policy regarding what is and is not allowed on stage. I would have much preferred to use elegant antique wooden tables, but was limited to using institutional tables draped in plain tablecloths. No additional set furniture was permitted. According to the hall contract, all of my props had to be hand-held size, and must start on the tables provided or in my pockets. These are all new rules for me, so we had to accommodate these design parameters during the planning stage.

My four assistants arrived at 6:00pm, so I broke from the rehearsal to meet with them and go over their cues. It was a welcome distraction to meet and joke with them – it took my mind off the performance for a bit. These four young ladies (Bianca Bryan, Jame Rose, Patricia Santomasso, Mary Orzano) have worked with me for years at the Waldorf, so they know my show cold. Speaking to them was like writing in shorthand – they instantly knew what was needed of them, even though the venue was different.

My musical trio also arrived at 6pm. Their names are Lev Ljova Zhurbin (viola), Monica Davis (violin) and Amali Premawardhana (cello). I invited them to play classical music both before and after my performance, as a nod towards the hall’s traditional use, and to acknowledge its original name: Carnegie Chamber Music Hall. Having live music on stage was an important detail; no recording can imitate the impact of hearing talented artists play in person.

WAITING BACKSTAGE

By this point, my mind was hyper-alert, my body surging with positive energy. I became keenly aware of small details: a fleck of dust on my lapel, the shuffling of people’s feet down the hall. The entire show ran through my head — like a fast-forwarded movie  — and as it neared the end I came to the calm conclusion: “I can do this.” I’d trained my entire life for this moment. Planning was no longer necessary. There was nothing else I could do now except go out and perform.

SHOW PHOTOS

Meanwhile back in the lobby, guests were instructed to write the names of their favorite drinks on white index cards and drop their requests into a basket. This activity “tipped off” the fact that I would be performing Think-a-Drink during the show. On their way into the theater, guests received a red envelope and a show program.

Here is the front and back of the program:

My assistant Bianca Bryan walked on stage from the wings and set my magic teapot onto the rear table. She then stepped forward and announced: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Theater of Wonder. In the lobby you received a red envelope. Please do not open the envelope until later in the show. We will tell you when to do so. Also, please take this time to silence your cell phone. If it rings during the show, Steve will have to make it disappear! And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you… the incredible Steve Cohen.”

Dennis the stage manager opened the door and I made my entrance.

I performed:

Think-a-Drink

Think-a-Drink

Egg in Lemon (same as my Letterman appearance)

Walnut in Egg (same as my Letterman appearance) – a borrowed ring was inside the walnut

The Rising Cards

Lip Reading – a new routine based on a David Berglas idea

Telepathy Act – reading the minds of audience members throughout the entire theater

Right before the show finalé

Thanking the audience before the finalé

An interactive card trick that everyone could do with me, using cards from the red envelope. The magic happened in their own hands.

A final bow

The standing ovation from a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall was a dream come true:

Here is another view from the rear:

ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER IN THE AUDIENCE

It was extremely meaningful that Anne-Sophie Mutter flew from Germany to NYC for just one night, before flying back to Europe the next morning. If it weren’t for her inspiration, I would never have even considered this performance in the first place.

Here is a photo of the two of us, with André Previn, and composer Sebastian Currier.

André Previn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sebastian Currier, and me

Anne-Sophie told me that she’s performed in Carnegie Hall dozens of times, but she’s never actually walked in through the front door! We both had a laugh at that.

THE AFTERMATH

After greeting the audience, and signing autographs, I took a few photos onstage with my family:

And with Holly Peppe and Mark Levy:

I can honestly say that Holly was the driving force behind this evening’s success. There were hundreds of details that required our ongoing attention over the ten-month process leading up to the show; she took them all in stride. No one could have asked for a better, or more patient business partner.

Mark Levy has been my closest friend and adviser over the past twelve years. Everything I do and say on stage has Mark’s brilliant handiwork all over it. Together we make a great team, starting with Chamber Magic^®, then Miracles at Midnight, and now Theater of Wonder. He makes me laugh like no one else, and his magic and storytelling skills are my secret weapon.

Before long we were alone among the sea of empty seats and the color, light, music and warmth of the applause were just a memory. My bags packed and loaded, we loaded up the van and I headed uptown.

I slept like a baby that night. A year’s worth of tension and stress melted away and my muscles unwound as if I had spent a week in Hawaii. Decompression at last, but not for long: I had five sold-out Chamber Magic^® shows at the Waldorf-Astoria that weekend, starting the very next day!

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS

Overall, the show was a success, both artistically and financially. I am honored to be among the few magicians in history who have ever appeared in Carnegie Hall. According to my research, other performers of note include: Cardini, Richard Himber, Al Delage, and Kreskin.

I took some risks that didn’t play out as well as I had liked. But I learned from studying the career of the great Chan Canasta that the reward is much greater when you challenge yourself to take risks. At a one-night only event, you can’t repeat any moments – they present themselves, and then slip away. As I perform Theater of Wonder more often, I look forward to playing with these moments and molding them to build even stronger presentations.

The ultimate compliment of the evening was that Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, attended the show and loved it. I received an email from his staff the next day saying, “What a resounding success in Weill Recital Hall last night! I hope a return is in order SOON!”

I can foresee another performance at Carnegie Hall in the future. It would be wonderful to start an annual tradition. Time to start working on it!

The post How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Here’s how. appeared first on Chamber Magic.

by Antonio M. Cabral

M-U-M magazine, November 2011

“What is a true secret? Something that is there for everybody to see—and one recognizes it, the other doesn’t.”

—Lao-tse

Magicians and secrets have a funny relationship. The normal people who comprise our audiences watch us perform miracles and cannot begin to imagine how a person might learn the requisite techniques and other arcane knowledge to accomplish the impossible. Magicians on the other hand know all about the vast oceans of literature (in print and on film) obsessively detailing and documenting the history and lineage of all these bizarre, clever and wonderful ideas. They know you can walk into a magic shop and buy whatever you like without having to fight a dragon or some other kind of mystic wizard’s trial. They worry that their audiences will run home after watching a performance and look for the explanations on YouTube. The “secrets” are out there, if you care enough and know where to look. And yet, magicians and laymen can look at the same “miracle” and both be mystified—if for different reasons.

For example, many close-up magicians know the story of Max Malini’s famous production of a brick or a block of ice from under a hat as recounted by Dai Vernon in Stars of Magic. Vernon was tasked with watching Malini over the course of an evening’s dinner performance to try to pin down the little man’s sleight-of-hand secrets—in particular the the block-of-ice-under-the-hat trick. Throughout the full evening’s meal, Malini never left the table. Malini then proceeded to perform the trick and “…when Malini lifted the hat, a block of ice the size of four fists lay in the center of the table […] Vernon swears to this day that ‘The little bugger had no time to load up.’” While the regular audience members wondered how the ice got under the hat, Vernon was dumbfounded as to how the ice got to the table at all. A bribe to the waiter proved unsuccessful, and they never found out from where Malini had procured the ice.

On the other hand, whenever Steve Cohen performs the trick as the opener of his exclusive Miracles At Midnight show, the source of the block of ice is somewhat less of a mystery. The show is his second as part of his residence at the über-opulent Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan. The kitchen at the Waldorf-Astoria is located on the second floor and takes up the area of a full city block. “They have a huge walk-in freezer, and they’ve let me have a whole shelf in there just for blocks of ice for this trick. I used to go down myself to fetch the ice, but it gets so cold in that freezer that our arrangement now is that I simply ring down to the kitchen and they run one upstairs for me at the beginning of each show.” Of course. Everything’s easy once you know the secret.

But while Steve’s audiences—like Malini’s—are astounded at the appearance of the ice under the hat, magicians marvel at something else. They don’t marvel at how the ice appeared under the hat or how the ice got to the table, but at how Steve Cohen himself has managed to “magically appear” in residence at the Waldorf-Astoria with not one, but two elegant, high-end magic shows—one of which costs $250 per person. For close-up magic! And coming this January, Steve will be premiering a stage show at a local Manhattan venue named Carnegie Hall. Compared to those “miracles”, blocks of ice and bricks under hats might as well be the old stretching thumb trick your uncle does…

“I remember once hearing one of my younger brothers telling his girlfriend my story […]—I was born, I was talented, I got into piano, I had this neat place and I worked with Miles Davis. He left out this GIANT part which was the STRUGGLE!”—Keith Jarrett

Steve Cohen’s success is unparalleled. His client list reads like a listing from Forbes—in large part, because it IS. Then there’s his residence at the Waldorf-Astoria, where he performs two elegant and exquisite evening shows of classical parlor conjuring. Chamber Magic is his now well-known, eleven-year-running weekend parlor show, and since 2010 he’s added Miracles At Midnight, a $250-a-head evening of close-up performed only once a month and billed as “The World’s Most Exclusive Magic Show”. And like many of magic’s great secrets, the secret to Steve’s success is hidden in print. He’s detailed much of the story of his journey from young birthday party magician to The Millionaire’s Magician in his 2008 Genii Magazine cover feature, his interviews with The Magic Newswire website, and his own book for the lay public, Win The Crowd. And Steve still receives enough emails from eager magicians wanting to set up residence performing at swanky hotels (because “it worked for THAT guy!”) that last year he put a very frank post up on his Chamber Magic Blog addressing these emails in general. It’s titled, “How NOT to start your own one-man show” . And in it, he explains some of the secrets to his success.

Put in magician’s terms, Steve’s success at the Waldorf-Astoria boils down to a lot of “pre-show work”. While his identity as The Millionaire’s Magician is a relatively recent creation, he got his very first experience performing for the “upper crust” at age 17, performing for the Rockefeller family on their estate. During his four years living in Japan, his connections made from attending Cornell led to him performing weekly at the 5-star Park Hyatt Tokyo. He was already an experienced and successful performer when he decided, with the help of his creative partner Mark Levy, to reinvent himself and his repertoire as “The Millionaire’s Magician”. He’d already had an act when he decided to put together his first Chamber Magic shows. He’d already been performing his Chamber Magic show every week for many months in other venues before approaching the Waldorf-Astoria. Also, by his own admission, it took two years of self-support and losing money on the show, and three or four before he’d proven the show successful enough to the hotel that they began to help promote him. So, in the same way a mentalist can point to any random audience member and appear to instantly pluck their secrets from their mind, Steve Cohen is an “overnight sensation”. Easy, when you know the secret. No one can simply waltz into the Waldorf-Astoria and put on a magic show, anymore than one can really pluck thoughts from people’s brains

And Steve’s not the only one tipping his mitt on the Internet. Marketing guru Seth Godin, on his own blog, put together a succinct-yet-insightful five-point list of how Steve has achieved the success he has (“Giving away a magician’s secrets”). Points One, Two, and Four are savvy marketing skills. Number Five on that list is “He’s very good at his craft. Don’t overlook this point.” And while Chamber Magic and Steve’s existence as “The Millionaire’s Magician” are very much the result of intelligent and  focused marketing efforts, when all is said and done sustaining that image involves being a consummate performer. When you watch Steve perform, it’s impossible to overlook the fact that he’s very good at his craft. He ought to be by this point; he’s been performing magic professionally since the age of 10, is a veteran of Tannen’s Magic Camp, and has performed his Chamber Magic show alone by his own estimation over three thousand times. If you watch closely, you can see all of that experience manifest in his three shows: Chamber Magic, Miracles at Midnight, and the brand-new, upcoming Theater of Wonder.

Chamber Magic

When Steve set about creating Chamber Magic, he’d already had to reinvent his repertoire to fit his image as The Millionaire’s Magician. Tricks he’d been performing successfully for years got retired as Steve now focused on tricks that spoke to wealth and affluence—tricks with real diamonds, $100 bills, gold…your standard everyday household items. When the time came to create Chamber Magic, he knew he wanted to create an evening of elegant, refined magic that harkened back to the Viennese salons—a stylistic choice that was a good fit in the venues he aspired to and spoke as much to the “lifestyles of the rich and famous” as any choice of props. More importantly, thought, Steve knew what kind of show he didn’t want to do.

Around the time Steve was conceiving Chamber Magic, his friends were telling him about the great success Ricky Jay was having with his evening show, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, an evening of nothing but card tricks. Without even seeing the show, Steve immediately knew that trying to launch a similar evening of only card tricks would invite inevitable comparisons—“apples to apples”—and Steve wanted to offer something exclusive and unique. While Chamber Magic does open with a selection of flourishy sleight-of-hand with cards, once he’s established his skill Steve deliberately moves away from sleight-of-hand. While 52 Assistants wears its sleight-of-hand on its sleeve, Steve wanted a show of close-up and parlor magic seemingly devoid of any sleight-of-hand whatsoever.

On the other side of that coin, while Chamber Magic features some very powerful mental magic, Steve didn’t want a full evening of mentalism, either. He’s not a mentalist; he’s a magician who can read minds. So the show would ultimately be a fine-tuned mix of prestidigitation (like the opening card tricks and the Malini Ice Under The Hat) and more inexplicable mysteries (linking wedding bands, an astounding presentation of the Rising Cards, and the aforementioned feats of mind reading). The program states that the show begins with “Precision technique which has no equal” and ends with “An enigma of the highest order”. A well-crafted crescendo of effect to be sure—but it doesn’t stop there.

Point Number Three on Seth Godin’s list is “He intentionally creates an experience that is remarkable and likely to spread.” Thanks to Steve’s decades of experience as a performer, Chamber Magic was designed with that idea firmly in mind. Steve recalls a conversation with Jeff McBride about what an audience wants to take away from a performance of magic. “His answer was they want to be able to say ‘It happened to ME!’” In Chamber Magic, Steve manages to squeeze every drop of audience involvement out of his act—not just participation, but involvement. Take for example one of the opening effects, a bit of mind-reading with cards. Steve has someone from the audience remove a handful of cards from a shuffled deck and proceeds to divine each and every card one-at-a-time as the audience concentrates on them. Where most performers would perform this with a single person while the rest of the audience looks on, Steve has the first person focus on a card, divines it, then has that person pass the cards to another member of the audience. This continues until all the cards have been divined. While the normal audience marvels at how he could possibly know what card they’re each thinking of, the real trick is getting each audience member to think, “I could be next!” Even the initial shuffling is done not by one, but by several members of the audience. Magicians like to refer to their audience members as “spectators”. Steve recognizes the importance of not allowing his audiences to simply “spectate”.

This thinking permeates the entire evening’s performance. For his signature performance of Think-A-Drink, each and every member of the audience writes down their favorite drink. Even though only five or six drinks are eventually poured, the entire audience of fifty or more people feels like their drink of choice could have been next. In a recent performance on tour at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in 2010, Jason Segel (of How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and The Muppets) assisted Steve with Think-A-Drink. He was offered any choice of drink, with every opportunity to change his mind, and when Steve began pouring the chosen drinks, the 6’ 4” comedian’s reactions were as loud and boisterous as any he’s delivered on TV or in film—and genuine. And that’s the whole idea: to make the audience feel like they could’ve dictated the outcome—”that they could’ve affected the show.”

Another key factor to the way audiences experience Chamber Magic is laughter. Steve’s rule of thumb is that every couple of minutes (if not once-a-minute) there needs to be a laugh of some kind. Not knock-down, fall-over-yourself comedy—because that’s not Steve. But Steve finds that some kind of laugh or joke along the way helps everyone to relax and enjoy the experience with each other. By the time he gets to the end of a performance and is into the finale—his version of Juan Tamariz’s Total Coincidence—he asks the audience, ‘Should I STOP, or CONTINUE?’. In the performance I attended, everyone was laughing and shouting together ‘CONTINUE!’ “It really brings the whole audience together.”

Even the strict dress code is in place to enhance the experience. “When people have to get dressed up for an evening out, it makes them feel like they’re experiencing something special. Even the trip through the Waldorf-Astoria to the suite where I perform gives the feeling of something unique. Everyone feels like they’re sharing something important.”

It’s this kind of thinking that’s allowed Chamber Magic to enjoy a very successful eleven-year run, one Steve plans to extend to twenty, and then retire the show. He’s only mentioned that part in a few places, but from the beginning that’s been Steve’s plan for the show—a forward piece of thinking that will no doubt leave a few folks disappointed in nine years.

Miracles At Midnight

What more could any magician ask for beyond a show as distinctive and successful as Chamber Magic? Where does one go beyond the penthouse? Enter Miracles At Midnight. In 2009, David Kaye (aka Silly Billy) went to see Steve’s Chamber Magic show. After viewing Steve’s performance, David’s business sense for all things magic kicked in, and he made the suggestion that Steve ought to have “a luxury show” to offer his clients. After the high-end experience of Chamber Magic, what could possibly count as a “luxury show”? “This was in the middle of a recession!” But Steve liked the idea, and the result was Miracles At Midnight.

Performed only once a month in the Waldorf Towers, Miracles At Midnight is an exclusive, expensive, and late evening of intimate miracles. Where Chamber Magic is a parlor-style performance for a typical audience of 40–50 people, Miracles At Midnight allows Steve to indulge in his love for close-up magic for an audience of no more than twenty. “Because of the high price [$250 a ticket], the size of the audience is smaller than Chamber Magic, so I get to do the kind of close-up tricks I love but that don’t quite fit into Chamber Magic.” This includes items familiar to most magicians like Coins Across, and the Newspaper Tear. Speaking about the Newspaper Tear, Steve was initially reluctant to include the routine because of its popularity with other performers (again, avoiding the “apples to apples” comparisons), “…but the reactions it gets are too strong! It’s such a powerful trick.” Steve combines these more intimate tricks with some favorites from Chamber Magic. And like Chamber Magic, the key to justifying the $250 per ticket for Miracles At Midnight is creating a unique experience for all involved. To that end, another feature of this show not found in Chamber Magic is a segment where the audience is invited to bring up their own belongings and personal items, whereupon Steve performs miracles with those very items. Of course, to really “improvise” would risk doing something less-than-spectacular, and Steve will not let that happen. “It has the feeling of improvisation, like I’m making up the tricks on the spot. Of course, certain objects trigger certain tricks for me, like a jazz musician follows the chords and has certain ‘licks’ and can always come back to the form of the song. But for the audience it’s like I’m creating something for the first time, right in front of their eyes.” Steve also notes that most audiences tend to offer up the same objects (keys, jewlery, etc.), so he never has to worry about being confronted with anything particularly bizarre or unusual.

Which is not to say spontaneity doesn’t rear its head on occasion. On one such occasion, one of Steve’s guests was Dr. Ruth Westheimer. For the “improvisational” part of the show she offered a tube of lipstick. Steve proceeded with a trick similar to the Ashes On The Palm that he does whenever someone offers lipstick. With a twinkle in his eye, Steve asked the noted sex therapist, “Dr. Ruth, I’d like to perform something called a ‘penetration effect’. Would you like to see that?” Which of course delighted both Dr. Ruth and the rest of the audience no end.

Far from being prohibitive, the price tag and exclusive nature of Miracles At Midnight have attracted an equally high-end audience. Noted conductor and pianist André Previn celebrated his 80^th birthday in attendance at Miracles At Midnight. Whenever people bring up the late start time of the show, Steve tells them that an eighty-year-old man came and stayed awake through the whole night—and enjoyed himself.

Theater of Wonder

Where does one go beyond the penthouse? In January 2012, Steve will debut Theater of Wonder at Carnegie Hall. The story behind the inception of this new show is in many ways a textbook example of the world Steve has created for himself, although again, as a “secret” there’s not much to it.

One of Steve’s clients, patrons, and good friends is renown classical violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The September 2008 Genii Magazine cover feature on Steve recounts how, at a private performance in Switzerland, Steve followed his staple performance of the Himber Linking Finger Rings by linking a violin bow onto the strings of a violin and presenting the object to Ms. Mutter as a souvenir. This is how fast friendships are made. In 2010, the two were having lunch and Ms. Mutter stated that she firmly believed that, as someone she considers a “world-class artist”, Steve should have a much wider audience. She pointed out to him that while he could certainly stick to his 20-year plan and continue to enjoy success, it wouldn’t allow him to grow as an artist. Her advice? “Think BIG!” And by way of example, she pointed out “Look at me: I’m playing Carnegie Hall tomorrow night.” Rather than wonder what he could accomplish that as big as playing Carnegie Hall, Steve took her literally. “I called my creative partner Mark Levy and said, ‘I want to play Carnegie Hall. Are you in?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’”

(Steve is actually no stranger to Carnegie Hall. He’s performed there several times before—backstage. Whenever Anne-Sophie Mutter has played there, she’s invited Steve to perform for her guests after the concert upstairs in the Maestro’s Suite.)

Of course, no one simply walks into Carnegie Hall and starts performing magic—any more than they can simply walk into the Waldorf=Astoria and put on a magic show. Luckily, through his performances Steve had a contact at Carnegie Hall who arranged for them to tour the facility to get a feel for the venue. First step was to head to the main stage—the Perelman Stage in the Stern Auditorium. This is the stage people picture when they picture Carnegie Hall, open since 1891 and seating 2,804 people. Mark walked out into the center of the house and Steve walked to center stage. Once in place, Steve held up a playing card. “It looked like a postage stamp.” It became readily apparent that the sheer size of the hall would present significant problems for a performer used to working in more intimate venues. “2,800 is all right, but those last four are on their own!” Moreover, Carnegie Hall won’t allow any performer to hang projection monitors to aid visibility, killing the possibilities for any kind of close-up material.

Carnegie Hall also has strict regulations governing what performers are allowed to do on stage. Nothing can be done with fire, nothing with livestock—which would kill 90% of most large Vegas-style illusion shows. Most restrictive for Steve: nothing with liquid. That means while Steve could have a bottle of water with him onstage, his signature performance of Think-A-Drink gets left behind in the suite at the Waldorf. If all this sounds like an opportunity to dust off the Zig-Zag and the Substitution Trunk and hire some of the Rockettes to get sawn in half, consider that any and all onstage assistants would need to be provided by the union, which would drive the cost of the show up nearly $400,000. That’s a vastly expensive difference for a man who’s made his world-class reputation as a one-man show.

It would be tempting for any performer to reconsider, give up and try to find another venue more accommodating to the magician’s repertoire. However, any other venue isn’t Carnegie Hall. In truth, Steve did reconsider and find another venue, and that venue was…Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall features three stages: the aforementioned Perelman Stage, the more recently-built Zankel Hall and the Weill Recital Hall. The Zankel Hall was constructed in 2003 and seats 600—a more manageable size, but built in a more modern, austere “shoebox” style. It’s a beautiful hall for a modern jazz performance, but it doesn’t say “Chamber Magic”. The Weill Recital Hall, on the other hand, seats 300 while looking like a miniature version of the Stern Auditorium. With gilt-accented columns, ornate drapery, and crystal wall sconces, not only is it exactly the sort of backdrop Steve is accustomed to, at 300 seats it’s also an audience size he’s performed for many times before. Suddenly, the daunting expanse of Carnegie Hall becomes an almost bespoke fit for Steve’s brand of Victorian-flavored, classical conjuring. (Note: if you’re interested in “touring” the various spaces for yourself, carnegiehall.org offers virtual 360º panoramic views of each of the three different spaces that allow you to scroll around if you were standing right in the middle of the halls themselves.)

Now that he was comfortable in the space, what would Steve put into this new show? Steve is understandably reticent about the contents of the new show, but one thing it definitely will be is entirely new. He’s still contractually subject to the same performance restrictions, so Think-A-Drink is still out. There will be some mind reading (a strong way to play to a large audience), but again Steve does not want to mount a full-evening’s performance of mentalism. So for the first time in a number of years he gets to create a wholly new show. With 11 years of performing Chamber Magic, though, Steve feels he has a terrific advantage in envisioning the shape, rhythm, and flow of a succesful show. In fact, he’s managed to devise a unique framework for Theater of Wonder, running from the beginning moments of the show, providing a connecting thread for all the effects and culminating in a truly grand finale. On top of which, it draws from all aspect’s of Steve’s experience, resulting in a very personal presentation. Steve told me that when the idea came to him and he fleshed it out, he was so excited by it that he actually jumped up and down. For now, though, until Theater of Wonder debuts in January, the details remain…a secret. But not for long after, as with a 300-seat capacity and a 30,000-person mailing list, Steve fully expects the show to be sold out by the time this article sees publication. But the plan afterward, if the show proves successful, is for Steve to tour with the show, cross-promoting the stage show with performances of Chamber Magic in suitable venues in different cities.

The secrets of Steve Cohen’s success aren’t all that secret. Then again, they’re not all that easy. Like the most difficult sleight-of-hand, the “answer” may be simple, but only after years of  experience, dedication, and attention to detail. There’s a  joke that’s likely been in the mind of every reader since they started reading this article. It’s a joke about Carnegie Hall that scientists have proven to be older than the hall itself:

A man gets into a cab in New York City and asks the driver, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”

The cab driver replies, “Practice!”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that after years of success, Steve will find himself onstage at Carnegie Hall. And he should do well. After all, he’s had plenty of practice.

The post Society of American Magicians’ magazine cover story, November 2011 appeared first on Chamber Magic.