A Magical Cabinet Meeting in Washington DC

June 4, 2011

Being the Millionaires’ Magician has placed me into some pretty amazing situations. Like the time I entertained at the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington DC, during the Bloomberg after-party. This is the most “glam” party to attend, held at the Russian Trade Mission. Michael Bloomberg was there. Donald Trump was there. A-list celebrities at every turn. And it was my job to entertain them.

As I performed privately for two of the guests, I noticed that a photographer was furiously snapping pictures over my shoulder.

The photographer later informed me: “Those two men you just entertained were the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Transportation. The only person who can usually bring them together is the President of the United States. And you just did the same thing with magic!”

This reminds me of another occasion, when Michael Bloomberg invited me to his Park Avenue office in NYC prior to being elected mayor. After chatting for twenty minutes about golf, memory techniques, and how to master a second language (he was studying Spanish), Bloomberg asked me to show him some magic.

I asked if he had a dollar.

The billionaire chuckled and said, “Have I got a dollar? I’ve got quite a few!” We both laughed as he handed me a single dollar bill from his pocket.

I slowly and deliberately displayed the bill to him and called attention to the Secretary of the Treasury’s signature at the bottom. The name read Laurence Summers. Without a single false move, I waved my hand over that signature and magically transformed it into the signature of Bloomberg himself – Michael R. Bloomberg. The ink changed visibly in front of his eyes.

He rubbed the bill with his thumb and was delighted to see that his signature had been permanently printed on his own bill – real U.S. currency. At first he challenged me to change it back, but I countered, “Are you kidding? That’s a collector’s item. The next time I come to your office, I want to see that in a frame on your wall!”

I like to think that’s where it hangs to this day…

Here’s a photo of Michael Bloomberg and me (the summer before he was elected NYC mayor), at a Bloomberg company picnic.

Bloomberg Cohen