by Susan Lehman, Lexus Magazine

MAGIC SHOWS AREN’T JUST FOR KIDS anymore. In fact, master conjurer Steve Cohen prefers that children not attend the dazzling shows he performs at tony hotels around the world — where, instead of pulling rabbits out of hats, he turns one-dollar bills into hundred-dollar bills. Known to some as “the millionaires’ magician,” Cohen stunned an audience of top CEOs when he performed that feat on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Non-CEOs can witness Cohen’s miracles at his weekly magic show at the Waldorf Towers in New York. Here, in a gilt-ceilinged suite, Cohen reads minds, turns coins into bricks, stops his pulse, and, using only force of mind, moves watch hands forward.

“Open the book to any page you like,” Cohen directs the audience member to my right. “Choose a line and pick one of the biggest words there. Keep that word in your mind.” Cohen stares into the man’s face and furiously jots something on a pad of paper. “Now,” Cohen instructs the man, “say the word.” “Lumberjack,” says the man. “Aha!” exclaims Cohen, flipping over his pad and revealing the characters 183 L 1. The audience is baffled. Cohen shifts his attention to me. “Open the dictionary to page 183,” he says, referring to the Webster’s he’d handed out earlier, “and read the first entry on the left side.” “Lumberjack,” I say. The audience gasps. Was I a plant? Nope. And neither, I assume, were the 40 other members of the sold-out crowd. “I’m too busy to spend time finding plants,” says Cohen.

Cohen is busy indeed, jetting off to perform a The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, the Langham Hilton hotel in London, and the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco, as well as at private functions at places like the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills, New York, and at venues such as the Magic Castle, a club in Los Angeles that attracts top-quality magicians.

At home in New York with his wife and young son, Cohen is busy learning to turn flower petals into butterflies and Evian water into wine. Until he does, his favorite trick remains the jaw dropper “Think-a-Drink,” which involves pouring one ounce of five different beverages from a teapot as requested by five randomly-selected audience members. (Cohen beams as one ounce each of saké, Diet Pepsi, Pinot Noir, orange juice, and Yoo-Hoo splashes into five waiting shot glasses.) How does he do that? “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary,” says Cohen. “For those who don’t, no explanation will suffice.”

To find out if Steve Cohen will be bringing his bag of tricks to your area, or to hire him to perform at a private event, visit his Web site at www.chambermagic.com.