Genii Magazine, September 2008

Steve Cohen, The Millionaires’ Magician

Interviewed by Richard Kaufman

Genii: Why do you call yourself “The Millionaires’ Magician?” Doesn’t that turn some people off? It sounds kind of snooty.

Cohen: Nice way to start the interview!

Genii: It’s my prerogative: I remember teaching you and Mark Sicher how to shave when you were both kids.

Cohen: So you did. To answer your question, an upscale magazine in New York City wrote a feature story about me, and that was the headline: “The Millionaires’ Magician.” I’m at The Waldorf Towers every Friday and Saturday night for my show Chamber Magic. But the other five days of the week I travel around the world to perform at people’s mansions and private islands. They pick me up in luxury cars and put me up in fine hotels in Switzerland, London, Paris, the Caribbean, Boca Raton, Aspen, all over the place.

Genii: You’ve clearly figured out a great niche for yourself.

Cohen: To be honest, there are at least three million millionaires in America, and in my geographic region—New York City—it seems like everyone I know is a millionaire. So when I call myself “The Millionaires’ Magician,” it’s simply a description of my market. Now, I find myself contacted only by people—event planners, corporate groups, and individuals—who can afford my current rates. They kind of know what they’re jumping into when they call me, so there’s no sticker shock when they hear my prices.

Genii: How many shows per year do you perform?

Cohen: I do 20 Chamber Magic shows a month (five shows each weekend) at the Waldorf, and between six and 10 private or corporate shows per month on top of that. So I’m working a lot—roughly 300 shows a year. Which is good, since I have two small kids and we live on the Upper West Side in Manhattan—not exactly a neighborhood known for bargain-hunting. But, it’s not only about the money for me. I feel extremely lucky to live my childhood dream.

Genii: Speaking of money—and please be frank here—do you charge more for your show when you are performing for, say, a billionaire?

Cohen: Nobody likes to be taken advantage of, especially the ultra-rich. I do have a premiere rate that I present as an option to my high net-worth clients. To justify the higher fee, I customize parts of my show to meet the interests of the individual client.

In my proposal, I explain that I’ll create two to three new tricks specific to their event. In many cases, this is easy—just a matter of changing patter to an existing trick in my repertoire to fit the person. But I also enjoy challenging myself to develop something truly new—like the violin string penetration (for Anne-Sophie Mutter) and the loaf of bread (for Martha Stewart). Mark Levy and I work together to come up with one-off presentations that the audience clearly knows was created just for them.

Some of my long-standing clients even suggest that I bring my family along when the events are held in resort areas. To me, this is like a bonus—a chance to vacation with my family while working.

You have to understand, one of my aims is to not simply be a “hired gun,” but to become part of the clients’ family circle. I’m a real person to them—we stay in touch throughout the year, sharing personal notes and gifts. If they have guests visiting New York City, I comp them into my shows at the Waldorf. I take care of them.

In return, they take care of me. And that’s because I’m sincere in my dealings with them.

Genii: What is your relationship with the Waldorf-Astoria?

Cohen: When I began working with the Waldorf, the staff had no idea that I would be there for an extended period of time. I’ve now presented over 800 performances of Chamber Magic at the Waldorf, and the staff considers me a permanent resident. The hotel has become overwhelmingly supportive of Chamber Magic: The concierges recommend the show to in-house guests; They feed me dinner after the show; They send wine, cheese, and fruit amenities so that I can entertain VIP guests who stay after the show to talk; They invite me to perform for VIP events for celebrities and royalty who are staying at the hotel.

Each of these items was attained by baby steps, over the course of many years.

I now live at The Waldorf Towers every weekend, and then uptown at my apartment the rest of the week. My suite at the Waldorf is much larger than my apartment at home—about 4,000 square feet.

I perform in the living room area, with three or four rows of chairs.

Genii: And the show is now sold-out several months in advance …

Cohen: When I first started, the hotel was not at all supportive in promoting Chamber Magic. I had only one or two executives who championed my cause, and everyone else seemed to think that I was just another guest, holding just another event there.

The Waldorf Towers hosts important events every day, from the United Nations General Assembly to the NASCAR award show, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Richard Branson stays there, Brad Pitt stays there, and every U.S. President since 1931 has stayed there when they visit New York City. A magic show by an unknown magician was not on anybody’s radar.

In the beginning, I invited my friends and family, and told them to bring their friends—just to fill the seats. After about six months, I’d used up all my friends, and attendance started to dwindle. I lied to my wife, and told her that our business was breaking even, but in reality I was losing money every week.

This continued for two and a half years. Then, with an immense amount of effort, and relying solely on word-of-mouth, I was finally breaking even. In order to keep the room looking full, I gave out complimentary seats to anybody who asked, and even “papered the room” several times with members of ticketing clubs who wanted to see free shows in Manhattan.

Fortunately, New York City is a media capitol, and media people started showing up at Chamber Magic. A reporter from CNN came one night with a film crew and did a long profile of the show on CNN. She told Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn about it, and suddenly I was on the map. The media feeds off of other media, and shortly after, a reporter from the Associated Press showed up. After his article appeared in hundreds of American newspapers, there was suddenly some interest in my little show at the Waldorf.

Genii: You’ve talked a lot about marketing and your business. I’d hate for my readers to think that you are merely a businessman and not a real student of magic. I know that you are, of course, because you were doing tricks for me when you were 14 years old, but my readers don’t.

Cohen: Magic is all-consuming for me. I love to practice difficult card sleights: Earnest Earick’s One-Handed Bottom Palm, Ascanio’s handling of The Diagonal Palm Shift, “Raise Rise,” and so on. I also work constantly on the Classic Pass. Derek Dingle was kind to praise my Shift when I showed it to him repeatedly in New York. That memory will always remain one of my magical highlights.

I also love to read all of the biographies and treatments of great magicians of the past: Karl Germain, Chung Ling Soo, Roy Benson, Al Baker, Robert-Houdin, Hofzinser, David Devant, Charles Bertram, Max Malini, and Nate Leipzig. These are the magicians who have influenced me in a direct way, through the printed page. I read constantly—hunting for the good stuff.

Genii: This must have helped when you began to put together Chamber Magic.

Cohen: For me, the effect is always the thing. How will this appear to the layman? When I was choosing material for Chamber Magic I was tempted to put together a show full of knuckle-busting sleight of hand. But I ultimately decided that the show is not aimed at magicians. Nobody is going to applaud a flawless Multiple Shift, or something that magicians would call clever. Lay audiences care about the dramatic voyage—the introduction into a world where magic might really take place.

The Waldorf-Astoria building itself helps me put people into that mindset, even before the show begins. The audience enters through a marble lobby, and gets whisked upstairs in a special elevator. By the time they enter my suite, they’re already expecting to see things they’ve never seen before.

The material I chose is entirely effect-driven, and I include a lot of classics: Any-Drink-Called-For, the Rising Cards, and the Malini hat routine. In the mentalism section of my show, I do a Question & Answer routine. To magicians, this may seem to be standard stuff. But when combined with compelling presentations, they take on a different character.

Mark Levy worked hard with me to pick strong material that can be easily described by audiences. Like Vernon said: “A good trick needs to be described in a single sentence.” For every trick that makes the show, there are probably 12 tricks that didn’t. Mark would always say, “Maybe they knocked the audience on their ass lightly … but we’re hoping for black and blue marks.”

Genii: What are your guidelines when choosing tricks?

Cohen: I don’t mind going the extra mile to really fool the audience badly. Michael Close wrote about this in his book Workers Five. He calls it the “Too Much Trouble” assumption. Audiences would never imagine that a magician would go to such trouble (like memorizing an entire deck of cards) simply to fool them. That assumption is what slays them. I am willing to spend years preparing for a trick that takes only a few minutes to perform. The audience really has no chance—it’s a ridiculous disadvantage.

My performance of “Think-a-Drink,” for instance, requires an hour of set-up before the show, and another hour of clean-up afterward. I can’t just pack up and leave. It’s not like a club date where you have your props in a briefcase or trunk, and you need to be able to break down the show and hop in your car.

But it’s exactly that extra effort that provides an unforgettable experience for the audience.

In addition, at The Waldorf Towers, I have total control over the environment, including the entrance hall, waiting room, and performance space. I’ve built props that look like ordinary items and objects that are meant to be in those rooms.

The show appears to have very few props, when in fact there are many. They just blend into the environment—nobody even realizes they’re there. This approach is based on Dunninger’s statement that each time a mentalist takes out a prop, his price goes down. At the end of the show, I want people to remember me as a personality. The way I chose to accomplish this is to perform tricks that are personality-driven, not prop-driven.

Genii: That’s what makes the tricks yours …

Cohen: That, I feel, is one of the real secrets of magic. To make the tricks yours. I tie in so much of my personal history, family stories, and other such elements that it rings true. It doesn’t feel artificial. I try to connect with Chamber Magic audiences on a personal level so that they feel like they know me.

Genii: What’s the most interesting thing one of your high-falutin clients ever said to you?

Cohen: One of my best clients in Boca Raton gave me the following quote: “A master in the art of living leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always seems to be doing both.” That sums up how I’m living my life right now. I’m making an enjoyable living for my family, by playing.