Chamber Magic® will be running tonight (August 26) as planned, but I have decided to follow Broadway’s lead and have cancelled all three shows tomorrow (August 27), at 2pm, 7pm and 9pm. If you are a ticketholder to one of these shows, please contact OvationTix to reschedule your tickets to a future performance date. OvationTix […]
Read the full post »My friend and TV travel expert Peter Greenberg gave me excellent advice to beat jet lag. Peter travels over 400,000 miles per year (equal to sixteen times around the earth annually), yet he never suffers from jet lag. How does he do it? I’m going to share Peter’s secret here with you.
I can tell you with some authority that it works.
At the moment, I’m in Osaka, Japan and haven’t had a single bout with jet lag since my arrival three days ago. After the fourteen hour trip (which I’ve taken over 20 times), I’m usually demolished for the coming week. This time around, however, I’ve been alert since I hit the ground and have slept like a baby each night.
Here, in Peter’s words, is the secret he shared with me in person. At the end, I’ll add a few extra comments of my own. […]
Read the full post »I will be touring in September, and hope you can help spread the word. Tickets are now available for Chamber Magic performances in Philadelphia. That’s right, Philadelphia! The show will be identical to my long-running Waldorf-Astoria show in New York.
I’m excited to announce the following tour dates:
PHILADELPHIA:
Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia
One Logan Square
September 13 and 14
(Four performances – 7pm and 9pm each night)
Click “Read full post” below for tickets
If you have friends or family in Philly who you think would enjoy Chamber Magic, please tell them to reserve their tickets now. I look forward to welcoming them to the show!
Read the full post »CBS recently launched a new television series, Same Name, which pairs up celebrities with average citizens who happen to share their same names. For instance, the actor David Hasselhoff and another fellow named David Hasselhoff switch lives and see how their namesake lives.
Although I don’t foresee ever watching a single episode, the program reminded me of some amusing guests who have come to visit at my Chamber Magic shows in New York.
One week I had a man sitting in the front row whose name was Sherlock Holmes. The very next week, there was a man in the audience named James Bond. Of course I asked both of them to show me their drivers licenses, and sure enough those were their actual names!
Another month or so passed, and a fellow in the audience was named Bruce Wayne. (Batman’s alter-ego)
Is there a trend of fictional crime-fighters that […]
Read the full post »I read some good advice written by Lee Earle. I’m including it here on my blog to REMIND MYSELF, and also to pass it on to you.
An old-time vaudeville, burlesque and U.S.O. Camp Show entertainer named Don Seth told Lee:
“In every audience you entertain, there will be a little boy who had to save his nickles and dimes to be able to come to see your show. It may not be much money by your standards, but it is a lot to him. Give him his money’s worth.”
Don continued, “Every time you step on stage, there is a little boy in the front row who is seeing his first real, live magician. The image you create in his mind is the one which will stay with him for the rest of his life. Make it a good first impression.”
“And somewhere in every audience,” he continued, “is a little boy who could be playing in the park, or watching television, or doing his homework but instead has chosen to spend his one, precious, irreplaceable commodity – his time – with you and your show. You must reward his good faith with an equal effort of your own. You owe him the very best performance you can give.”
The next time you step on stage, look over your audience and, in each and every person present, be sure to see that little boy.
Read the full post »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 […]
Read the full post »I love stumbling across historical gems — here’s one from The Sphinx magazine (a well-known magazine for magicians) that ties together two of my loves: magic and the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. This hotel, now located on Park Avenue, was previously located at the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, but was torn down in 1929 to make room for the Empire State Building.
Editor William Hilliar reported this closing in the May 1929 issue, and wrote about one of the Waldorf’s most famous employees, Oscar Tschirky. If you’ve been to my Chamber Magic show, you know that I summon the ghost of Oscar nightly to assist with a magic trick. It turns out he was actually a bit of a magician himself, as you’ll see below.
Here is the text I found […]
Read the full post »July 14, 2011 at 12:30 PM
by Mark Anthony Green, in GQ.com
Vera Wang referred to Steve Cohen as the best-dressed magician she’d ever seen. Cohen was hoping for just best dressed. When the dandy magician isn’t shocking the who’s who of New York City from his private suite at the historic Waldorf Astoria, he’s conjuring up bespoke suits from London and ties from Tokyo’s finest men’s shops. In between ducking in and out his closet to show off more “gems,” we asked Cohen a few questions about his personal style influences and the importance of always dressing the part.
GQ: You go by the Millionaires’ Magician. You probably have a lot of well-dressed spectators.
Steve Cohen: [Hesitant laugh] Oh, sure but I wouldn’t particularly be able to say who’s well-dressed, because sometimes you get wealthy folks who come through who are dressed in casual clothes. Sometimes people, especially the nouveau rich, will intentionally not dress to look wealthy. They call it “Stealth Wealth.”
GQ: Let’s talk about the dress code. It’s a pretty audacious move to tell a room full of millionaires what to do.
Steve Cohen: One time I had a fellow come to my show who was wearing […]
Read the full post »by Herb Scher The New York Times, June 24, 2011 EVEN if the scores of magicians visiting here for New York’s first magic convention in nine years were to disappear in a puff of smoke, there would still be plenty happening on the local magic scene this weekend. Saturdays typically find conjurers getting together to […]
Read the full post »By Graeme Wood, THE DAILY
On Feb. 6, 1922, 27-year-old magician Dai Vernon broke this rule before the toughest of audiences: Harry Houdini. The bold gambit was one of the most storied events in the modern history of magic. Houdini, 47, was not only the world’s most famous magician but also its most famous debunker. He bragged he could figure out any illusion he saw three times, and he repeatedly proved second and third demonstrations unnecessary. Houdini had an enviable reputation as a card manipulator, and after diversifying into escape artistry, he had begun a third career exposing so-called “spirit mediums,” conjurers and seers. Some of the conjurers used elaborate setups, but Vernon challenged Houdini with nothing more than a blue-backed deck of Aristocrat playing cards. […]