Saturday, April 9, 2011 – Out and About D.C. by Jacquie Kubin

WASHINGTON — April 9, 2011 — Pennsylvania Avenue enjoyed a little night magic, and it had nothing to do with republicans and democrats working together.  Master Magician Steve Cohen brought “Chamber Magic,’ an intimate show of conjuring, sleight-of-hand and magic tricks, to the Willard Intercontinental for four shows last week (April 5-6, 2011).

His performance was astounding in a way that far exceeds the glitz of sequins and the lit-stage, Las Vegas style extravaganzas. Audience members sit in small, friendly groups where they, and Mr. Cohen, were able to react, talk, share and exclaim amazement together.

Mr. Cohen creates an instant rapport, making each guest feel instantly comfortable; as though invited into the living room of a good friend.

When the show begins, Mr. Cohen passes cards to audience members, asking them to thoroughly shuffle those cards as he starts to identify cards that he can’t possibly see, front or back. It is seemingly impossible that he can determine the cards.

But yet he can. Somehow.

“Everything I do, I have learned,” Mr. Cohen says. “I do not believe in the supernatural, so I use natural means to give the impression of the super natural. I have no special gifts that others don’t have.”

Sitting within a few feet of Mr. Cohen for the majority of the evening, the audience was treated to tricks, many with histories that reach back to iconic performers like Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone and Charles Hoffman (1896-1966), also known as Think-A-Drink Hoffman.

Mr. Cohen performs the classic Think-A-Drink trick, once popular with prohibition era audiences.  Guests are asked to call out their favorite drinks, which during the performance included grapefruit juice, peach iced tea, apple martini and a Manhattan.

Cohen picks up his magic kettle (available at Williams and Sonoma, he says) and pours, with incredible flair, first a peach iced tea, then an apple martini and Manhattan, finally pouring a portion of grapefruit juice, after asking if the preference is for Ruby Red, pulp, or no pulp.

Audience participants confirm that each drink is as requested.

“The tricks I do, some have been around for hundreds of years, or, like the linking rings, they have been around for centuries,” Mr. Cohen says. “Magicians have left behind records of their tricks, thought not schematic diagrams, so it takes research, plus being able to be a craftsman to figure our how to make a trick work.

“You have to be a bit of a historian and a mechanic. Learn how things work, how to put them together. Add some hand-eye coordination and diligence to perfect the trick,” Cohen explained.

Magic is very much a “family business.”  For Cohen, it was his Uncle Nat, whom he offers homage to in his show, who first exposed Mr. Cohen to magic.  Life and education took him to Cornell, where he mastered in psychology, which he credits as important to his success.

Cohen hopes to pass on his “tricks” to his son (11) and to his daughter (6), whom he states is more of a “ham” and destined toward show business.  And for this Millionaire’s Magician, it is definitely show business.

In his cut-away formal coat and vest, he appears very much the English  gentleman.  His mannerisms and manners are formal, yet friendly.  Audience members are asked to dress business formal, because this is an evening event, held with the same graciousness and fun as a Victorian get together.

One can’t help but ask him how he accomplishes his tricks, even though you know you won’t get an answer.  But talking about his trick where he can, with pinpoint accuracy, literally stick a pin through a U.S. Map, in the exact location of the city a guest is thinking of, Cohen offers a bit of a hint in that after thousands of shows, he can anticipate how people will act, and react, and the power of OODA – the ability to observe, orient, decide and act.

Steve Cohen entertaining billionaires, including Warren Buffett

“This is something that fighter pilots use in that they observe the scenario, orient to take advantage of it, decide and act,” Mr. Cohen says. “I constantly observe the audience.”

Mr. Cohen is a skilled magician. A trade, he says, he has “learned and perfected.”

His ability to engage his audience, bring them to the forefront of his act, and share his stage, to remember a name, or divine a fact, has everything to do with Mr. Cohen being a genuinely pleasant person, and a master showman.

“Everyone wants to be around someone more interesting than themselves,” Mr. Cohen says. “I use magic in my everyday life to elicit a smile from a store clerk when I give her a penny when I know she needs a nickel, imploring her to look in her hand again when she asks for the correct coin.”

“However as an entertainer, I think above all else, I have to be a giver. I have to love what I am doing, and enjoy the audience so that they can love what I am doing.  When you are so close you can literally see the white of their eyes, it means understanding that the audience is people with their own stories and the ability to choose where they will spend their time and money.   And I am honored that they have chosen me.”