Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani loved the magic trick I performed at his recent Sports Illustrated photoshoot. Ohtani had a great reaction when I magically produced a glass of Japanese sake from nowhere, and even greater when he discovered the sake was hot! I stayed for the whole photoshoot, spending an hour with the Sports Illustrated editorial team, Ohtani’s agent Nez Balelo, his translator Ippei Mizuhara, and even playing with his famous dog “Dekopin.”

We spoke mostly in Japanese, but I mixed it up with basic English so he wouldn’t need his interpreter. He told me he would always remember my name, because of the “other” Steve Cohen, owner of the New York Mets!

This great opportunity came to me thanks to photographer Clay Patrick McBride who was brought in for this prestigious cover shoot. Clay turned a suite in the Lotte New York Palace into his studio, and created some iconic imagery of the Japanese superstar. I perform my shows in the same hotel, so it was an incredible chance to be inches away from Ohtani for an hour before my evening shows that night.