A large part of our business is teaching CEO’s and executives tricks and illusions that they perform themselves as visual and memorable tools for meetings. We’ve taught well known CEO’s, such as Bill Gates, in addition to hundreds of other CEOs to be the star of their own conferences. In fact, there isn’t an industry that we haven’t designed illusions for. We’ve even been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. But, you know what the most amazing thing about all this is? It all came about by accident. Believe me, I wish we could take the credit for this idea, but the actual idea for was one of the executives we were working with.
It all started in 1989 when I was performing for the Liberty Life Insurance company in England. The CEO asked if I could teach him a trick to open the general session. I said sure, but suggested that if he was going to do a trick then he should tie it in with what he was planning to talk about. I then spent the next several hours brainstorming, and came up with an easy trick that he could perform the next morning.
As it turned out, it rocked the house.
I realized, although the trick was good, it was the fact that the CEO did something unusual to get their attention and drive home a point that made it so successful. However, I still didn’t realize what a great communications tool magic actually can be.
The next week, I was doing a show for Fuji Film and while discussing the plans for the show I casually mentioned the story of the CEO in London and what he had just done. Their faces lit up, and they immediately asked if I could teach a few of them tricks for their meeting the next day. The answer was yes, and I had another late night of brainstorming.
They were stars the next day with their tricks, the hit of the meeting. I wish I could say I read the writing on the wall by that point, but it still didn’t hit me….yet.
The following week, I was doing a show for Chevrolet. Over dinner I mentioned the England show and the Fuji Film show, and once again the conversation immediately turned to a request for me to teach them a trick to perform at their meeting that coincided with their topic. By the next afternoon, they were a hit at their sales meeting.
Finally, it dawned on me. There was a need for unique communication device, and magic could solve that need. And thus, Magicorp Productions was born. Since then, we’ve had executives make bowls of cash appear to demonstrate profitability, CEO’s read minds to demonstrate their ability to predict the future, sales managers visually demonstrate team work, and have tackled every type of theme imaginable. We’re glad to say, we still have a lot more tricks up our sleeve.