March 6, 2026 • 27 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Millionaire's Magician, Steve Cohen.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, Now, why do they call you the millionaire's magician?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, I don't. I don't check people's bank balances at
the door. But a lot of my audiences over the
years have been wealthy New Yorkers, and a media outlet
called me that one time, and it just stuck.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
By the way, if you go see Steve's performance, it
is a formal event. Why do you find that's important
for an evening of magic?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Okay, so I dressed in a black tie and tails,
but it's really just like cocktail attire. We want people
to have a very festive evening. It's in this really
beautiful old Victorian style Gilded Age mansion, and so if
you come there dressed up in flip flops and shorts,
you know you're going to really feel out of place.
So what people like to do is they can make
(00:49):
it a whole evening. There's it's you're in a Gilded
Age mansion. People get dressed up, women wear evening attired
gowns sometimes, but you know, really it's not again, We're
not going to turn people away if you're wearing just casual,
but you would feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So it sounds like it's a show and a show
and you're setting you're setting the pace for this magical evening.
I'm assuming there's some candles involved. It's you've got this
beautiful set, you're taking us so a different time, yea.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It really is a ton of a step back in time.
I had to think of the the shows at the
Lote New York Palace hotel. So it's like, like I said,
it's a Gilded Age mansion. Is the first Gilded Age
mansion in New York City to have electric power. It
was built in the eighteen nineties, right, so you know
you've got the wires were hand installed by Thomas Edison. Right,
So this is the type of building that you're in
(01:35):
and if you ever walk past it, you might just not. Actually,
the best way to put it is, if you ever
saw the TV show gossip Girl, they film Gossip Girl
in that hotel. Oh well, so do you guys, Maybe
you guys watched I never watched Gossip Girl, so I
couldn't tell you. But so it's it's really it's a
special place to visit and it's not just a magic show,
which you know, of course, that's what I'm putting on.
(01:56):
But it's the whole experience of walking into this step
back in time love that I'm sure ghosts are involved
in that that dwelling as well. I even include one
of the ghosts in my show.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh well, yeah, are you are you going to show
us a trick with a ghost because this building doesn't
have any ghosts?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. You know, magic is best performed after dark.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So Steve Cohen, the Millionaire's Magician, is about to perform
something for us, a very special something just for us.
But I mean, you've been in New Yorker for your
entire life.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah, So I grew up in Westchester. I went
to school in Chappaqua. And actually I've got a great
story which is about Z one hundred. Oh where we
are right now? Yeah, we are right now the haunted
radio station. And maybe it's only haunted because you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
When they can meet, my ghost will continue to come.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Into a show. So basically, like I said, I grew
up in Westchester. When I was a kid, just going
back over forty years, I was driving to school one
morning and my brother and I used to listen to
Z one hundred every morning. Right, who is the host
back then? And the Scott Shannon Scots. It was definitely
Scott Shann, I remember his name. And so he or
one of the people in the crew that day had
(03:03):
announced a contest, and the contest was, if we name
your birthday and you're the first caller, then call us
in and we'll give you one thousand dollars in cash.
So my brother and I are driving along wondering, you know,
maybe they'll call our birthday. So Scott Shannon or whoever
it was, said, okay, if your birthday is February first,
be the first caller and we'll give you a thousand dollars.
And my brother and I went, holy crap, that's my birthday.
(03:25):
My birthday is February the first, right. And so again,
this is forty years ago. No one has cell phones, right,
they hadn't been invented yet. What did you do? So
I pulled over, screeched to a halt, ran up to
someone's house. Okay in Westchester. I ran through their yard,
tripped on some gravel and scraped up my elbow. I'm bleeding.
I got to their front door and I'm knocking furiously.
Let me in, Let me in. They're like, what do
(03:46):
you need? And I'm like, can I use your phone?
Who do you have to call? And they looked at
my elbow. They thought I needed to call a hospital
because I was bleeding, and they said no. I said, no,
I need to call Z one hundred. Okay, And so
the people let me in. I I call up the
one hundred. They let you in. They let me in. Yeah,
you know, kind of like calm looking person. I'm not
going to, like, you know, rob them or anything. So
(04:07):
so they let me in. I called you one hundred
and I was not the first car, So I didn't
end up with the money, but I did end up
with a bloody elbow. You a thousand dollars. The reason
I'm here today is to collect but plus interest.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Because that was he said forty years ago. What would
that be? Rewed?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
My god, you're going to put us out of business.
Exist This ten can isn't worth that much money. That's
like a library book that's been overdue for a really
long time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Well, look, I've been in many an assistant in mini
magic shows, and I've had to hand over a dollar
bill or one hundred. I've never had to hand over
like forty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, exactly. Well, we'll have to get to that later,
no problem. How did you started? That's why I'm called
the Millionaire's Major because I just I just catch it
in all the shake down the radio.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Exactly how did you decide magic was your life? I'm
assuming it started when you were a child.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yes, I'm I started when I was six? And did
you ever try any magic tricks when I'm the worst?
Did you ever try you're a little boy? Yeah, I
was the best then? Okay. Yeah. So I think that
a lot of kids start off doing magic, you know,
at around age six, seven, eight, when they get a
magic kit or something that their parents say, hey, you know,
my kid, wu probably learn something fun. It stuck with me.
My uncle was an amateur magician, and he was a
(05:15):
really good one. He was very serious about it. So
when I was a kid, I thought, okay, you know,
I'll just do what my uncle showed me. And the
way he taught me was an interesting kind of progress. See,
he said, if you learn this trick, then I'll teach
you the next one. It wasn't like he gave me
all the tricks at once and said he here's all
the secrets. He said, if you're good at this one,
then we'll teach you the next one. And I had
to prove to him by performing it the next time
(05:36):
we had a family gathering. So the way I like
to think of it as kind of like a like
a drug dealer, you know, like he was like stringing
me along, Like if you want to learn the next one,
you have to be really good at the first one.
So like I kept at it, and I got pretty good.
And you know, certain people have certain aptitudes for things,
like you know, like I'll have a good ear for languages,
so you know, I'm able to I speak Japanese. I
(05:57):
was able to us a gloss pass thord. Yeah. Yeah,
well I learned Japanese when I was seventeen and became
fluent and became a translator and interpreter for the government,
which government Japanese Jean. I was doing the Japanese patent
translation in Japan in Tokyo. So you go to Tokyo.
But it's the time.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm assuming you're an inspiring magician as well, or you
were an officially.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I did both. I did both.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So you do interpretations during the day in Japan and
at night you do magic shows.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That's right. What a life. This is this is a
movie a movies grab. Yeah. So I was when I
was in Tokyo. I was working at the Park Hyatt Tokyo,
very nice hotel at the time, it was the most
luxurious hotel in Asia, and I did shows there for
about a year and a half, almost two years, and
it was my entree into Tokyo society to get a
chance to do magic for the high society there.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Wow, this is crazy, truly.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I have so many questions about magician stuff in.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Is there really a magician's guild.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've never heard of that, but there are magic organizations
and I wouldn't called them a guild. I think you're
thinking of of Joe Bluth from Arrested Development.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
That's exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So yeah, So what I what I can tell you
is real is there's the Magic Castle in Los Angeles,
which I'm a member of. Fact there, Well, you have
to know a magician to get in, and now you
know you know me and I know they gave me
a special lifetime Uh. It's called a performance Fellowship, which
is basically kind of like an Academy award from the
Magic Castle. Wow, it's a really high level thing. And
(07:29):
they give it out to you know, like very handful
of people.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Aren't you in like the Inner Magic Circle.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That's the other one. I was gonna tell you this
is the devil stuff. There's no pentagon, there's no pentagrams involved.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm picturing people in robes with hoods.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's not like that at all. It's all a bunch
of like, you know, like ordinary looking people who know
some really cool tricks.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
No Jeffrey Epstein connection, no, no, no, okay, babies, and
there's not okay, don't don't get me started.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Okay, yeah, started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
So that's in l A, you've got the Magic Castle,
which is a great magic private clubhouse, which again, as
I said, you need to know a member to get in.
And if you need to get in, because I know
you and you know me, you just tell me and
it's be my pleasure to let you in there. Wow.
Now that doesn't go to all of your listeners because
with requests so.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So far with Steve Cohen, the Millionaire's Magician, we have
lost forty three thousand dollars in cash and we can
now go see a magic show exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And then in London, like you mentioned, there's this wonderful organization.
It's called the Magic Circle. It's right near Houston Station
in London, and that's the one of the oldest magic
societies in the world and it's been running consecutively I
think for like like one hundred and twenty five years
or something like this and to two hundred something. I
forget exactly the number of years. But the point being
(08:44):
it has magicians who who meet in a private clubhouse
and teach each other tricks to get better.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Oh, how do you get into like a club like that.
You have to be invited.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You have to for both of these clubs, the Magic
Circle and the Magic Castle. You have to audition. You
have to prove that you're not just a lukie loo, right,
that you have you really care about the craft and
you will actually get better and improve magic for everyone
and not just be like a secret stealer a grifter. Yeah, yeah,
because that's the honestly, that's kind of what it is. Like.
People may want to get into magic just that they
learn the secrets and then blab it to their friends.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yes, right, so you can you get to be.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
A real My feeling is that you're not really You're
not able to keep a secret if you even tell
it to one other person. So, like a lot of
my secrets that are in my show, could I do
a show that's called Chamber Metric and the secrets are
not available publicly to anyone. I don't put them out there.
No one knows these secrets, nor should you, and exactly
and so so you might think, Okay, we can go
on the internet and find any secret we want, but
(09:39):
that's not true. There are certainly secrets. You can go
on YouTube and find tons of magic tutorials. It'll teach
you how to do some great card tricks and coin
tricks and rubber band tricks and whatnot. But like the
real secrets, I think that there are magicians such as
myself who care about them so deeply that we just
don't blab them for anyone. Veryss one person knows it,
that person dies, the secrets are lost with.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
There's nothing that drugs me more nuts, Steve than someone
who has to sit there and go crazy trying to
figure out how it was done. I just you do
a trick. I just wanted to live with it as Wow,
that was great. I don't want to think about how
you did it than you or you should we think
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Do you do you know the trick that I'm most
known for. No, I don't, okay, So I know that
Skiy came came to the show. Do you remember the
trick a drink? Yeah, okay, I tried to unpop that
for three hours. You have to h I guess just
natural to do that, you and everybody else, you and
everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. So basically in the show, I've
got this silver tea kettle. It's an old teapot, and
(10:39):
I asked people around the room to ask to name
their favorite drinks. And so someone might call out that
they want to have a ginger ale. So I pick
up the tea kettle and pour them immediately from that
spout a ginger ale. They drink it. It's real, And
I say, okay, what does someone else want? Someone else says, oh,
I want to have a Gin and tonic. So I
pick up the kettle and pull out a gin and
tonic from the same stop and give it to the
second guy. Hours someone called out, McCallen ate teen okay,
(11:01):
and you literally pulled out the cant eighteen and then
you let him try it. He goes, this is definitely
maclid eighteen.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's crazy And just like
if not taxed anything.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I'm in the middle of a room attached no
one's just chocolate milk or something stupid like that. People
have asked for chocolate milk. They've asked for you who
here's a guy who asked for There was one guy
who asked for a chocolate egg cream, right, you know, yes,
and we put it with the you bet chocolate syrup,
which is but I bet Gandhi can totally stump you.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I don't know. Could you do a mango lussi.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I've done mangolossie stop.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yes, of course this is wild.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
So doesn't it taste like if I look, the last
person had a yuku and then I want a margarite,
it tastes nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
No, there's no overlap.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But wait, Steve, I want my deceased mother's breast milk.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
People have asked for breast milk before. Oh god, someone
even asked for peptobysmal. I can't pour medication. Scissor would
like to see a magic tricky.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Okay, so you're using your hands for a magic trick
my neck before you do this. Are your hands insured?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
They are not insured. And I have I have friends
who are musicians who play the violin, who have every
finger is insured individually. But I've never I've never gone
that route. Man, move your bottle because we're gonna is it? Okay?
Are we catching this on camera? Sure? Do you did whatever?
You're like? Sure? Okay? Okay, you approve the angle? Yeah,
yea yeah, I will give the water bag at all.
If you amaze, you'll get your birthday. Have a birthday coming?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I do this month.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh wonderful. Okay, here we go. So this is the
trick for you then. Okay, and I've got a black hanky,
and can you rub my hand just to make sure
that it's empty? It's empty? Now it's my birthday. I
probably should have covered at first. That would have been
a lot more like your left fingers. This time left finger.
I want you to touch the base of my palm,
and I want you to rub slowly towards my fingertips
(12:54):
all the way down and press my hand as you go.
You keep going all the way down to the very end,
so you felt all the way across my whole hand. Great. Okay,
So for those with you that didn't feel what she
was feeling. She was feeling this my empty hand, and
I watched. This is where the magic begins, right there
in that very center spot. Can you see, Yes, make
a circle right there. Good. Look, it's forming, it's rising,
(13:17):
The circle is filling. I hope that you're thirsty because
it's time for a single malt scotch.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And it's gotten liqid. This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Out from under the handkerchief, the black handkerchief on his hand.
I don't know where this malt scotch and a shot
glass comes out.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That is awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
That tastes good.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and if you're a drunkard me, this is the
show you gotta go stay my god.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Awesome. Yeah, it's all about cocktails with this guy. Well, yeah,
it's what's up, Nate? You are the most fascinating. I
love you. I'm sorry we got to have you back on, like,
you know, next week. Where do you get some of
the ideas for these I don't want to say tricks,
like these illusions, like where do you where they come from?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Right? So, so almost everything I do is it's dated
back to hundreds of years ago. And there's a library.
There's actually a wonderful library called the Conjuring Arts Research Center,
which sounds like something you'd find in Hogwarts, right, it
sounds like, yeah, it can't even be real. But it's
a library for magicians. And I wouldn't say you need
to know a secret handshake to get in, but they wouldn't.
They won't let the ordinary, you know, public, just walk in.
(14:32):
You have to either know the librarians, you have to
know the organization to have access. And in that library
they have books that date back to the fifteen hundreds,
the fourteen hundreds, secrets that have been preserved for centuries,
like old thousand year old recipes. Yeah, yeah, kind of
like that. It's like that. And and the point being
that these books have to be preserved in climate controlled
vaults because otherwise the pages will crumble and the secrets
(14:55):
would disappear. So now this is like Hogwarts, it kind
of is, right, Yeah, And so I I research a
lot of my magic tricks based on these old secrets
and try to make them feel fresh for a modern audience.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Wow, fascinating, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Magic is just teeming the richness of the history. I mean,
it does take you back. It takes you back to
give me an example of a series on Netflix. I
mean I think of.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, the Gilded Age. I mean, like, if you watch
The Gilded Age, that's like exactly what I'm getting at
as far as the ambiance of the show, Like, you know,
when people come, it's like a festive event, but when
you get there, you're like already in an altered state
of mind because you're thinking, why did I have to
get dressed up to see a magic show? Right? Is
this not a dinner? You know, a state dinner, Like
why do I have to get dressed up for? But
by putting yourself into that mindset, you're actually making yourself
(15:48):
invest yours. You're invested in the experience. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We had an incredible chef, Mario Carbone on the other day,
and when you go to one of his Carbone restaurants,
it's not just going into this Italian restaurant.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's a show.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
And we're talking about his restaurant's God, he goes to
the one in Miami, we go to the ones here
in New York.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's a show.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I mean, it's they take you to a different place
with the decoration of the room and the way you
communicate with your server and the captain. It's not just
an eating experience. It is a show. Sure, so your
like I said before, yours is a show in the show.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It is it is. I mean way I like to
think of it is that you're going through many frames,
like picture frames, and frame number one is at your
own home when you're picking out what am I going
to where to go to this magic show, right, and
you're thinking about it for like a couple of weeks
or days before you even leave your house. And then
the next frame is walking into this beautiful hotel that
I mean, I don't know if you've been to the
Lotate New York Palace, but it's it's stunning. I used
(16:43):
to do this show at the Waldorf Astoria. I was
at the Waldorf Astoria hotel for seventeen years before they
closed for renovations. But like both of those places, like
walking in is the first big, big frame and you
realize they're kind of walking into a movie set. You are,
you know, And then you walk down this gilded hallway
and then there's like chandeliers and gold ceiling and you're like,
he really doesn't feel like you're in modern New York
(17:03):
anymore so, it's not street magic. It is opulent, it's
age exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
This is okay.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
So of course you were saying that to get into
some of these organizations, they really test you and they
make sure that you're not a grifter or somebody who's
just trying to steal from people. How many magicians actually
fall into that category versus what you're doing? And can
you get kicked out of these organizations once you're in?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, the good question. So I'll answer the last question. So,
so magicians have gotten kicked out of organizations like the
Society of American Magicians, International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Magic
Circle for exposing secrets to the public.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Like the Mathe Magician when he had that show. Do
you know who that was?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
We do? Everyone knows who he was? Yeah, is he
still alive?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Wants a man want?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Well? He moved Actually his name was Valentino, Valve Valentino.
He actually moved to South America. There was a big
article about him, I think in Bloomberg or in the
Wall Street Journal or something recently, and he's actually flourishing
in South America with a whole career there. But he
did get black balled, you know, and blacklisted by magicians
everywhere else because he is exposing secrets. And so that's
that's the one Anatholte. You cannot you cannot expose secrets
(18:10):
as that's like the basic level. But here's but here's
an interesting story that that the Magic Circle in London.
The very first president was a guy named David Devant. Okay,
he was one of the founders of the organization. He
exposed some secrets. They kicked him out of his own organization.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Oh whoa that would be insulting.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, right, yeah, happened to me here probably Please.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
So how many of the other magicians that we see
are actually just kind of swindlers and not necessarily actual magicians.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I don't, I don't know. I mean I don't. I
don't interact with people like that. I kind of stay
away from many magicians. I don't I get involved in
things that are the kind of on a bigger scale. So,
for instance, there's a big exhibition going on at the
New York Public Library this this month and actually running
through the middle of I think June or July, and
it's in league with the one hundredth anniversary of Harry
(18:58):
Houdini's death in nineteen twenty six and this year is
twenty twenty six. So in league with that, there's a
big magic exhibition that's being held right now at the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, right behind
Lincoln Center. And so I align myself with organizations like that,
Like I'm working with like bigger on bigger level. I'm
not trying to win money off of people on the
streets or you know, like I do three Carmonti and
(19:19):
like the put your finger in the chain, like yes,
I'm not doing the eternal chain. So yeah, the stuff
I'm doing is like at a higher levels, I don't
really know much about what those guys are doing.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Okay, to be honest, So you've never used it for bad,
You've never used the powers.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I've ever used match. I'll tell you. The only time
I've ever used magic to my advantage outside of a
show was I was doing I was on jury duty. Okay,
I was called for jury duty and it was a
point blank gunshot case in the Lower East Side, And
during the jury selection, they asked, do you have any
experience with handguns? Now, I have actually on my on
my show, I've done the bullet catch where I caught
(19:54):
a bullet in my mouth, my god, from a clock nineteen.
So this is like a real trick. I had a
bullet which which is shot at my face. I catched
the bullet in my teeth. Okay, and not impressed Steve
and I did. I did it in the History channel.
You can watch it on my website. You can watch
it online. So anyways, so I did the bullet catch
and it traumatized me. I ended up with a with
a blood blister like a hematoma from shattered glass. And
(20:18):
I ended up with a blood blister on my chest
that kept on growing a nerve damage. Anyhow, So when
they were doing the jury selection, the judge said, okay,
have you ever had any experience with handguns? I said yes,
I had a gun pointed at my face and fired
and I caught the bullet in my mouth, and the
Jude says, get out of my court. Follow up, no
(20:38):
questions asked.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Whether it's just turning is on to Steve Cohen, of course,
the Millionaire's Magician performing here in New York City. You've
heard how beautiful the evening should be for you, and
will be make sure if you can get some ticket it.
I've heard it's very difficult to get tickets to your show.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah. So you know, the show's been running for twenty
five going on twenty six years now. I've done nearly
seven thousand performers, so it has a lot of momentum,
right of people. Over the years, over half a million
people have come to see the show. And the way
I like to think of its kind of like edging
up on Phantom of the Opera Leme miserob Territory with
the number of performances. But with those shows, they've got
(21:14):
a rotating cast, you know, of like different actors and
singers and dancers and whatnot. I'm a solo act so
I've done myself public shows for the in New York
City for you know, going on seven thousand shows now wow. Yeah,
so people can buy tickets, but you know, depending on
the time of the year, it gets sold out.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
From I'm picturing in my head, but I'm going to
wear when I go. Yeah, people get all dolled up.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It's great. I love it. You know, I'm getting called.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Up just stee.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Do you know exactly how many tricks you can perform? Like,
do you do you know exactly how many?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You know? I do twelve tricks twelve, But over.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
All the years, you've known more than twelve tricks.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Oh, I mean this is my livelihood. So yeah, I
mean it's like if you asked you know, if you
ask the guitarist you know, to play, they know thousands
of songs, right, I know thousands of magic tricks, but
I perform twelve of them.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Okay, okay, last question.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Well, I don't know if it's the last question, but
I have one more question, another question. What has doing
this for as long as you've been doing it taught
you about people?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So so that's a really good question. I like to
think of the people. Often mention that there's misdirection, right,
that you make someone look over here when they should
be looking over there, and you know, trying to. I
don't like to think of it as misdirection. I like
to think of it as direction that in order to
get in order to make a successful magic trick, and
also any sort of an interview or any sort of
(22:32):
work that you're doing, you have to direct people's attentions
that they're always you always have control over where their
attention is at in each moment. So rather than saying, well,
here's a good example if you have a piece of wood, right,
a piece of paneling, let's say, and there's an there's
a knot in the middle of the wood. Your eye
is drawn to that spot, right, and there's all the
(22:53):
lines around that would that kind of draw your attention there.
That's what a magician's doing, is we're drawing your attention
to one point. And so, I mean, I don't know
if this is answering your questions, kind of an esoteric
way of answering it. But rather than trying to lead
people away from what they should be looking at, I'm
always trying to lead people toward what they're should be
looking at. And that's you know, that's the job of
a director. So I'm directing people's attention as opposed to
(23:14):
want this directing that.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know, I'm assuming being a student of magic as
you are, I'm sure you could see a magician, illusioners, whatever,
doing a trick and figuring it out if you just
think it through or figure out maybe three different ways
they could do it. Have you steve ever seen someone
perform and you are so baffled you almost get a
(23:38):
tear in your eye, and you know, like that was
for sure beautiful? Sure, can you recall one of those.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Shaps one hundred percent. So the problem with being a
magician is that you have the curse of knowledge. You
know too much and then it's therefore you become dead
into it all. But every once in a while I'll
meet someone who's considered what's known as a magician's magician.
Now you've heard of comedians, comedian like someone who makes
comedians laugh and you know someone like the average public
will listen to that comedian that's not that funny, but
(24:03):
other comedians go, this guy is a genius. Right, So
there's people like that magic where they don't really perform
for the public, but they baffle other magicians. They'll work
at a convention just for the trade and make people
tear their hair out. It's hits hilarious. So there was
an act I flew across the country to see in
Los Angeles. It was a recreation of what's known as
(24:25):
the Hooker Rising Cards. Now has nothing to do with
the Hooker. The name the name of the magician who
came up with his name, Doctor Samuel Hooker, worst name ever,
But he came up with a metric trick, which is
a card deck where you name any card and that
card floats out of the deck into the air and
he plucks it out of the air, and it's miraculous.
(24:48):
And magicians throughout this like the past one hundred and
fifty years, have not known how this trick is done.
So when this one magician named John Gonne found the
original props from the f family, he had no idea
how they were put together. He had to reverse engineer
the whole trick, and after several years of figuring it out,
(25:08):
put on a show doing that trick the hook a
Rising Cards, and it's basically twenty minutes of the same
trick over and over again. You name a card, it
floats up. You name a card, it floats up, and
different different iterations of it. I don't want to go
into it. But anyway, even as magicians, we're all watching
this going. And then, by the way, the audience is
full of magicians, there's not a single layperson there. None
of us know how it's done. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So when he dies, it dies with.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Him, pretty much, Yeah, pretty much? Yeah. And that's the
beauty of it all, isn't it. It's very ephemeral, you know,
It's like, why why do we need to all have
access to it, I think is better when we don't,
and they need to. We need to have that mystery
and real secrets that are left in the world for
us to have for the next generation.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
When you're not in your tucks and your tails and
your hat and doing your show, you just walked through
let's say Central Park in New York City, which you've
done hundreds of times probably in your life, maybe more.
What do you see in real life? To you is magic?
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Well, I'm a runner, so I actually run marathons, so
I'm in Central Park much more than most you know.
I run about you know, forty sometimes up to fifty
miles a week, and so, you know, just I like
watching children laugh. Like that's very magical to me, is
seeing a little kid. And I like to make little
(26:23):
kids laugh. And sometimes I'll just you know, do something
silly and make them make them smile, or I'll do
something magical, like you know, like make a coin come
out behind their ear. As old and hoary as that sounds,
and it still makes it still makes a little chill
children happy, and then you see them afterwards reaching for
their own ear. I think that's a door of ood,
you know, like making a coin just making a coin
appear from their ear and then walking away and looking
(26:43):
back over my shoulder and seeing them reach up there
to see if they could find more from you is
always I just love that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I love hearing that, because you know what, if we
stop down and just look around as we see magic
every day, but Steve, Steve Cohen, to see you do
this show would be just an honor. And so I'm
going to pay full retail and show up as a
surprise one night, and it's going to be just an
amazing night.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Thank you so much for
The Millionaire's Magician, Steve Cohen.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, Now, why do they call you the millionaire's magician?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, I don't. I don't check people's bank balances at
the door. But a lot of my audiences over the
years have been wealthy New Yorkers, and a media outlet
called me that one time, and it just stuck.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
By the way, if you go see Steve's performance, it
is a formal event. Why do you find that's important
for an evening of magic?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Okay, so I dressed in a black tie and tails,
but it's really just like cocktail attire. We want people
to have a very festive evening. It's in this really
beautiful old Victorian style Gilded Age mansion, and so if
you come there dressed up in flip flops and shorts,
you know you're going to really feel out of place.
So what people like to do is they can make
(00:49):
it a whole evening. There's it's you're in a Gilded
Age mansion. People get dressed up, women wear evening attired
gowns sometimes, but you know, really it's not again, We're
not going to turn people away if you're wearing just casual,
but you would feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So it sounds like it's a show and a show
and you're setting you're setting the pace for this magical evening.
I'm assuming there's some candles involved. It's you've got this
beautiful set, you're taking us so a different time, yea.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It really is a ton of a step back in time.
I had to think of the the shows at the
Lote New York Palace hotel. So it's like, like I said,
it's a Gilded Age mansion. Is the first Gilded Age
mansion in New York City to have electric power. It
was built in the eighteen nineties, right, so you know
you've got the wires were hand installed by Thomas Edison. Right,
So this is the type of building that you're in
(01:35):
and if you ever walk past it, you might just not. Actually,
the best way to put it is, if you ever
saw the TV show gossip Girl, they film Gossip Girl
in that hotel. Oh well, so do you guys, Maybe
you guys watched I never watched Gossip Girl, so I
couldn't tell you. But so it's it's really it's a
special place to visit and it's not just a magic show,
which you know, of course, that's what I'm putting on.
(01:56):
But it's the whole experience of walking into this step
back in time love that I'm sure ghosts are involved
in that that dwelling as well. I even include one
of the ghosts in my show.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh well, yeah, are you are you going to show
us a trick with a ghost because this building doesn't
have any ghosts?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. You know, magic is best performed after dark.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So Steve Cohen, the Millionaire's Magician, is about to perform
something for us, a very special something just for us.
But I mean, you've been in New Yorker for your
entire life.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah, So I grew up in Westchester. I went
to school in Chappaqua. And actually I've got a great
story which is about Z one hundred. Oh where we
are right now? Yeah, we are right now the haunted
radio station. And maybe it's only haunted because you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
When they can meet, my ghost will continue to come.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Into a show. So basically, like I said, I grew
up in Westchester. When I was a kid, just going
back over forty years, I was driving to school one
morning and my brother and I used to listen to
Z one hundred every morning. Right, who is the host
back then? And the Scott Shannon Scots. It was definitely
Scott Shann, I remember his name. And so he or
one of the people in the crew that day had
(03:03):
announced a contest, and the contest was, if we name
your birthday and you're the first caller, then call us
in and we'll give you one thousand dollars in cash.
So my brother and I are driving along wondering, you know,
maybe they'll call our birthday. So Scott Shannon or whoever
it was, said, okay, if your birthday is February first,
be the first caller and we'll give you a thousand dollars.
And my brother and I went, holy crap, that's my birthday.
(03:25):
My birthday is February the first, right. And so again,
this is forty years ago. No one has cell phones, right,
they hadn't been invented yet. What did you do? So
I pulled over, screeched to a halt, ran up to
someone's house. Okay in Westchester. I ran through their yard,
tripped on some gravel and scraped up my elbow. I'm bleeding.
I got to their front door and I'm knocking furiously.
Let me in, Let me in. They're like, what do
(03:46):
you need? And I'm like, can I use your phone?
Who do you have to call? And they looked at
my elbow. They thought I needed to call a hospital
because I was bleeding, and they said no. I said, no,
I need to call Z one hundred. Okay, And so
the people let me in. I I call up the
one hundred. They let you in. They let me in. Yeah,
you know, kind of like calm looking person. I'm not
going to, like, you know, rob them or anything. So
(04:07):
so they let me in. I called you one hundred
and I was not the first car, So I didn't
end up with the money, but I did end up
with a bloody elbow. You a thousand dollars. The reason
I'm here today is to collect but plus interest.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Because that was he said forty years ago. What would
that be? Rewed?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
My god, you're going to put us out of business.
Exist This ten can isn't worth that much money. That's
like a library book that's been overdue for a really
long time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Well, look, I've been in many an assistant in mini
magic shows, and I've had to hand over a dollar
bill or one hundred. I've never had to hand over
like forty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, exactly. Well, we'll have to get to that later,
no problem. How did you started? That's why I'm called
the Millionaire's Major because I just I just catch it
in all the shake down the radio.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Exactly how did you decide magic was your life? I'm
assuming it started when you were a child.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yes, I'm I started when I was six? And did
you ever try any magic tricks when I'm the worst?
Did you ever try you're a little boy? Yeah, I
was the best then? Okay. Yeah. So I think that
a lot of kids start off doing magic, you know,
at around age six, seven, eight, when they get a
magic kit or something that their parents say, hey, you know,
my kid, wu probably learn something fun. It stuck with me.
My uncle was an amateur magician, and he was a
(05:15):
really good one. He was very serious about it. So
when I was a kid, I thought, okay, you know,
I'll just do what my uncle showed me. And the
way he taught me was an interesting kind of progress. See,
he said, if you learn this trick, then I'll teach
you the next one. It wasn't like he gave me
all the tricks at once and said he here's all
the secrets. He said, if you're good at this one,
then we'll teach you the next one. And I had
to prove to him by performing it the next time
(05:36):
we had a family gathering. So the way I like
to think of it as kind of like a like
a drug dealer, you know, like he was like stringing
me along, Like if you want to learn the next one,
you have to be really good at the first one.
So like I kept at it, and I got pretty good.
And you know, certain people have certain aptitudes for things,
like you know, like I'll have a good ear for languages,
so you know, I'm able to I speak Japanese. I
(05:57):
was able to us a gloss pass thord. Yeah. Yeah,
well I learned Japanese when I was seventeen and became
fluent and became a translator and interpreter for the government,
which government Japanese Jean. I was doing the Japanese patent
translation in Japan in Tokyo. So you go to Tokyo.
But it's the time.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm assuming you're an inspiring magician as well, or you
were an officially.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I did both. I did both.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So you do interpretations during the day in Japan and
at night you do magic shows.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That's right. What a life. This is this is a
movie a movies grab. Yeah. So I was when I
was in Tokyo. I was working at the Park Hyatt Tokyo,
very nice hotel at the time, it was the most
luxurious hotel in Asia, and I did shows there for
about a year and a half, almost two years, and
it was my entree into Tokyo society to get a
chance to do magic for the high society there.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Wow, this is crazy, truly.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I have so many questions about magician stuff in.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Is there really a magician's guild.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've never heard of that, but there are magic organizations
and I wouldn't called them a guild. I think you're
thinking of of Joe Bluth from Arrested Development.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
That's exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So yeah, So what I what I can tell you
is real is there's the Magic Castle in Los Angeles,
which I'm a member of. Fact there, Well, you have
to know a magician to get in, and now you
know you know me and I know they gave me
a special lifetime Uh. It's called a performance Fellowship, which
is basically kind of like an Academy award from the
Magic Castle. Wow, it's a really high level thing. And
(07:29):
they give it out to you know, like very handful
of people.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Aren't you in like the Inner Magic Circle.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That's the other one. I was gonna tell you this
is the devil stuff. There's no pentagon, there's no pentagrams involved.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm picturing people in robes with hoods.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's not like that at all. It's all a bunch
of like, you know, like ordinary looking people who know
some really cool tricks.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
No Jeffrey Epstein connection, no, no, no, okay, babies, and
there's not okay, don't don't get me started.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Okay, yeah, started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
So that's in l A, you've got the Magic Castle,
which is a great magic private clubhouse, which again, as
I said, you need to know a member to get in.
And if you need to get in, because I know
you and you know me, you just tell me and
it's be my pleasure to let you in there. Wow.
Now that doesn't go to all of your listeners because
with requests so.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So far with Steve Cohen, the Millionaire's Magician, we have
lost forty three thousand dollars in cash and we can
now go see a magic show exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And then in London, like you mentioned, there's this wonderful organization.
It's called the Magic Circle. It's right near Houston Station
in London, and that's the one of the oldest magic
societies in the world and it's been running consecutively I
think for like like one hundred and twenty five years
or something like this and to two hundred something. I
forget exactly the number of years. But the point being
(08:44):
it has magicians who who meet in a private clubhouse
and teach each other tricks to get better.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Oh, how do you get into like a club like that.
You have to be invited.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You have to for both of these clubs, the Magic
Circle and the Magic Castle. You have to audition. You
have to prove that you're not just a lukie loo, right,
that you have you really care about the craft and
you will actually get better and improve magic for everyone
and not just be like a secret stealer a grifter. Yeah, yeah,
because that's the honestly, that's kind of what it is. Like.
People may want to get into magic just that they
learn the secrets and then blab it to their friends.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yes, right, so you can you get to be.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
A real My feeling is that you're not really You're
not able to keep a secret if you even tell
it to one other person. So, like a lot of
my secrets that are in my show, could I do
a show that's called Chamber Metric and the secrets are
not available publicly to anyone. I don't put them out there.
No one knows these secrets, nor should you, and exactly
and so so you might think, Okay, we can go
on the internet and find any secret we want, but
(09:39):
that's not true. There are certainly secrets. You can go
on YouTube and find tons of magic tutorials. It'll teach
you how to do some great card tricks and coin
tricks and rubber band tricks and whatnot. But like the
real secrets, I think that there are magicians such as
myself who care about them so deeply that we just
don't blab them for anyone. Veryss one person knows it,
that person dies, the secrets are lost with.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
There's nothing that drugs me more nuts, Steve than someone
who has to sit there and go crazy trying to
figure out how it was done. I just you do
a trick. I just wanted to live with it as Wow,
that was great. I don't want to think about how
you did it than you or you should we think
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Do you do you know the trick that I'm most
known for. No, I don't, okay, So I know that
Skiy came came to the show. Do you remember the
trick a drink? Yeah, okay, I tried to unpop that
for three hours. You have to h I guess just
natural to do that, you and everybody else, you and
everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. So basically in the show, I've
got this silver tea kettle. It's an old teapot, and
(10:39):
I asked people around the room to ask to name
their favorite drinks. And so someone might call out that
they want to have a ginger ale. So I pick
up the tea kettle and pour them immediately from that
spout a ginger ale. They drink it. It's real, And
I say, okay, what does someone else want? Someone else says, oh,
I want to have a Gin and tonic. So I
pick up the kettle and pull out a gin and
tonic from the same stop and give it to the
second guy. Hours someone called out, McCallen ate teen okay,
(11:01):
and you literally pulled out the cant eighteen and then
you let him try it. He goes, this is definitely
maclid eighteen.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's crazy And just like
if not taxed anything.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I'm in the middle of a room attached no
one's just chocolate milk or something stupid like that. People
have asked for chocolate milk. They've asked for you who
here's a guy who asked for There was one guy
who asked for a chocolate egg cream, right, you know, yes,
and we put it with the you bet chocolate syrup,
which is but I bet Gandhi can totally stump you.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I don't know. Could you do a mango lussi.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I've done mangolossie stop.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yes, of course this is wild.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
So doesn't it taste like if I look, the last
person had a yuku and then I want a margarite,
it tastes nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
No, there's no overlap.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But wait, Steve, I want my deceased mother's breast milk.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
People have asked for breast milk before. Oh god, someone
even asked for peptobysmal. I can't pour medication. Scissor would
like to see a magic tricky.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Okay, so you're using your hands for a magic trick
my neck before you do this. Are your hands insured?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
They are not insured. And I have I have friends
who are musicians who play the violin, who have every
finger is insured individually. But I've never I've never gone
that route. Man, move your bottle because we're gonna is it? Okay?
Are we catching this on camera? Sure? Do you did whatever?
You're like? Sure? Okay? Okay, you approve the angle? Yeah,
yea yeah, I will give the water bag at all.
If you amaze, you'll get your birthday. Have a birthday coming?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I do this month.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh wonderful. Okay, here we go. So this is the
trick for you then. Okay, and I've got a black hanky,
and can you rub my hand just to make sure
that it's empty? It's empty? Now it's my birthday. I
probably should have covered at first. That would have been
a lot more like your left fingers. This time left finger.
I want you to touch the base of my palm,
and I want you to rub slowly towards my fingertips
(12:54):
all the way down and press my hand as you go.
You keep going all the way down to the very end,
so you felt all the way across my whole hand. Great. Okay,
So for those with you that didn't feel what she
was feeling. She was feeling this my empty hand, and
I watched. This is where the magic begins, right there
in that very center spot. Can you see, Yes, make
a circle right there. Good. Look, it's forming, it's rising,
(13:17):
The circle is filling. I hope that you're thirsty because
it's time for a single malt scotch.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And it's gotten liqid. This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Out from under the handkerchief, the black handkerchief on his hand.
I don't know where this malt scotch and a shot
glass comes out.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
That is awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
That tastes good.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and if you're a drunkard me, this is the
show you gotta go stay my god.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Awesome. Yeah, it's all about cocktails with this guy. Well, yeah,
it's what's up, Nate? You are the most fascinating. I
love you. I'm sorry we got to have you back on, like,
you know, next week. Where do you get some of
the ideas for these I don't want to say tricks,
like these illusions, like where do you where they come from?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Right? So, so almost everything I do is it's dated
back to hundreds of years ago. And there's a library.
There's actually a wonderful library called the Conjuring Arts Research Center,
which sounds like something you'd find in Hogwarts, right, it
sounds like, yeah, it can't even be real. But it's
a library for magicians. And I wouldn't say you need
to know a secret handshake to get in, but they wouldn't.
They won't let the ordinary, you know, public, just walk in.
(14:32):
You have to either know the librarians, you have to
know the organization to have access. And in that library
they have books that date back to the fifteen hundreds,
the fourteen hundreds, secrets that have been preserved for centuries,
like old thousand year old recipes. Yeah, yeah, kind of
like that. It's like that. And and the point being
that these books have to be preserved in climate controlled
vaults because otherwise the pages will crumble and the secrets
(14:55):
would disappear. So now this is like Hogwarts, it kind
of is, right, Yeah, And so I I research a
lot of my magic tricks based on these old secrets
and try to make them feel fresh for a modern audience.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Wow, fascinating, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Magic is just teeming the richness of the history. I mean,
it does take you back. It takes you back to
give me an example of a series on Netflix. I
mean I think of.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, the Gilded Age. I mean, like, if you watch
The Gilded Age, that's like exactly what I'm getting at
as far as the ambiance of the show, Like, you know,
when people come, it's like a festive event, but when
you get there, you're like already in an altered state
of mind because you're thinking, why did I have to
get dressed up to see a magic show? Right? Is
this not a dinner? You know, a state dinner, Like
why do I have to get dressed up for? But
by putting yourself into that mindset, you're actually making yourself
(15:48):
invest yours. You're invested in the experience. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We had an incredible chef, Mario Carbone on the other day,
and when you go to one of his Carbone restaurants,
it's not just going into this Italian restaurant.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's a show.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
And we're talking about his restaurant's God, he goes to
the one in Miami, we go to the ones here
in New York.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's a show.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I mean, it's they take you to a different place
with the decoration of the room and the way you
communicate with your server and the captain. It's not just
an eating experience. It is a show. Sure, so your
like I said before, yours is a show in the show.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It is it is. I mean way I like to
think of it is that you're going through many frames,
like picture frames, and frame number one is at your
own home when you're picking out what am I going
to where to go to this magic show, right, and
you're thinking about it for like a couple of weeks
or days before you even leave your house. And then
the next frame is walking into this beautiful hotel that
I mean, I don't know if you've been to the
Lotate New York Palace, but it's it's stunning. I used
(16:43):
to do this show at the Waldorf Astoria. I was
at the Waldorf Astoria hotel for seventeen years before they
closed for renovations. But like both of those places, like
walking in is the first big, big frame and you
realize they're kind of walking into a movie set. You are,
you know, And then you walk down this gilded hallway
and then there's like chandeliers and gold ceiling and you're like,
he really doesn't feel like you're in modern New York
(17:03):
anymore so, it's not street magic. It is opulent, it's
age exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
This is okay.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
So of course you were saying that to get into
some of these organizations, they really test you and they
make sure that you're not a grifter or somebody who's
just trying to steal from people. How many magicians actually
fall into that category versus what you're doing? And can
you get kicked out of these organizations once you're in?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, the good question. So I'll answer the last question. So,
so magicians have gotten kicked out of organizations like the
Society of American Magicians, International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Magic
Circle for exposing secrets to the public.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Like the Mathe Magician when he had that show. Do
you know who that was?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
We do? Everyone knows who he was? Yeah, is he
still alive?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Wants a man want?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Well? He moved Actually his name was Valentino, Valve Valentino.
He actually moved to South America. There was a big
article about him, I think in Bloomberg or in the
Wall Street Journal or something recently, and he's actually flourishing
in South America with a whole career there. But he
did get black balled, you know, and blacklisted by magicians
everywhere else because he is exposing secrets. And so that's
that's the one Anatholte. You cannot you cannot expose secrets
(18:10):
as that's like the basic level. But here's but here's
an interesting story that that the Magic Circle in London.
The very first president was a guy named David Devant. Okay,
he was one of the founders of the organization. He
exposed some secrets. They kicked him out of his own organization.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Oh whoa that would be insulting.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, right, yeah, happened to me here probably Please.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
So how many of the other magicians that we see
are actually just kind of swindlers and not necessarily actual magicians.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I don't, I don't know. I mean I don't. I
don't interact with people like that. I kind of stay
away from many magicians. I don't I get involved in
things that are the kind of on a bigger scale. So,
for instance, there's a big exhibition going on at the
New York Public Library this this month and actually running
through the middle of I think June or July, and
it's in league with the one hundredth anniversary of Harry
(18:58):
Houdini's death in nineteen twenty six and this year is
twenty twenty six. So in league with that, there's a
big magic exhibition that's being held right now at the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, right behind
Lincoln Center. And so I align myself with organizations like that,
Like I'm working with like bigger on bigger level. I'm
not trying to win money off of people on the
streets or you know, like I do three Carmonti and
(19:19):
like the put your finger in the chain, like yes,
I'm not doing the eternal chain. So yeah, the stuff
I'm doing is like at a higher levels, I don't
really know much about what those guys are doing.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Okay, to be honest, So you've never used it for bad,
You've never used the powers.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I've ever used match. I'll tell you. The only time
I've ever used magic to my advantage outside of a
show was I was doing I was on jury duty. Okay,
I was called for jury duty and it was a
point blank gunshot case in the Lower East Side, And
during the jury selection, they asked, do you have any
experience with handguns? Now, I have actually on my on
my show, I've done the bullet catch where I caught
(19:54):
a bullet in my mouth, my god, from a clock nineteen.
So this is like a real trick. I had a
bullet which which is shot at my face. I catched
the bullet in my teeth. Okay, and not impressed Steve
and I did. I did it in the History channel.
You can watch it on my website. You can watch
it online. So anyways, so I did the bullet catch
and it traumatized me. I ended up with a with
a blood blister like a hematoma from shattered glass. And
(20:18):
I ended up with a blood blister on my chest
that kept on growing a nerve damage. Anyhow, So when
they were doing the jury selection, the judge said, okay,
have you ever had any experience with handguns? I said yes,
I had a gun pointed at my face and fired
and I caught the bullet in my mouth, and the
Jude says, get out of my court. Follow up, no
(20:38):
questions asked.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Whether it's just turning is on to Steve Cohen, of course,
the Millionaire's Magician performing here in New York City. You've
heard how beautiful the evening should be for you, and
will be make sure if you can get some ticket it.
I've heard it's very difficult to get tickets to your show.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah. So you know, the show's been running for twenty
five going on twenty six years now. I've done nearly
seven thousand performers, so it has a lot of momentum,
right of people. Over the years, over half a million
people have come to see the show. And the way
I like to think of its kind of like edging
up on Phantom of the Opera Leme miserob Territory with
the number of performances. But with those shows, they've got
(21:14):
a rotating cast, you know, of like different actors and
singers and dancers and whatnot. I'm a solo act so
I've done myself public shows for the in New York
City for you know, going on seven thousand shows now wow. Yeah,
so people can buy tickets, but you know, depending on
the time of the year, it gets sold out.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
From I'm picturing in my head, but I'm going to
wear when I go. Yeah, people get all dolled up.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It's great. I love it. You know, I'm getting called.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Up just stee.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Do you know exactly how many tricks you can perform? Like,
do you do you know exactly how many?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
You know? I do twelve tricks twelve, But over.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
All the years, you've known more than twelve tricks.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Oh, I mean this is my livelihood. So yeah, I
mean it's like if you asked you know, if you
ask the guitarist you know, to play, they know thousands
of songs, right, I know thousands of magic tricks, but
I perform twelve of them.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Okay, okay, last question.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Well, I don't know if it's the last question, but
I have one more question, another question. What has doing
this for as long as you've been doing it taught
you about people?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So so that's a really good question. I like to
think of the people. Often mention that there's misdirection, right,
that you make someone look over here when they should
be looking over there, and you know, trying to. I
don't like to think of it as misdirection. I like
to think of it as direction that in order to
get in order to make a successful magic trick, and
also any sort of an interview or any sort of
(22:32):
work that you're doing, you have to direct people's attentions
that they're always you always have control over where their
attention is at in each moment. So rather than saying, well,
here's a good example if you have a piece of wood, right,
a piece of paneling, let's say, and there's an there's
a knot in the middle of the wood. Your eye
is drawn to that spot, right, and there's all the
(22:53):
lines around that would that kind of draw your attention there.
That's what a magician's doing, is we're drawing your attention
to one point. And so, I mean, I don't know
if this is answering your questions, kind of an esoteric
way of answering it. But rather than trying to lead
people away from what they should be looking at, I'm
always trying to lead people toward what they're should be
looking at. And that's you know, that's the job of
a director. So I'm directing people's attention as opposed to
(23:14):
want this directing that.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know, I'm assuming being a student of magic as
you are, I'm sure you could see a magician, illusioners, whatever,
doing a trick and figuring it out if you just
think it through or figure out maybe three different ways
they could do it. Have you steve ever seen someone
perform and you are so baffled you almost get a
(23:38):
tear in your eye, and you know, like that was
for sure beautiful? Sure, can you recall one of those.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Shaps one hundred percent. So the problem with being a
magician is that you have the curse of knowledge. You
know too much and then it's therefore you become dead
into it all. But every once in a while I'll
meet someone who's considered what's known as a magician's magician.
Now you've heard of comedians, comedian like someone who makes
comedians laugh and you know someone like the average public
will listen to that comedian that's not that funny, but
(24:03):
other comedians go, this guy is a genius. Right, So
there's people like that magic where they don't really perform
for the public, but they baffle other magicians. They'll work
at a convention just for the trade and make people
tear their hair out. It's hits hilarious. So there was
an act I flew across the country to see in
Los Angeles. It was a recreation of what's known as
(24:25):
the Hooker Rising Cards. Now has nothing to do with
the Hooker. The name the name of the magician who
came up with his name, Doctor Samuel Hooker, worst name ever,
But he came up with a metric trick, which is
a card deck where you name any card and that
card floats out of the deck into the air and
he plucks it out of the air, and it's miraculous.
(24:48):
And magicians throughout this like the past one hundred and
fifty years, have not known how this trick is done.
So when this one magician named John Gonne found the
original props from the f family, he had no idea
how they were put together. He had to reverse engineer
the whole trick, and after several years of figuring it out,
(25:08):
put on a show doing that trick the hook a
Rising Cards, and it's basically twenty minutes of the same
trick over and over again. You name a card, it
floats up. You name a card, it floats up, and
different different iterations of it. I don't want to go
into it. But anyway, even as magicians, we're all watching
this going. And then, by the way, the audience is
full of magicians, there's not a single layperson there. None
of us know how it's done. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So when he dies, it dies with.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Him, pretty much, Yeah, pretty much? Yeah. And that's the
beauty of it all, isn't it. It's very ephemeral, you know,
It's like, why why do we need to all have
access to it, I think is better when we don't,
and they need to. We need to have that mystery
and real secrets that are left in the world for
us to have for the next generation.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
When you're not in your tucks and your tails and
your hat and doing your show, you just walked through
let's say Central Park in New York City, which you've
done hundreds of times probably in your life, maybe more.
What do you see in real life? To you is magic?
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Well, I'm a runner, so I actually run marathons, so
I'm in Central Park much more than most you know.
I run about you know, forty sometimes up to fifty
miles a week, and so, you know, just I like
watching children laugh. Like that's very magical to me, is
seeing a little kid. And I like to make little
(26:23):
kids laugh. And sometimes I'll just you know, do something
silly and make them make them smile, or I'll do
something magical, like you know, like make a coin come
out behind their ear. As old and hoary as that sounds,
and it still makes it still makes a little chill
children happy, and then you see them afterwards reaching for
their own ear. I think that's a door of ood,
you know, like making a coin just making a coin
appear from their ear and then walking away and looking
(26:43):
back over my shoulder and seeing them reach up there
to see if they could find more from you is
always I just love that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I love hearing that, because you know what, if we
stop down and just look around as we see magic
every day, but Steve, Steve Cohen, to see you do
this show would be just an honor. And so I'm
going to pay full retail and show up as a
surprise one night, and it's going to be just an
amazing night.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Thank you so much for
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