aaron fisher

This guy is also hella good with cards. He turned a red backed deck of cards into a blue deck. Pretty uncanny!

alain choquette

Alain sells illusions to David Copperfield. He is known for the 13 person vanish that Copperfield does at the end of his show.

michael mode

I've heard about Michael Mode's napkin rose for some time, but I couldn't figure out what the big fuss was... that is until I heard about how Michael uses it. Wow! So powerful!

It's actually a very touching presentation to give a woman (i.e. mom, girlfriend, wife...) a napkin rose. Try it guys!

shelton studios acting class

To improve my acting skills I took a beginner's acting class at Shelton, where Danny Glover got his start. Here's my teacher Katherine (middle) and my acting partner, Nydia. We played two blacks in a bar in the Bronx. It was so fun. 

Acting class was helpful to me because it forced me to not be me, but someone else. I learned to adopt that character's mentality and life. I've never been someone else before. I think this will help my act as a clown.

alex ramon

Alex was the former Ringling Brothers ringmaster. I'm amazed at how natural and fresh he is with his audience. He is engaging, makes great eye contact during his performance as if he was performing just for you. Easily approachable. I love his linking ring routine. His interlocked gold ring trick really surprised me. I don't know how he did it. He is doing a show at Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on 4/16/11. Check it out.

john carney

John Carney gave a lecture at the OMC earlier this month. Another very skilled close-up magician. He can make coins disappear just like that!

dan and dave buck

These Buck brothers started doing magic in San Jose and now they are big time! Their card skill level is out of this world. They do things with cards that I didn't know was possible. These are magicians' magicians. Each year they organize Magic Con, a close-up magic conference. www.magic-con.org

don caldwell

Me and Don Caldwell

The balloons Don can do is utterly amazing! One of a greatest imaginations I've ever seen.

Isn't this gumball machine and ice cream sundae amazing?

me? santa claus?

Yes, I even got to play Santa Claus. Learning to act the role wasn't too hard. I just kept saying, "Ho-Ho-Ho."

houdini cuffs

These were an actual pair of cuffs that Houdini wore to do his escapes. Pretty cool, huh?

axtell puppets

Aren't these puppets adorable? I wish I could have them all. A lot of them run $300 and up. I'll have to wait til I'm rich before I can get them all. One day!

ken scott & jimbo

Ken Scott is known for his fantasy magician act, which I bought from him. I love it! It was hard at first doing it, but I'm getting use to multi-tasking, which is required for this act.

Here is a picture of me doing Ken Scott's fantasy magician. This was before 500 people at benefit for Asian American Cancer Awareness. You can't see me, but I was behind this kid.

This British kid show performer is hilarious! He's a former Kidabra performer of the year.

local bay area talent mike stroud, kim silverman, huey

Mike has a crazy good voice and is a excellent stage performer. One of the best I've ever seen. Very smooth and funny too. He helped me make my promo video.

You need to watch Kim Silverman's (some say he looks like Gandalf) ninja ring routine. So beautiful. You might even be inspired.

It's amazing how much Huey can produce under his beard. I wish I could grow facial hair like that.

angel contreras

This guy Angel Contreras is an amazing artist. He did my logo and caricature. Everyone who has seen it loves it! He's also a clown. Do yourself a favor and check out his mad skills.

http://www.art4clowns.com/caricatures.htm

mark wade

This was the most amazing guy I met at the Kidabra Kid Show Conference. He can make this puppet talk! This was the first time I've ever seen a ventriloquist in my life and I got bit by the vent bug too! I'm gonna try to learn ventriloquism. Next month I'm gonna spend some time learning from Mark Wade. Can't wait.

Mark Wade was the answer on a Jeopardy question. How cool is that?

san francisco circus center

I took some clowning classes at the SF Circus Center. It was so much fun. I learned how to trip, slap people, walk into walls, fall, water spit. Why didn't I learn this in college?

This is Sara Moore, a former Ringling Brothers clown, my clown instructor. Doesn't she look like a clown? Haha.

andrew macdonald & robbie furman t jam on the road

OK. These two guys andrew and robbie completely blew out my concept of balloon twisting. I ended making things that weekend that I didn't even know was possible. Here are some examples:

tossed out deck card trick

Here is me performing the tossed out deck.

 

I figured out what card each person selected without looking. Pretty amazing, huh?

axel hecklau

I spent the day showing Axel Hecklau and his family around San Francisco. It was so much fun. They've seen so much magic in such a short time I'm sure. Axel was a former FISM champ. What I learned most was his telling me about how to make magic movements as natural as possible so as not to arouse any suspicion. This obviously holds true for the props too. That's why Axel only uses everyday objects in his magic act. In other words, he doesn't use the dove pan. His philosophy of everyday magic items as props led to me selling almost all of my unnatural, suspicious-looking props. I didn't even realize that I had so many. Axel is a extremely insightful guy. He created a newspaper tear, spoon trick, coke trick, one cup trick... All of them are super good. I happen to have them all. With enough practice I'll be performing them shortly.

aids walk 2010

I was invited to perform at aids walk 2010. here i am in my clown outfit. this is the first time i actually ever wore my outfit outdoors. previous to that i spent a lot of time getting the right clothes, shoes, cap, glasses... everything finally came together.

shoot ogawa

shoot has some amazing skills with coins, cards, thimbles, and a wand. extremely skilled japanese conjuror. originally from japan, he now lives in los angeles. like their products, japanese magicians like shoot have high standards for magic.

perry yan

This is my friend Perry Yan. He was the person who helped me get into balloon twisting. I had a mental barrier that kept telling me that balloon twisting was too difficult. Anyway, with Perry's help I faced my fear of doing difficult things and passed! Now, I'm twisting balloons!

Here is the first balloon animal I ever did. I took a picture of it to track my progress. As you will see, I've come a long ways. Actually, I don't even know what animal this is.

lu wang & ru xian

Lu Wang and Ru Xian (on my left) performed at my old elementary school in Chinatown, San Francisco. Lu Wang had a visual multi-color producing flower act which covered the stage. Ru Xian did a card manipulation act and threw out cards to the audience. She can throw cards pretty far. Something I'm gonna learn to do. Lu Wang is from Beijing, originally from Dong Bei. She was featured on a Taiwanese entertainment show called "Da Ge Da" seven times! Even my mom has heard of her. Ru Xian runs a magic event, the largest in China, in Shenzhen every year at Happy Valley. I'm so glad to meet fellow Chinese performing artists! I'm not alone!

Here is a picture of all the performers that day.

chin chin

Check out the red hair on Chin Chin. He's a fellow Asian performer, of which there are not many because our Asian parents want us to become doctors, not entertainers. So strong is this parental expectations of kids that very few ever have the opportunity to break out of that mold. I'm so glad Chin Chin did. It makes it easier for people like me. I love this guy's dove out. So smooth.

mark and nani wilson

Did you know that Mark and Nani were the first magicians to enter the People's Republic of China in 1980? That's so cool. I bet the Chinese were really impressed to see the impossible. I'm reminded of what a wonderful opportunity us performers have to really make someone's day.

david ginn and joseph bradley

David Ginn, Me, and Joseph Bradley

David Ginn is a very well-known kids performer in the South. He came to do a lecture for us. Gosh, he sure has a lot of energy even at his age. Joseph Bradley is a real cool magician. Early on after I got bit by the magic bug, he helped me out by giving me tips on card and money magic. That meant a lot to me since at that time I didn't know any magicians who could help me. A big confidence booster.

shawn farquhar

Me and Shawn Farquhar

Shawn was really, really funny. Very down to earth guy. He did this amazing cups and balls routines where the empty cups became really heavy. I have no idea how he did it. He didn't tell us, which was OK. Sometimes I prefer not to know so that I'm mystified. He is known for his torn and restored photo trick. My favorite was the electronic tag. It's the tag you see on expensive clothes that beeps when you walk through the tag detectors at department stores. Well, with this tag, you can give the illusion of being able to remove it.

michael ammar

Michael Ammar and Me

I heard about Michael through his Easy to Master Card Miracle series. Joe Pon told me that his was the best card magic dvd available. This guy was really engaging and funny. A great personality. I realize that it helps a lot to have an approachable personality as a magician. He took my signed $100, made it disappear, only to make it reappear in a lemon. He's also got a great "Little Hand" trick. Funny! Michael was on David Letterman not too long ago. You can check it out here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptGQb7NQp0w

george schindler

George Schindler and Me

I was looking around for magic clubs and found the Society of American Magicians. I joined them and met George, the dean, at a meeting in Pleasant Hill, CA back in October 2009. He's the dean. I guess he was going around lecturing at different clubs. He introduced to me ring flight,where you take someone's ring and make it disappear only to have it appear in your pouch from your back.