When People Ask About My Favorite Magic Trick, I Lie. Here’s Why.

Occasionally, I am asked what my favorite trick is. I lie.

I lie because I expect they want to hear something that sounds spectacular: a Lamborghini floats over your head before vanishing in a ball of fire, an albino leopard appears in a burst of smoke from my tight leather pants, I reanimate the dead while strolling across the ocean…

My favorite trick doesn’t sound sexy: it is a bit of expert sleight of hand with a raw egg and a thin silk bag. But it is an extraordinary illusion created by innumerable tiny details

Three teachers who had an enormous impact on me and are now gone — Denny Haney, David Alexander, and Johnny Thompson — were masters with their own versions of this piece.

There is a koan that goes something like this:

“When you begin to study, mountains are mountains, trees are trees, water is water. In the midst of your studies, mountains are no longer mountains, trees are no longer trees, water is no longer water. When you master your studies, mountains are mountains, trees are trees, and water is water.”

Some form of this little trick has been in my professional repertoire for my entire career. I started with the basic structure of the routine Denny Haney taught me, using the same props. Over the years I changed it radically, going through many different ideas for routines, for staging, for props, for endings.

And now, 16 years after starting the journey, and I’ve gone back to that original structure and those original props. But so much has been changed by that journey.

Here it is, beginning at 16:02 (it should be cued up because of the way it has been embedded, but feel free to enjoy my entire show from The Magic Castle if not):

Thank you, to the remarkable magicians — across generations — who made this piece what it is.