Do you believe in magic? Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, Steve Cohen is sure to entertain you. The magician has achieved a $20 million dollar business by wowing live audiences, now totaling over 500,000 guests. After studying his “hero,” 19th-century magician Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, Cohen strove to replicate the salon parlor magic once used to thrill upper-class audiences of Vienna, Austria.
With this, the Westchester County native partnered with Mark Levy to create Chamber Magic, Cohen’s weekly live adult-only show in the exquisite salon of the Lotte New York Palace hotel in New York City. Levy specializes in marketing strategies and encourages Cohen to embody the “Millionaires’ Magician” he was originally dubbed by Avenue magazine to brand himself, according to The New York Times. Levy, who later became Chamber Magic‘s creative director, also financially advised the aspiring magician: “If you take the $2,000 gig, you won’t get the $20,000 gig.”
Photo by Thomas Churchwell
Since Cohen mostly targets a wealthy audience, the magician is always dressed to the nines. He reportedly doesn’t even own jeans. Nonetheless, the niche he’s established in the magic industry has made him a celebrity favorite. Director and actor Woody Allen called Cohen’s show “a religious experience.” He’s also performed for Barry Diller, Michael Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, the queen of Morocco and Prince Sultan.
Before his dazzling New York City shows, Cohen lived in Tokyo, Japan for five years where he worked as a “society entertainer” at hotels and bars. He is fluent in Japanese and has been appointed by the Japanese magic manufacturer Tenyo Co, Ltd. to translate their products into English since 1997.
When he returned to the United States, his $200,000 in savings had disappeared while trying to earn money as a magician. With Levy’s help, Cohen eventually made his way to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, where he performed in the Royal Suite for sixteen years.
The graduate of Cornell University in psychology now sells tickets starting at $1oo each on his website. Here’s our interview with the Millionaires’ Magician.
What do you love the most about magic/magic shows?
Audiences are naturally skeptical at the start of my show. Their arms are folded, and they radiate a “Go on, impress me” attitude. New Yorkers can be pretty jaded! I love leading those skeptical audiences towards a moment when their reality melts away, a moment when they cannot construct a logical solution. At that point, the only words they can utter are: “No way!”
It takes a good deal of planning to bring an audience to that place. I enjoy the inventive mindset required to create illusions that seem real to people, and I love practicing sleight of hand. Sometimes I must practice for years to be able to execute a two-second maneuver invisibly. But if I do my job right, injecting the right amount of psychology, acting, and storytelling into my act, people will swear they have experienced real magic.
What inspires you the most to do what you do?
I began Chamber Magic eighteen years ago when I studied the life of my hero, Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser. In the late nineteenth century, Hofzinser was a star in Vienna, entertaining small audiences of socialites in an intimate salon. I wanted to recreate his style of salon magic in modern-day New York City.
Chamber Magic premiered at the National Arts Club in 2000, and then moved to the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where I performed every week for sixteen years. The show now plays at the Lotte New York Palace. Since the beginning, I had a vision that I could raise magic to the same level of recognition as the opera and the ballet. I wanted people to consider a “magic show” as a cultural destination. This vision has been my driving force, and to date over 500,000 people have attended the show.
Did you have any struggles as an artist and if so, how did you overcome them?
After performing the same show for a long time, it is easy to fall into a rut and mindlessly recite the script. Audiences have a finely tuned sincerity detector, so they quickly know if you are phoning it in.
I play a mental game with myself. In every audience, I imagine that there is a person who is seeing a magician for the very first time. That person could have visited a museum, an art gallery, or a concert but instead, they have chosen to spend their most precious commodity—their time—with me. This helps keep the show fresh, even after five thousand performances.
What have you learned on your journey in this industry?
I have changed the reason that I perform magic. Early in my career, magic was a vehicle to show off, to prove my skill, and to increase my status. But over the past two decades, I have learned that I don’t need to prove myself anymore. Yes, people are coming to see me, but the show is not really about me. I focus my attention on the audience and go to great lengths to ensure that every person is personally involved in the action. When I was a younger man, I always thought that I had to have the funniest lines, the wittiest comebacks. Now I am comfortable sharing the spotlight with the audience –giving them the chance to co-create a fun and unique experience.
Yes, people are coming to see me, but the show is not really about me. I focus my attention on the audience and go to great lengths to ensure that every person is personally involved in the action.
Can you tell our readers something about magic and magic tricks that most people don’t realize?
Everyone has heard of soccer camp, basketball camp, sleepaway camp, etc. but, believe it or not, there is a Magic Camp held every summer for young magicians. The camp is held at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, in a gothic building that looks like a castle. When parents drop off their kids, it looks like they are bringing them to Hogwarts! I attended Magic Camp as a teenager, and learned from professional magicians such skills as how to walk on stage, how to spring a deck of cards, even how to book a private birthday party show. It’s a full course of instruction. Other students during my years at Magic Camp included Adrien Brody (who started off as a magician) and David Blaine.
There are magic clubs in almost every major city in America, usually affiliated with the Society of American Magicians, or the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Both of these organizations run national conferences each summer, and magicians from around the world gather to perform, teach, and learn new tricks and presentations. I do not attend many of these conferences due to my NYC schedule of five shows per week. But I love finding magicians who have taken their craft to such a level that it even fools fellow magicians!
