Illusionist Mike Super to appear at Mayo PAC
Mike Super does not wear a sequined vest during his magic act. Nor is he accompanied by a bevy of attractive female dancers. Super says he relies a more important prop: the audience.
“I take a magic show, turn it on its side, and dump it on the audience,” says Super. “I make a member of the audience disappear for a few minutes. I make another member of the audience levitate.”
Super has another routine in which the audience, on the spot, chooses a car’s model and color. He then has 20 seconds in which to make that car appear; anyone with a driver’s license then has the chance to win that car.
“I try to give magic back to the people,” he says.
The populist approach has served Super well. He has won two Merlins (the magic world’s version of the Oscar) from the International Society of Magicians. He was tapped by Ellen DeGeneres to inaugurate the first “Magic Week” on her talk show.
Super is particularly proud to have won “Phenomenon,” a live magic competition show that was broadcast by NBC in 2007. He appreciated the $250,000 prize money, but he even more valued the fact that he won based on the votes of viewers.
“I performed for 20 million people when I did that show,” says Super. “That’s more people than Houdini ever performed for in his lifetime.”
Super will be playing to a somewhat smaller audience when he does two shows at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday, March 28.
But Super (yes, it’s his real name) says that audience size is less important to him than maintaining the level of interest of all the audience members.
“Magic is one of the few things that lets everyone bond,” he says. “I work hard to make my show family friendly. Everyone can enjoy it on a different level and for a different reason.”
Super’s curiosity about magic started early, thanks to his grandfather. “He had three tricks that he would do,” he says. “It was very basic stuff, but he never told me how he did them.”
That interest deepened after a trip to Walt Disney World. “There was an old guy at the magic shop on Main Street, and I was hooked,” he says.
When he was six, he donned a Dracula cape and starting doing tricks in his back yard in Pennsylvania. “I charged a nickel,” he says with a laugh.
“Without the little performances, you’re not prepared for the big ones,” Super says. “I used to do table magic at restaurants.” (He did magic as a part-time job while he studied computer science at the University of Pittsburgh.)
Super also drew inspiration from such performers as Doug Henning and David Copperfield. “They were the guys who made magic popular again,” he says. “They helped create that childlike wonder.”
Super says he appreciates any creative individual, regardless of the discipline. For example, he admires Johnny Carson’s comedy and Johnny Depp’s acting. He also cites Walt Disney’s imagination. “I like the people who help us suspend disbelief.”
About 15 years ago, Super came up with the word “mystifier,” rather than magician or illusionist, to describe himself. “I do a little bit of it all,” he says. “I do close-up magic. I do mind-reading.”
Super observes that magic has become a challenge in the 21st Century. “With the MTV generation, there has to be a camera cut every three seconds,” he says. “Attention spans are shorter. If you don’t get people’s interest in the first 30 seconds, you’re done.”
“But on the other hand, anything old becomes new,” Super says. “So I combine giving (the audience) a new hook, but I give something old, too.”
MIKE SUPER
WHAT: Award-winning “mystifier” Mike Super mixes close-up magic, mind-reading, and audience-involving tricks to create a family-friendly performance. Among other honors, Super was the winner of the 2007 live magic competition show “Phenomenon.”
WHEN: 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28
WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown
TICKETS: $25 to $35