Pippin Had An Opening Number Called "magic

There Was A Place In New York Called Tannen's Magic. It Still Exists. But Back In The Day, It Was Really Fantastic. You'd Go Into The Old Wurlitzer Building, Take The Elevator To The 13th Floor, Which Was Labeled 14, Because Of Bad Luck, The Elevator Would Open, And You'd Be In Heaven. It Was All Of These Guys Doing Magic Stuff With Props. It's Kind Of Gone Now, That Experience, The Brick-and-mortar Magic Shop, But You Really Felt Like You'd Landed In The Most Amazing Place In The World.

I've Always Taken A Lot Of Cues From Comedy Minds. The Guy That Discovered Me In The Very Beginning Was Joseph Cates. Joe And Gil Cates Were The Cates Brothers. Gil Produced The Oscars For Many Years. Joe Produced A Lot Of Comedy Specials, Steve Martin Specials, And He Discovered Me, This 18-year-old Kid.

I Could Vanish The Silk Better Than Ben Vereen - That Was For Sure. So I Think Maybe They Said, "okay, Maybe He Has Something To Offer." Years Pass And I Get A Bit Of A Career, And Ben Vereen Ends Up Hosting One Of My Specials Where I Walked Through The Great Wall Of China. Things Came Full Circle In Kind Of An Ironic Way, When You Have That Honor Of People That Have Influenced You So Much Host Your Show. It's A Huge Experience In Your Life.

Usually, About Two Years Of Work Go Into Each Illusion, Whether It's Big Or Small. Two Years Of Work On Each Five-minute Piece.

I Was 16 At The Time, And I Came Backstage And Started Hanging Out With Them. I Said, "well, Maybe You Can 'vanish' The Silk This Way." The Opening Was A Black Stage While The "magic To Do" Song Started Playing. All You Saw Were Hands, Lit By Jules Fisher, And Then Ben Vereen Would Appear Beyond The Hands, And At The End Of The Scene He Would Vanish A Silk. The Spotlight Would Hit A Red Spot On The Floor Where You'd See The Silk On The Floor. He'd Pull The Silk Out Of The Floor And It Became The Entire Set Coming Out Of The Floor.