We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ray Eden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ray below.

Ray, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I wanted to become a magician as a teenager. My earliest childhood memory is seeing a magician at the Ashland County Fair in Ohio. The magi changed a woman into a tiger. That moment in time was the spark that created an ember that finally took flame when I was sixteen. From that moment, I worked towards doing magic professionally.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My interest in magic started as a teenager, but it wasn’t until I moved to New York City and studied with the NYC magi that I learned what it meant to be a magician and how to present magic. I started working in Central Park at the zoo entrance as a street performer. The streets are the best place to hone a craft, to learn how to draw a crowd, maintain a crowd and fill a hat after the show.

After doing street magic, I worked as the house magician at restaurants in NYC and New Jersey. I also performed at various comedy clubs in the city.

After 10 years in New York City, I moved to Scandinavia where I appeared on numorous Finnish television show and produced 3 shows; the last being a dinner theater magic and illusion show that ran in Helsinki over a two-year period.

I’m primarily an adult entertainer, but I also do family shows if that’s what the client is looking for. My favorite magic venue is the stage, but formal close-up magic falls right in behind it. I’m currently working on a new illusion show that I’m looking forward to bringing to the stage in the near future.

My show focuses on the idea of memories and the creation of new memories. I do a mix of magic and mentalism that actually touches the emotions of the audience.

I’m currently doing private shows and various holiday themed family shows for malls and schools.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I don’t think people understand the amount of work a magician needs to do to create their magic. Magicians will literally spend hours, days, weeks, months and even years working on something the audience will NEVER see. Because of that, too many people relagate magic as entertainment for children.

If there is a takeaway that anyone can take from the world of magic, I would say it is perserverance. Keepworking on your goals and never stop until you’ve succeeded. My wife enjoys telling people that I have worked on various pieces of magic that have left my fingers bleeding and my body aching. It’s just part of the job. It’s important to work on the “hard stuff”, the stuff that noone sees, because it brings you closer to achieving your goals and desires. The magician works to make the difficult easy, and the easy beautiful. Nothing worth doing comes easily, but if it was easy, every one would be doing it and it wouldn’t be magic.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The best way to support an artist is to go to their shows! Live entertainment, and especially magic, is meant for a live audience. Magic does not have the same power when viewed online in 30 or 60 second YouTube shorts or TikToks. Magic, at its core, is a way for humanity to connect to mysteries of life. Magic is a metaphor that when combined with proper scripting can actually touch the human spirit. But to experience this kind of magic, you must see the magic live. So go to a magic show!

The other way that you can support magic is to Follow, Watch, Like and Share a magician’s online content, and it costs nothing more than a few moments of your time. As much as I hate online magic, it is a necessary evil in our culture. Bookers will often determine whether an entertainer should be booked merely by the number of followers the performer has. So… go follow me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rayedenmagic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rayedenmagic/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rayedenmagician/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ray-eden-1509a1211/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/rayedenmagic
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/RayEdenWorldofMagic