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

Danny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

If you ask most magicians when they started to be interested in magic the answer you will hear most often is from ages 8-12. That’s the norm. For me, I started when I was 27 and didn’t become a professional entertainer unit I was 39! So I had a regular job (or a series of jobs) for many years before I became a pro.

I can honestly say, that when I quit my last sales job to take up magic full-time, I have never worked harder. When you work for a company, you have coworkers, bosses, infrastructure, and lots of people and support from your company.

As a magician, I write my own scripts, make some of my props, direct myself, choose tricks and costumes (and keep them in repair) along with the many other tasks and responsibilities required to market my services to potential customers. A regular job ends when you leave the office. The job of being a magician never ends (and I wouldn’t want it any other way).

It has its up and downs like most jobs, but the joy and happiness I received on a regular basis, more than makes up for all the thankless and hard work that the audiences never see.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After a brief two-week fling with magic when I was 16 years old, I started doing magic as a hobby when I was 29 years old. In 1988 I left my job as a salesman with Apple Computer and started to work at the Philadelphia Magic Company. Working behind the counter was a crash course in performing, and I learned a lot about magic and magicians. It was a wonderful time up until the company folded in 1991. I went back to work in the real world and in March of 1994 I relocated to Denver, CO. I was working again in computer sales when I suffered my first heart attack. In the recovery room, I realized that life was too short and that I was not doing what I wanted with my life, so I decided to give magic one more chance. The day after my second child was born, I quit my job to become a professional magician.

To supplement my performing career, I formed the Magicians Lecture Network. The MLN was a nationwide lecture booking organization that has been wildly successful. The MLN booked over 4,000 lectures worldwide for all of the world’s best lecturers. In 1996, I marketed my first trick, Eye Exam, which has been a bestseller right from the start. This led to my starting to lecture on my own.

Danny’s lecture is filled with usable doable effects that have taken him around the world (over 30 countries) and all over the US (49 States). In addition, I have performed at a number of conventions including both in the US and internationally. My material has appeared in publications like; MAGIC, Linking Ring (including a One Man Parade), Genii, Vanish, Channel One, MUM, Infinity and several international magic publications.

Starting in 2001 he produced his own close-up convention, The Las Vegas Magic Invitational with his business partner Robert Allen. Starting in 2004 they also produced the very successful MINDvention mentalism convention and in 2013 he launched the Mind Summit mentalism convention in Cologne, Germany.

Starting in December 2007, I began performing close-up magic nightly at an upscale restaurant in the ski resort of Vail, CO. I honed my skills and talents there for eight years until finally deciding to try something new. That led me to return to my Philadelphia roots and the creation with my business partner Marty Martin, the opening of the Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater.

I perform in front of many different types of groups, specializing in the corporate marketplace either as myself or as Gino Mozzarella one of my colorful performance characters. I create my original magic effects and perform close-up and stand-up magic. My magic is visual, dynamic, and created to be performed in real-world situations.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I remember when I was interviewing a restaurant owner who was opening a second location in the Vail, CO area. He had a magician working at his Beaver Creek location and he was looking for a second performer. At this time I was married with two children ten and eleven years old. The job was performing six nights minimum a week, for three hours a night. I lived 100 miles away, to far to commute up and into the Rockie mountains, so I had to get an apartment in the area. On my day off, weather permitting, I would drive back to Denver and see my family for a day and one night, before making the return trip to Vail.

Because the job was far from Denver, that meant that getting a replacement was very hard to do and people were counting on me to be there and entertain. Not just the business owners, but the many people and families who looked forward to seeing Magic at the venue. I worked when I was sick, I worked the night my mother died (and was unable to return for the funeral), I worked on good days and bad days.

This taught me a lesson that I was part of a bigger machine and that I should take my role seriously. The old saying is The SHow Must Go On and for me those are words that I have lived by.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, I have found that the teaching aspect of my career has been very rewarding. Not only did lecturing for magician groups allow me to travel the world and all over the US, but I got to meet so many great people who years later would come up to me and mention a trick or a show that they saw and recalled with fondness. I remember sitting at a long table of people at a banquet in Sydney, Australia. I knew almost no one at the table when I hear a guy mention the name of his favorite trick and I was a trick I had invented. He said he never leaves home without, and when I asked him to take it out he did. He did not know I was the creator, but I told him and borrowed the trick, and performed it for the group. A great memory. Similar encounters would happen all the time and they always made me realize the impact that I have had on people I didn’t even know.

When I was performing in Vail, because of the magic, we got a lot of family audiences. Many times the following year, one of the kids would tell (or show) me a trick they had learned. Most people who become professional magicians had an in person encounter with a magician that was so impressive to them, that it changed the course of their lives. Especially with younger people. Over my career, there is no way to know how many people took up Magic as a hobby because they saw me perform.

It was very satisfying that I was able to inspire so many people to try the art form that I loved.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smokeandmirrorstheater.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smokeandmirrorstheater/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smokeandmirrorsmagictheater/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-archer-639775174/
• Twitter: @smoke_theater
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC910KjPLPDeu-l1j2wyUeJg
• Yelp: [email protected]

Image Credits
John Costello