We recently connected with Dennis Kim and have shared our conversation below.

Dennis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I always dreamed about pursuing a career in magic when I was in high school. It felt like a fantasy, but I always thought about it, especially as time approached to start thinking about what colleges to apply to, what to major in and study, and what career paths I may be interested in.
The first time I really considered the possibility of it, though, was the summer after I graduated from college. I found myself in a part-time job teaching kids magic in a summer program in Flushing, NY. Though the job was part-time and only spanned for about six-and-a-half weeks, it was such an enjoyable time that I desired having more jobs that would make me feel the same way.
I also felt so valued, because not only did the kids and teaching assistants love my class, but I also felt confident in knowing what I was teaching and performing for everyone at the school. It reminded me of my love and passion for magic and my ability to make a considerable impact on others through it.

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

My name is Dennis Kim, and I am a magician based in New York. I was born and raised in Roslyn, and now reside in Queens. Save for college, I’ve been here all of my life. I perform magic all throughout the city and wherever clients look for entertainment in the form of magic at their events.
Not only do I perform, but I also creatively consult for other theater productions and performers by designing, curating, and improving magic tricks and illusions. Magicians always need outside perspective from other magicians to bounce ideas off of and for help in methodology to engineer an illusion to be the best version that it can be, to wow an audience as much as possible.
It’s a specialized skill that requires a lot of knowledge in magic, as well as experience in performing for real audiences. This is particularly important when consulting for other performers who aren’t magicians, but may want to fit some element of magic or illusion into their shows.
I’m most proud of being able to continue finding work in this industry as a performer and consultant.
Magic has always been a hit at every event I performed at, and so I hope for potential clients who have yet to ever book a magician to consider having one for their next event, no matter what the occasion is. It’s versatile, whether magic is to be had during a cocktail hour as guests are mingling, or during an event with a more formal itinerary that may have a variety of performers on stage.
It’s also still rare – I have so many conversations with people at all sorts of events who are surprised to see magic right in front of them! There are so many people who still have yet to see magic in-person, and it’s always a joy for them to experience it first-hand through my performances.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Whenever I meet new people, their curiosity always leads to twenty questions about what I do, how it works, how I got into it, and what my day-to-day life looks like. The more I answer, the more I recognize how different my life is from theirs, and so it’s only natural for those in non-artistic career paths to struggle to understand a great deal about a working journey such as my own.
One thing that, admittedly, becomes frustrating is the idea of working when I’m not “working.” For example, people often ask what I do during the week when I’m not performing or working a show. When I tell them that I’m still working, it confuses them. It’s not for pay, but there is still much work to do; these events don’t get booked on their own! There’s still so much to do that I consider work, whether it’s my own bookkeeping, to booking my own events, to practicing material, to learning and creating new material. It’s difficult for people to see beyond a working artist showing up at an event and doing their thing, and though it’s understandable, it’s a very common confusion that I’ve noticed over the years.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I used to film and post a lot of social media content before the COVID-19 pandemic. Back then, the “game” of social media was different, and I gained a considerable amount of traction that enabled me to find a lot more work opportunities to create a full-time career path in the entertainment industry. My forefront of my goal was not to gain as many followers as possible, nor was it to drive up my engagement as high as I could. Rather, it was simply to find work. Once I found enough work to make it so my schedule was stacked and my earnings were worthy of calling this a full-time career, I slowed down with the content and continued to cruise.
I must clarify that I’m not an “influencer” by any means – not even close. There are so many others with enormous followings that I can’t imagine what their working lives look like as a result. So, it’s difficult for me to find justification in giving advice for others to follow, especially since it seems apparent that the social media “game” is ever-changing to find success in it.
However, I would like to note that I believe my approach was right – having a goal that’s above vanity will lead to making the process more enjoyable and hopefully mitigate the feelings of turmoil when engagement doesn’t quite match to one’s expectations when trying to get noticed through content. Although engagement through likes, follows, comments, and shares all sum up to make for a good metric on the quality of content we put out there, it also isn’t everything; it especially should not dictate how we feel about our self-worth and be a metric for how “good” we are as people, however you want to qualify what that means (ie. being funny enough, entertaining enough, smart enough, communicative enough, creative enough, etc.)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecloseupartist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecloseupartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecloseupartist/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thecloseupartist/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/denniskmagic/

Image Credits

Instagram:
@idoidonyc
@richardtorresmagic
@baruchvsa