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

Felix, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Making a full-time living is a magician’s dream. But it’s definitely not easy to do. Since I began performing in 2016, I was pretty much running from gig to gig, like many magicians. These corporate events and private parties were actually excellent learning experiences because I often had to adjust the length and content of my show to suit particular audiences. But the gigs were infrequent and usually bunched together during Halloween and the holiday season. Magic gigs dry up after January, and I’d perform at The Magic Castle a few times a year, but it really wasn’t enough to support me, so I had a few writing gigs on the side to help pay the bills.

In 2022, I was hired to be resident magician for The Magical Mystery Show in Maui and Oahu for a total of eight weeks. Not only did the venue pay very well, my show caught the attention of bookers for other magic venues who hired me. I have an active YouTube channel where I post performances and performance clips, and because of these videos, I was cast directly to appear on Season 18 of “America’s Got Talent.”

The past year I’ve been very fortunate to be able to earn a full-time living, but it’s still challenging since there aren’t many magic venues that pay, let alone pay well. More-established magicians usually get booked first, and it’s difficult to break through all the other magicians competing for the few open spots in a venue’s season.

My act is a hybrid of magic and mindreading, and I’m always adding to and editing my material with the hope that the few magic-venue bookers who don’t “get” me eventually will. I persevere, I promote my work tirelessly, I expand my repertoire with the expectation that my career will continue to grow.

Felix, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My parents gave me a magic kit when I was nine or 10 years old. The tricks were basic, to say the least, but I was enflamed to put together a show and perform in neighbors’ garages. Magic was always a part of my life even as I moved into other artistic pursuits. I became a successfully produced playwright in New York and Los Angeles, served as the Artistic Director of two LA theater companies, and directed or produced many productions, including fundraisers and special events. In 2007, I began research for a play about Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle — produced by the Malibu Playhouse in 2014 — and magic thrust itself into the forefront of my life again. In 2015, auditioned for and was accepted into the Academy of Magical Arts at The Magic Castle as a magician member, but I hadn’t settled on my performance material or style.

My first public performance was in April 2015 for a charity event, so I put together a few mindreading effects that were made famous by my main inspiration, Max Maven. I consulted with a stand-up comic in creating my character and performance style, and my act at the charity event was warmly received. But my challenge was how would I make my mark amongst all the veteran and well-known magicians at The Magic Castle?

My first step was to seek out magic effects that no one else was performing so I researched material that had been performed my mentalists in nightclubs of the 1930s-1960s. Combining methods and refining my scripts to emulate those vintage performers, I built my act.

Character is a crucial element to performing magic, and I created a character that is intriguing, witty, and intimate with my audience. Using all my theater experience, I added a costume that’s very particular to my character, music, and staging (with a bit of choreography), Together, these elements create a unique experience for me as a performer and for my audiences.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Magic is performance art. It takes artistry to turn a card trick into a memorable experience. But art must also be deeply felt by the magic performer, or the magic is just a trick, an intellectual puzzle. Many magicians call their audiences “spectators,” which is accurate if you’re presenting stage illusions that people watch from an emotional distance.

For me, my audiences are “participants.” Magic is a lot more powerful if people are participating in it. So in my show, my audience participates in some way for almost every effect I perform, and everyone is emotionally involved.

Empathy is crucial for a mind reader. I’m not only attempting to read a person’s thoughts but also their feelings. I have one particular effect that I love to perform. I ask a person to write down the name of someone in their life who had a profound impact on them. As I ask a few questions, I allow myself to feel what the person feels. When I reveal the name they’ve written down, tears often come to their eyes. I cry too, because I truly feel what they feel for the person they are remembering.

Making such a connection with my participants is deeply rewarding.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

My family was not supportive of my creative pursuits (although they certainly are now). I’ve struggled with confidence my entire life. Despite the acclaim I received, I never really believed it, and looking back, I think it slowed down my career. As I got into magic, I was in awe of the magic community and felt insecure about whether I’d find my place in it. Was I really a magician? Was I really good enough to perform at The Magic Castle. I doubted I was. I didn’t believe I deserved the applause.

But about five years ago, a good friend recommended me to the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas. I attended my first master class in mentalism and performed a piece I had been working on. To my shock, legendary magician Jeff McBride, the school’s dean and brilliant magician Larry Hass, and a true master of mentalism Ross Johnson gave me a standing ovation, the first they had ever given a student. They changed my life, and I’m eternally grateful to them.

Slowly — very slowly — my confidence grew as my performances steadily improved. I’ve performed for thousands of people at this point in my life, and I still feel twinges of self-doubt. But the self-doubt is no longer crippling. Instead it drives me to always do better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.felixjonesmagic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felixjonesmagic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealfelixjones
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@felixjonesmagic

Image Credits
3 promo photos with gray background: Eleonora Barna Magic Castle performance photos: Taylor Wong AGT backstage: Richard Sanderson