We recently connected with Jeffrey Day and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeffrey, thanks for joining us today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I always had a fantasy of one day performing as a magician, I never thought I would actually be doing it. I had a good paying job, but I was also performing the odd magic gig now and then. One day, I decided to take that “leap of faith” and give working as a magician full-time a try. If I had not had a good amount saved up it probably wouldn’t have worked. It took several years before I was actually earning a good living off my shows. Just when I was not expecting it, COVID hit and that put a stop to just about everything. Those 18 months that followed were very difficult. Things now are beginning to get resolved and the shows are picking back up again. My magical residence is The Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. It was built in 1871, and while I was a on a tour of this mansion, I had visions of doing an historical show in the ballroom of this elegant home. The magicians during the Golden Age of Magic helped shape how the magical arts are performed today. This is the show I developed, “The Mesmerist”. It’s based on the magicians and their magic that they performed in the Victorian Era. Performing this style of magic is something I was meant to be doing. There are only a handful of magicians performing this type of show in the U.S. I have always been interested in the history of this art form. Magic is the oldest art form, by the way. It is older than dance and even music. I love telling those who come to my shows all about the history of magic while showing them what these great conjurors did back over 150 years ago.

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 background and context?

I first got interested in magic when I was eight years old. It was a family tradition that we would gather together around the TV in the 1960’s and watch “The Ed Sullivan Show”. He always had acts like acrobats, jugglers, and magicians on his show. I was truly amazed. I asked my father how the magician was doing these amazing things. He told me that he didn’t know, but I should go to my elementary school library and see if they had any books on magic. It turns out that they had 3 books on magic! I checked them out and learned as much as I could. I started performing tricks for my friends. Naturally, I didn’t want my friends to know how I was doing these magic tricks, so I kept those books checked out for the next 4 years! I later went to college where I studied music, another passion of mine. Performing has always been something that has interested me. I have incorporated music with magic over the years. There is something similar about both magic and music. I became interested in historical magic about 15 years ago. I eventually considered developing a show that showed audiences what the early magicians performed. I collect books on magic. Today I have hundreds of them, some going back to the early 1800’s. As with any form of performing art, it is very difficult to become successful. There are so many others trying to do the same thing. While taking a tour of The Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, I noticed how beautiful the Victorian ballroom was. I thought how wonderful it would be to perform an historic magic show in this Victorian space. I spoke to a woman who was standing nearby about this. I asked if she knew who the director was of this museum. It turns out that it was she. We began talking about the idea of me performing my show there, and within a few short hours, we had a few show dates on her calendar. I was very excited about becoming the resident magician of this house that was built in 1871. This is the same year that Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin died. He is revered by todays magicians as “The Father of Modern Magic”. I cannot imagine not being able to perform magic is some capacity. If there is anyone reading this who has not been to a good, live magic show, I recommend they do so. They will see why magic has lasted so long and I guarantee that they will feel different about it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One thing about magic that I love, is that how people react to a simple trick. Closeup sleight-of-hand magic is my favorite style of magic. You don’t need special props to help you with the trick. You can even borrow objects from a spectator. When I was just starting out performing, I was performing out on the streets of Memphis in the midtown area. I was just making enough to live on, but just barely. I was performing magic and also juggling. I was told by a mentor to never give up, no matter what. When things seemed really tough, something would always happen that gave me hope. One day, Jack Soden saw me performing and he came out and handed me his business card, and a hundred-dollar bill. He was the executive director of Elvis Presley Enterprises. The had just opened Graceland for tours and he thought I would be great at keeping guests entertained while they were waiting to take the tour. Of course, back then, there were thousands of people a day wanting to see the inside of Elvis’ home. This gave me a lot of confidence to stick with it.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.JeffreyDayMagic.com
• Instagram: modern_baroque_magician
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.day.925

Image Credits
Kathy Kalagias