Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nelson Lugo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nelson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Getting a magic kit for some gift giving holiday is a pretty common origin story for a lot of magicians. If you’re lucky, most kids will play with it for a few days, maybe even a week and then it will collect dust in a closet forever more. I still have mine. I still play with it. It is displayed on a shelf in my apartment, right next to my vintage Star Trek board game and my Batman cookie jar.

Becoming a magician doesn’t require any special skills whatsoever. In fact, all you need to perform a really good card trick is three things: (1) you need a deck of playing cards, obviously. (2) a visit to your local public library, specifically the 798.3 section, and (3) the willingness to do the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again to the exclusion of everything else in your life for the next 25 years.

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

Hello, my name is Nelson Lugo and I am a magician. Born and raised in The Bronx I am a native New Yorker who travels the world performing magic tricks. I got started at the age of nine years old when I watched a Harry Blackstone Jr. magic TV special. While wearing a royal blue velvet tuxedo. He made a whole bird cage just disappear. He made a silk handkerchief dance and he made a bare light bulb, light up all by itself, then made it float it out over an entire audience. I’d never seen anything like that before in my life and from that day forward I was hooked. I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

In 2000 I decided to turn professional and since then I have performed and taught magic at companies like Google, Bank of America, Viking Cruises, and Holland America. My services include performing magic at functions like cocktail hours or convention booths. I also teach magic both as a team building exercise as well as the principals of sleight-of-hand as it pertains to out-of-the-box creative thinking.

I don’t know if I solve problems per se – but what I like to think I do is create possible options to questions some people may have. Performing magic tricks requires a way of thinking that opens up new ways to solve old problems.

What sets me apart is the way I approach magic as a way to create relationships with people. I bring my self and my stories into my performance so not only do you learn something about me I also get to learn something about my audience.

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.

There is an act in my working repertoire that I have been working on for the past 25 years. I’m going to type that again because I think it bears repeating. I have been working on this for 25 years. Just think about that for a second. 25 years! What will be essentially just minutes of your life, three minutes to be exact, represents a commitment on my part, of a quarter of a century. Think about it this way, all of the cells that have ever existed in your body, when I first started learning this, have long since died and been replaced at least three times. Can you honestly say you are the same person today as you were five years ago? No, of course not! What about ten years ago? Inconceivable. Who, the hell were you 25 years ago?!? Were some of you even born yet? Do you know who I was? I was the guy, at home, standing in front of a mirror, alone, learning this act. Think about all the places you lived. All the adventures you’ve had. The people you’ve lost and even more importantly those people you found. While you were out busy living your life, I was at home spending 25 YEARS perfecting THREE MINUTES of magic.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

As obvious and clichés as this is going to sound, the simple answer is buy locally sourced art. What I do is a bit different in that what I offer is a live experience but the support is the same as going to a small music venue and supporting a local band. Or going to a craft fair and getting a hand made mug. Or finding an artist on social media and asking for a custom piece that you commission. The support can even be much simpler and free if you share the art you like on your social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nelsonlugo.com/
• Instagram: @nelsonlugomagic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheVaudevillian/
• Linkedin: nelsonrlugo
• Twitter: @nelsonlugomagic
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@NelsonLugoMagic
• Other: TikTok: @nelsonlugomagic

Image Credits
Harry Pocius Willie J. Allen Jr.