Kevin Blake knew he wanted to be a magician after his first card trick at age six. “The first trick I ever learned was a card trick my parents pretended to be fooled by,” he laughs. “I’ve always been drawn to magic. I love performing, I love building impossible things.”
Magic, for the uninitiated, may seem like something best left behind in childhood. But that’s exactly the challenge that Blake loves. “Kids already have so much magic. They can see a caterpillar turn into a butterfly and look at that miracle with astonishment,” Blake says. “As adults, we’ve seen that already. We’ve read every story, we know every punch line. What I love is showing people something they can’t anticipate — that’s what magic really is.”
That’s what magic is all about. While there are thousands of tricks up Blake’s sleeve, his Marco experience Virtually Impossible: A Quarantined Magic Show is all about re-creating the joy and wonder that comes naturally to kids. “People come to magic shows to feel astounded, astonished, bewildered. I love helping people feel something different than their everyday,” he says.
In a world where most answers are just a quick Google search away, magic is all about leaving open the door to a world where you can ask a question and not know the answer.
Bringing the magic to your computer screen
The America’s Got Talent alum regularly sold out shows before the pandemic. But the question most on his mind in March when theater after theater began cancelling his show was: would magic translate to a virtual experience?
Actually, yes.
“Interestingly enough, magic is one of those rare things that works over the Internet,” says Blake. “There’s a screen between us, but it can sometimes feel less contrived than it would in a theater. We’re face to face — everyone has a front row seat to the experience.”
A typical show lasts 45-minutes and invites as much audience participation as you’d like. Blake spent months fine-tuning his tricks over countless shows to create something completely unique to the virtual medium. “I’ve done over 200 shows at this point,” he says. “It isn’t just me and my bedroom with a deck of cards. It’s designed to feel like an experience, like you’re actually in the theater.”
Sometimes Blake does up to ten different shows a day, with tricks that create impossible circumstances and uncanny coincidences that feel even more magical when taking place in homes thousands of miles apart. “Even though we’re all in different places and looking at different screens, I’ve seen that people are in fact able to suspend their belief in the course of the 45 minute show, and that’s a beautiful thing,” he says. “I love working with Marco because it’s brought me to so many groups of people I would have never encountered otherwise — and that means more wonder, mystery, and impossible in the world, which is a good thing.”
Capturing the joy of not understanding
As a master magician, Blake is constantly chasing down his next big trick. “The biggest thing that inspires me is seeing something I can’t explain,” he says. “As a magician, I know how almost every trick works. When I see something I can’t figure out, it just sparks something.”
“Holy @%#$! This guy is the real deal!” — Gavin Newsom, Governor of California
“Crazy good and wonderful and so sweet!” — Penn & Teller
“What! No way! I love you!” — Melanie Brown, Judge on AGT
“Blake embraces the weirdness of his profession, unafraid to adopt a spooky stare, to speak in a thrumming, hypnotic register that seems to summon the occult.” — Lily Janik - Theater Critic, The SF Chronicle
Rather than spend hours and hours trying to undo a given trick, he leans in to the joy. “I want to experience the mystery, too,” he says. “Every single show I’m excited to bring the audience in there and experience the joy and mystery with them.”
As for his own secrets? A magician never reveals them. “No secrets are revealed in the class, except one,” he teases. “You’ll just have to come to the show to find out.”
Open the door to the impossible with Kevin Blake
Step through a secret passageway in grandfather clock and into a beautiful underground speakeasy to experience one of the most popular virtual shows worldwide. With interactive mind-reading, hilarious coincidences, and magic that truly reaches through the screen and blows you away, Kevin Blake's Virtually Impossible: A Quarantined Magic Show is a one-of-a-kind distributed workforce experience that has to be seen to be disbelieved.
Book Kevin for your team today!
