The secret life of magicians
Bill Gates knows how to do magic. He knows how to do magic because Greenwich magician Bill Herz taught him face to face.
“[We taught him] to make money appear, of course. We taught him to turn a computer into a bowl of cash,” Herz said of an illusion he performed that made it seem as if a computer magically turned into a bowl of cash.
The trick was also a metaphor that’s all part of want Herz does. He’s a professional corporate magician, which means he shows up to events for big corporations and does magic that intersects with whatever message the boss is trying to convey.
Herz also owns his own Greenwich-based company called Magicorp Productions that represents some of the most famous magicians in the world, such as David Blaine, Michael Carbonaro, Piff the Magic Dragon and David Copperfield.
Tom Pesce is one of the magicians Herz represents, and he lives in Ridgefield.
Pesce performs for large corporations all over the world including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, and he’s also a sixth grade English teacher in Rye Brook, N.Y.
“It’s a wonderful combination because I enhance my teaching with magic, and I enhance my magic with what I know through school district administration,” Pesce said.
“I’ve taught elementary and middle school students for 18 years so kind of putting in some of that child psychology when I’m working with adults — all of that expertise can work together, which is really fun,” he said.
While Pesce teaches children as his day job and does magic for corporations by night, Dan Trombetto, also known as Danny Diamond is almost the opposite.
Trombetto was born and raised in Stamford and is a website and graphic designer by day and a children’s magician on the weekends. Working the Magic by Danny Diamond business part time, he does 100 or more shows a year and has kept it up for the last 17 years.
And Trombetto said his side job requires a lot of time and energy.
“On a busy Saturday I could do three shows possibly… So, I’m bouncing from loading up the car in the morning, heading out, putting a ton of miles on the car, unloading setting up the show, performing, being high energy, packing up at the end and heading to the next place.”
“You know it’s just like, there’s a lot more that goes on than just those 45 minutes [clients] see,” he said. “Some people only see ‘oh you just get up there and kind of goof around for 45 minutes and do a couple tricks’ but there’s quite a bit more that goes on.”
Connecticut has a sort of secret world of magic right under everyone’s noses. There are magicians associations, a magic conference and young magicians groups that meet around the state and exchange tips and tricks.
Dana Herz, Bill’s daughter, was one of those young magicians who showed up to young magician group meetings and blew the group out of the water with tricks she learned from her dad. Dana now lives in California, but grew up in Greenwich.
“I’ve been doing magic since I was, you know, two years old and I would get my allowance as a kid by going to the Society of Young Magicians meetings,” Dana said. “It’s so normal for me because it’s all I’ve known my whole life.”
As a kid, Dana pushed the whole magic thing aside. It was the family business, and she had never experienced it with the awe of a spectator. In college, she started doing standup comedy. That’s when she discovered she may have more in common with the family business than she thought
“Every now and then I would kind of throw some magic in (to the stand-up routine) and I just found that was when I would get the best reception. For me, my goal in entertainment — as much as I love the experience of amazing people — is that I just want people to leave having had a really good time and having had a lot of fun,” she said. “That’s kind of given me a lot more freedom to not necessarily follow the normal trajectory and more go toward just kind of being inspired by whatever makes people happy.”
The art of magic is changing, according to Dana and Bill Herz and Pesce, especially after the pandemic. Virtual magic shows have made performing across the world more accessible than ever. Dana has hosted virtual magic happy hours that she says have been a great success.
That virtual presence has also allowed for new demographics to invest in magic and illusions. Bill and Dana Herz have both said they’ve seen an increase in magicians of all genders and races, which could make the image of a mustachioed gentlemen in a top hat and tails a thing of the past.
“We all take those male magicians — especially white male magicians — as the norm,” Dana said. “I think for anyone who’s interested in magic, it’s really worth taking a look at the up-and-coming people because a lot of them are different races and identify differently, and I think that there’s going to be a lot of power in those new voices using this older medium.”