I had the the very fortunate chance to meet with Mickey Silver in Vegas, and I was absolutely blown away by his thinking, approach to magic, as well as being a very upstanding and all around cool guy!

On day one we met at a coffee shop in the Bellagio. We shot the breeze, and then after a bit he went into his one coin routine, which looked just as flawless as it did on video, and then he fooled me BADLY, oh so BADLY when he passed a single coin through my girlfriend's hand! And of course...he did the human slot machine, right in front of me and everybody in the coffee shop, and when he was finished there was an applause. Absolutely amazing...his retention vanish is a real beauty...it looks just as perfect as I imagined, but its his casualness as well as his in-synch body language that sells it even more, and makes it absolutely impossible for anyone to question the so called "dirty hand".

We talked, joked around, and just had a good time. Even though I met him that day, I felt like he was my good friend already.

On day 2 I invited Mickey to come have lunch with my parents and I. He came, and thoroughly fooled the heck out of them. Not only with coin tricks, but some other stuff involving salt, sugar, and dollar bills. Maybe I'm too young, but I've never seen these tricks done before, and it fooled me bad. I also really, really liked his fresh takes on some older coin routines.

Again, the magic was interspersed with just good ol' conversation.

Then, at the end he did a close up illusion so Utterly Amazing and Perfect that it had all of us questioning our sanity. I'm not going to say what it is...all I will say is that he did this illusion completely surrounded, with people looking from all angles, and with people trying to catch him, and each and everyone of them were killed. No clue how it was done. At the end, a guy who was sort of heckling him asked Mickey for his name, and then said to Mickey "Thanks for your time, I very much appreciated the 15 minutes I spent here with you--watching you was the best moment of my trip!".

I was in awe of Mickey's showmanship and command of the crowd. I think a lot of people get caught up and obsessed over the mechanics of Mickey's sleight of hand, but I think what is more important, at least to me, is how Mickey is able to connect with the audience 100%, and to thoroughly entertain. He really hammered the point home to me--he said that the most important tip he can give me is to be a good person, to be good to your audience, and most of all, to SMILE. Mickey follows this philosophy, and judging by the crowd's reaction, it is a philosophy that works.

He then put me on the spot, and told me to perform a card trick for a spectator. I tried Mickey's tip regarding presentation, and the spectator was fried (I did a simple trick involving nothing more than a dribble pass, then a few double lifts). I was blown away that the spectator was blown away by such a simple trick! But I think its the energy one exudes and the overall personality that really sells a trick, regardless of how complicated it is.

Mickey, thank you, thank you for a wonderful couple of days. You really were the highlight of our trip. My parents were constantly talking about you after our meeting. You really set a standard for me, not only with respect to magic, but with respect to being an all around good person.

Like I said, given the choice, I would rather pay money to watch you perform then to go see Criss Angel for free! Mickey you have a life long supporter here, and I will try to make it to your show at the Wynn Hotel, looking forward to seeing those sculptures!

take care,

Evikshin

PS: we absolutely loved the chocolate, and were up all night from the caffiene in it!

Sounds awesome! Wish I could of been there... I have no chance of flying to America but if I would, Mickey would be the person I'd want to see there (with many other top notch coin magicians)

I still remember a about 6 years ago when he mailed his VHS tapes out to several members showing a promo of what he could do. He even personalized it for me by saying, "Hi, Dynamike..." at the beginning. That is a video tape I will always treasure. I still never met him in person. But I would really love to.

Evikshin, I hope you understand how lucky you are

Evikshin.
excellent life experience.
!

Evikshin, and now you know...

I experienced the same things in pretty much the same ways and Mickey and I have remained good friends still to this day. Like I said, he's one of a kind as a magician and as a human being. I've been there when he was completely surrounded and amazing people...I seen it right upclose. The most important thing I took away and came to better understand is the psychology of making all that happen. It's one thing to be technically good, quite another to so thoroughly understand the nuances of the people watching you. Mix the two and the greatest magic of all occurs. I've seen a lot of these guys and many are very good as well but no one that I've seen brings it all so uniquely together like Mick. He may not be as worldly celebrated or have a dozen DVDs or give lectures, etc., but he's all that and much more. Glad you enjoyed yourself, I knew that you would. -Mb

I'm happy for you Evikshin!
Sounds like you had a blast, good stuff...

Mickey is a mensch...

sharing very openly....

Reminds me of my days when I knew next to nothing and met and saw Albert Goshman work.(and more recently in 05 meeting Howard Schwarzman in Boston.

These days I know even less.

Thanks for sharing your memories. I can see/feel your smile coming through the web.

I am guessing your smile will continue....

Pass those smiles on to the next generation...



Harris

That's part of what makes Mickey a great entertainer.

What an inspiring story.

Thanks for sharing!

RevJohn

What a cool experience for you and your family evikshin! Hopefully I'll get to meet the man myself in a couple weeks! I had some correspondence with him last year and he was as gracious in type as you describe him in person!

Maybe I will be lucky enough to have lunch with him someday.

Canaday-
Lighten up. Of course he will let you buy him lunch, lol!
Just be sure he ain't driving while demoing his new stuff!
I still crack up thinking of when I was showing him how I did the coin to shirt pocket without a silk, and he said "You don't even need a pocket!" and promptly vanished a silver dollar into my (pocketless) t-shirt!
Sorry that he won't be joining us this year at the Conclave...but Vegas calls, I guess.

Evikshin,

I loved reading your story here. Mickey is a great guy, and he does WONDERFUL magic. You can't help but smile when you see him. I met him in Vegas a couple years ago, and the experience was amazing. I still remember him vanishing a Morgan dollar, and it reappeared on top of my take out coffee cup that I was holding the whole time. He truly is wonderful.

-KM

Canaday and Mark houdini had nothing on mickey he can dissapear and reappear at a moments notice.
Just ask Larry koz he is still looking for him LOL

Hey everybody! Thanks for your replies! I honestly feel blessed, and I will say that my coin and card magic has improved 100 times by getting a chance to watch him perform in real life!

Now, in the post above, I mentioned an illusion that he did in the Bellagio that was so stunning that it had to be seen to be believed. Well, Mickey just gave me permission to clue you guys in...the illusion is the Silver Ultimate Coin through Window, or SUCTW (Aactually he didn't call it that, I decided to call it that, tongue in cheek). there was an older post here by Mickey called "The Study: Throwing A Coin Through A Glass Window," and I will tell you, he does exactly as he describes there.

Here's pretty much what it looks like. So he borrows one of my silver dollars, stands in front of a glass door, and passes it from his right to his left, then back again, then again, then again, each time showing only one coin in his hand, sleeves rolled up, hands totally empty. Spectators were watching him really closely from every angle, and the looks on their faces were priceless. You really see a coin start off on the right side, then appear on the left side! It literally looks like the coin is tunneling through the glass.

One spectator actually thought the window was gimmicked. LOL!

Another thought he was a pickpocket!

Another spectator, who was really suspicious and who was a bit of a heckler, asked him if he can pass a coin through the glass when the spectator himself was standing in front of it. Fffftttttt (Mickey's trademark sound effect) and the coin went through! The spectator then said: "I didn't feel it hit my spine." My mother replied "if it did you would be dead." LOL.

The spectator then asked Mickey if he can pass it through, but not catch the coin in the other hand. Mickey, hesitated a bit, thinking to himself, then Fffftttttt, he throws the coin at the window and it shoots through and lands on the ground--at this point I wanted to shoot myself!!! I was watching the whole time: there was no corny "hey look, a cockroach!" type of misdirection.

This heckler guy then asked Mickey, "if you throw the coin through that window that's 50 yards away from us, can you make it come back through this window?" LOL. What if I told you he actually pulled this off?? Nah just kidding. If he did I would check myself into a psychiatric hospital.

Finally, the heckler shook Mickey's hand, asked for his name, and told him, "Thanks for your time, I very much appreciated the 15 minutes I spent here with you--watching you was the best moment of my trip!"

You guys had to see this to believe it.... It was clean, and just about every solution you can think of, he would cancel it. You think this, he would show you that, you think that, he would show you this, you would challenge him, and he would deliver, etc.. This was real lesson in crowd control, and showmanship, and also thinking on one's feet.

Have a good night everyone!

Peace,

Evikshin


By the way, has anyone seen him do the coin through window live?

I haven't even seen him do it on tape! What the world needs is more Mickey Silver to watch than the one (brilliant) clip on YouTube!

I agree Noobini, the world needs more Mickey Silver to watch...

Agreed!

Hopefully he will release a demo of this wonderful effect! Meanwhile, if you guys plan on going to Vegas in March for the convention, maybe he will do it then!

Evikshin