To mark National Magic Week. We just wrapped up.
We have with us renowned magician John Steel,
whose viral magic videos have millions of views. Good morning John.
Thank you so much for joining us. Oh my God. I'm so honored to be here.
We are so excited to have you. I love watching your videos first.
Tell me how did you get started in magic? So I got a magic kit for my eighth birthday.
My aunt and my sister went together to get me a little present.
And ever since I've been in love with magic,
did you show any interest or they kind of just got it.
I think it was right around the age where you start getting a kit of ma
I think.
And it just turned out where like I just fell in
love with the idea of having these like little secrets.
And then as I got older,
it just was something that I was obsessed with and I kept doing for the rest of my life.
I am also obsessed with you also being a shelter dog magician. What does that mean?
So what it means effectively is I will volunteer my time I'll go
into shelters and I will show magic tricks to dogs in the shelters.
There you are now. Ok. How do they react? So each dog has their own individual person
and they all react different. Some will run away.
Like in the clip you're about to see here.
Some will be concerned and confused to look around like the treat vanished.
And, uh, yeah, they,
they all show off their own personality and their own way about them.
Any time a treat vanishes. Look at how well behaved they are.
Well, they're also good and
sweet.
And what it does is it gives them their own way to show off how they act unlike a photo or
a
video might be. So how did your work with animals help your career in magic?
Well, I I'll be honest, I mean, it has gotten me a lot of recognition,
which is amazing, but for me, it's really not about the career,
it's about helping the dogs.
So every video that I've done with the dogs, every dog has been adopted,
that's been a part of the project.
So,
yeah, and I, I mean,
it is the most successful thing I will ever work on just because like,
I actually feel like I'm helping a lot.
You're making a difference. It, it does feel that way.
But we should mention you've also performed for
celebrities like Travis Scott Neil Patrick Harris.
Why do you think people are so fascinated by magic.
I think magic is probably the one last thing
in this generation that has any mystery around it.
Like you have the answer to everything in your cell phone.
You can google the answer to anything.
So the fact that
you can
not understand something for a little is
just kind of like something really special.
So let's get to some of the tricks. You have a deck of cards
to start as a magician. You need a deck of cards
with that and I, I can do really fancy Shuffles.
This is more just to show you what I've done for the past 14 years of my life.
Um, but this isn't a trick, this is just a
off
but I'm gonna have, you do is this, I'm gonna have you take one card out
any card, I'm gonna turn around. I don't wanna see it in the event that I do see it.
It is. Ok.
I just wanna make sure that the camera gets it and you tell me when you're good. Ok.
The camera got it. Camera got it. I'm good to come back. Yes. Ok, perfect.
Here's what we're gonna do. I'll take the card. I don't wanna see it.
But since this is the morning show, we're gonna try like a, like a breathing trick,
a breathing exercise because in the morning there's nothing better.
Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna lose the card
into the center of the deck
and here's what I wanna try to do.
Hold your hand up like this, think of your card right in your palm. Breathe in and out.
Watch the deck
right there. I think it's about to happen.
One card is gonna come out.
There's one way to know if this is true and it would be a no and take a look and look at it.
But there's one other way, hold your hand out.
If I just touch 321, it should happen right
there. The whole deck floats away. Take a look, turn it over.
It's the card.
How did you? You can't, I'm sure you can't tell me how you did that.
I
did it. But that's incredible
how the card guys, there's nothing I've seen.
There's no strings, there's nothing attached. I'm watching him.
You also have a trick with a dollar bill.
Oh, so the reason why I had you bring the dollar bill out
and one, it's very important. We haven't set anything up.
No, nothing like, yeah,
I just made sure the producers made sure that you had one of
your dollar bills on you and also your cell phone for this.
Here's what I wanna do before anything. We'll take the sharpie
and I want you to go ahead and just, we'll have you initial the back of this, right,
this initial right there for
me.
The reason why I'm gonna have you initial it is because now there's nothing funny.
I can do with this.
I can't switch it. I can't do anything tricky. Hold your hand flat for me.
Other hand on top,
here's what we're gonna try to do.
I've kind of question. Have you ever heard of that movie? Now? You see me?
Of course, it was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Not because it was this cinematic piece of gold,
but because it changed the narrative for magicians to,
oh, do they pull rabbits out of hats to can a magician rob a bank?
And that narrative is pretty fun.
So
it's pretty wide.
So I think I kinda wanna recreate that idea
with you because think about it right here,
we have your money
and it's locked up in your little bank.
And as a magician, it's my job to get inside or at least try it.
So here's what we're gonna try to do. We're gonna replicate that moment.
So here's what I'm gonna have you do,
I'm gonna have you say stop for me somewhere in the center.
It
stop right in the middle. I'll let the camera see. Hopefully the camera can see,
you know, I can see the car to make it easy for everyone.
The king of diamonds, king of diamonds just because I wasn't driven, saw it.
Take a listen, we're gonna take
the corner
off the king of diamonds, a piece,
a piece of the card and I'm gonna try to get that inside your Bill.
I'm class pretty tight here. But ok, here we go. Watch
three
two
one the piece.
It's gonna disappear.
Ok.
So I open my hands.
If you open your hands and inside that villa is the corner of a car,
it'd be a good trick.
Right. Take a look.
That's what we call a mistake. You're gonna hold on to that.
Wait,
what happened?
I
didn't think I'd do this on live TV, but it happened. No, no, no, I'm kidding.
I said something very specific.
I said, I'm gonna make the corner vanish and appear where
the
bill. Look, if we take your cell phone, look at this. I feel like this.
If we take the dollar and we hold the light up, you're gonna see
that. Hopefully right here in the fiber
of the bill,
you can see there's actually something but there's one
way to actually know if this is real.
Could you come hold this for me?
There's one way to know if this is real. You can see it from the back.
You can see it from the front.
We're gonna rip
this corner right out of the fibers of the dollar bill in the fibers of the bill.
And I want you to pull that out for me right now and match that up.
Is that not the perfect match to your card? You can show that up and show them.
This was inside the Dollar Bell, the king of diamonds that he just showed you.
Incredible. Thank you so much to magician John STEC
Chris. I'm gonna try to figure out how we did this. Wish me luck.
I'll send it back over to you. You get that magic going.
I like it.