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"Brilliant."
-Michael Paul, Owner of TheInvisibleThread.com
"...concealed profound comedy."
-SUCO State Times
“Singularly entertaining... Masterfully poised."
-The Freeman's Journal
"One of Buffalo's fastest rising stars."
-Magician's Alliance of Western New York
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How’d he do that?
by Alicia B. Smith
Simsbury Life, August 2010
The transformation of Brian Miller from a quiet, speech-impaired child to a confident, well-
spoken, funny man was like, well, magic.
“It changed my life,” the magician said, speaking of the art he has been studying since
the time he was four years old. What began as a childhood hobby has turned into a
livelihood and Mr. Miller could not imagine doing anything else.
“I got to choose to create a character and through the years of being that character, I
became that person,” he said.
…
After studying sleight of hand for so many years, this native of Buffalo, N.Y., took his show
on the road. He worked in restaurants and comedy clubs throughout the Buffalo area and
beyond, traveling with his bag of tricks – a 30-year-old briefcase that used to belong to his
father.
More recently he has started to perform on college campuses, with his first college gig at
Oneonta State University while he was a student there.
...
While he has worked at other restaurants in his hometown, he claims that [The Iron Frog
Tavern] has been his favorite by far. Iron Frog's Frank Gregoire said his business partner
Pam Paydos had been talking about having a magician come in for some time.
“At first we weren’t sure what people would make of it,” Mr. Gregoire said.
Ultimately, seeing how his customers range from children to people in their 90s, they
decided a magician would appeal to a wide range of ages.
“It was something for everyone to get used to at first,” said Mr. Gregoire. “Now we see
families come in week after week.”
There is some preparation Mr. Miller does before opening his bag and letting the magic
out. On a typical night, after doing some finger exercises, he heads to the dining area and
sees who is there.
One of the things he credits his success is his understanding of the restaurant business.
Rather than be an interference to both diners and the wait staff, he knows enough to
know when he would be welcome at a table, when to get out of the way of the servers
and which tables it may be best to avoid.
“I never interrupt a table while they are eating,” he said.
Rather, he will see if the server has taken their orders and the customers are waiting for
their meal. He will always introduce himself as the house magician and explain why he is
there and ask if he can do a few of his tricks.
Most of the time customers agree to see what he has up his sleeve. Mr. Miller assured that
he always pushes his sleeves up so as to not give anything away.
His typical routine lasts about one to three minutes and he always prepares one new trick
in the event he meets someone he has met before. He refers to it as his trick of the week.
He will sometimes perform a 12-15 minute routine for those at the bar. The reactions he
gets can range from disbelief and surprise to utter skepticism.
“He has thousands of tricks, and he knows how to handle every crowd, the laughing
kids to the scrutinizers,” Mr. Gregoire said.
...
Mr. Miller earned a Bachelor of Science degree in both philosophy and mathematics and
concludes that he is “qualified to think really hard.” This was after he was determined to
study music.
Suddenly, his magic got serious.
“I don’t take myself seriously, but I take magic seriously,” he said.
Mr. Miller is sure those thinking skills will come in handy at some point. In the meantime, he
loves what he is doing and jokes, “School was my backup career.”
Throughout high school he and his best friend studied magic to the point that they became
known as “the magic kids.” His friend went on to entertain with children’s magic, while Mr.
Miller prefers mature audiences.
The Buffalo area fostered his interest and while he said it might not be the magic capital of
the world, several well-known magicians lived there and he had the opportunity to be
trained by some of them.
His first paid magician’s job was for a church group. The fact that he was not invited back
to perform for them did not deter his ambition.
By the time he was 16 he had his own magic business, complete with a website. For the
next two years he was on the road every weekend. Eventually he was attending magic
conventions and it was not unusual for him to be the guest speaker.
He has also authored a series of eBooks, the first of which he wrote at the age of 19. In a
few months he will be releasing another DVD on his magic.
In addition to entertaining others with his work, Mr. Miller especially enjoys teaching other
magician wanna-be’s.
“I teach specifically for one reason, to help kids overcome speech issues. I’ve worked with
special needs students and those with social disorders,” he said.
While it is fun to learn the art of magic and be able to trick those who are watching, Mr.
Miller said the art form can do so much more than entertain. It can teach discipline,
confidence and public speaking skills.
It can also serve as a way for a child to, like with his own experience, become a different
person, at least for a little while.
“I had a severe speech anxiety,” Mr. Miller said.
“It was not until about the age of 14, the first magic trick I showed someone, when I
realized you had to talk. It had always been just me in my room. I owe my life to
magic and what it did for me.”
…
As with so many other things, technology has changed the way magicians do their magic
and how it is perceived. Increasingly, information can be found on the internet on how to
do tricks or even just as a tool to watch others at work on sites like YouTube.
Long gone are the days where a man in a top hat and cape would pull a rabbit out of his
hat or saw a woman in half. While Mr. Miller has much respect for those magic pioneers, he
is looking to break through that and perform more updated tricks.
Long gone, too, much to his relief, are the days when magicians were viewed as outcasts
doing the work of the devil.
As the art grew and spread, over time many of the magician’s secrets began to get out.
However, audiences are still willing to suspend their disbelief.
The fact that an audience member may have an understanding of how a trick works is not a
liability. According to Mr. Miller, it only adds to the fun.
His routine is more about making fun of the art of magic, which in turn is a means of
making fun of himself, referring to what he does as “a parody of me as a magician.”
He said “I do a show about magic. Audiences are starting to grab onto that. We are
connecting with them.”
In addition to his work at the Iron Frog Tavern, he performs at private parties, too.
As a child he had been treated to performances by one of his favorite magicians, David
Copperfield. He also appreciates the work of Penn and Teller, a trio of Canadian magicians
named Jay Sankey, David Acer, and Richard Sanders, and contemporary magicians such as
Justin Kredible and Michael Kent.
On the comedic side, Mr. Miller said he gleams material from life and admires such funny
men as Jim Carrey and Steve Martin.
“He was one of the founders of absurdist magic,” Mr. Miller said of Mr. Martin, explaining
that the comedian was the first to not deliver a punch line.
Those who came before [Martin] offered a question or asserted an observation, hit a punch
line, waited for the laughter and repeated the process. That was comedy.
With Steve Martin, the audience was forced to laugh on their own and not wait for a punch
line cue.
Mixing magic and comedy takes some training, Mr. Miller will attest. Many offer magic trick
after trick, drop in a joke and continue with the magic. The best formula, he thinks, is to
just be a funny magician.
…
Reprinted with permission from Simsbury Life.
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