Michael Grandinetti amazes America on 'Masters of Illusion'

He's the man with the magic touch!

Whether you are witnessing a show-stopping illusion or a simple card trick, magic is certainly mesmerizing. Anyone from ages five to 105 can easily be drawn in by the power of magic, and it's only a matter of time before the word "wow" comes out of the mouths of those who are watching. Someone who is no stranger to a crowd full of "wows" is magician and illusionist Michael Grandinetti.

Michael Grandinetti is one of today's hottest names in magic. Television fans might recognize him for being one of the stars of the popular CW show Masters of Illusion. On the show, Grandinetti dazzles both the studio audience and the home audience with his mind-blowing illusions. From making a girl appear from out of a painting to making himself disappear in mid-air, Michael Grandinetti defies the word impossible with every one of his performances. All of you magic lovers will be happy to hear that Masters of Illusion is once again part of the CW line-up this summer as season five episodes air every Friday night at 8:00 p.m.

When Michael isn't being a magic man on the Masters of Illusion stage, he's taking his show on the road and mystifies the masses all over the country. From New York City's Grand Central Station to Universal Studios in Hollywood to everywhere in between, there isn't any place in this fine land where Michael Grandinetti cannot bring amazement to everyday Americans.

As in the past, this season of Masters of Illusion once again showcases Grandinetti's magnificent magic, which includes some never-before-seen on television illusions that you do not want to miss. The Celebrity Cafe's Bradley Clarke recently had the chance to talk with Grandinetti about the new season of Masters of Illusion, his inspiration behind the sawing himself in half trick, as well as what it takes to put together, essentially, a televised live magic stage show.

 

Bradley Clarke: This is Bradley Clarke for The Celebrity Café, and often times I think that I’m the man with the magic touch, but today, I’m joined by a man who truly has the magic touch. He is a renowned magician who has performed on television, at sporting events, and just about everywhere else in between. However, he is not just any ordinary magician, he is a master magician, as this guy is a fixture on the popular CW series Masters of Illusion. New episodes of Masters of Illusion airs Friday nights at 8:00 PM on the CW. This is Michael Grandinetti. Michael, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

Michael Grandinetti: Thank you for having me. It's so good to talk with you.

Bradley Clarke: Can you believe it, season five of Masters of Illusions? Now, I remember when the show first premiered on the CW in 2014 and being so excited because, at the time, magic shows on television were hard to come by, and just to give the heads up, I may use a few magic puns over the course of this interview, I hope you don’t mind. So, Michael, my first question for you is, what would you say is the "magic" behind the success of this show?

Michael Grandinetti: Well, I think there's two reasons for it. Number one, magic is an art form that appeals to people across all ages, across all demographics. Magic is something that, no matter who you are or where you're from or what you do, you can sit down and you can enjoy it. You can feel uplifted by it, you can feel amazed by it. So magic really has a very universal appeal. And to your point, there really hasn't been a lot of magic that you could see on television. I mean, comparatively to sporting events to music events to certainly shows and movies, magic is much more rare, so I think that makes it more special.

The other reason is that this is the kind of show that an entire family can watch together, and in today's TV landscape that's really important. I think that has really helped the show a lot. I've gotten a lot of messages from people, e-mails and Facebook messages, where people say they record these shows, they DVR them and they play them back over the weekend for their kids and their kids enjoy them over and over again and I think that's great. That makes me extremely happy to hear and speaks volumes as to why the show does well.

Bradley Clarke: When you first heard of the concept of Masters of Illusion, was it instantly, I need to be a part of this show?

Michael Grandinetti: Well, my goal in magic since I first started out in magic is always to share my love of magic and my passion for performing magic with as many people as possible. So, certainly when this show began, knowing that it would be a great vehicle for making magic so visible, yeah it was certainly something that was very interesting and very exciting.

And now, the show is syndicated in over a hundred countries, so it feels great to know, again, that magic is getting that kind of visibility and people all over the world are enjoying it. So, yeah, I continue to be very happy to be a part of it.

BC: Well not many shows get syndicated in over a hundred countries, so that's something to be proud of, being part of a show that has leverage all over the world.

MG: Yeah, and you know what, I've always said that magic is a very powerful, a very uplifting, deep, rich art form and I think that the more visibility magic gets, the better. I mean certainly, everyone knows about magic but a lot of the feedback I've gotten is that, when people see magic, and especially if they haven't seen it in a while, it kind of surprises them and they go, wow this is better than I ever expected it to be. So again, I love that magic is getting that kind of visibility.

And from my perspective, I always tell people, I'm not in competition with any other magician, but I am very much in competition with myself. With myself, every year, particularly with the television show, I try to bring magic to television that is constantly trying to make it better, make it a little bit more exciting every year, make it unique and interesting every year. Again, to keep that positive image for magic out there, that's very important to me.

BC: Does that frame of mind help when you pick which illusions you're going to perform on the show? Is it always the next one has to be bigger and better than the one before or you have to try and match the last one? Or is it just about what will captivate the audience more?

MG: Well, to me, it's all of the above. I pick magic, first of all, that I think will be very entertaining and hopefully very amazing to the audience. That is very, very important to me. And the other thing is, I try to create magic for the show that works well on television. By that I mean, I think when magic is performed on television, it's very important that the home viewer knows that they're getting an even better view than they would have if they were there live, and that way they know that everything is fair when they are watching on TV.

I pick magic, and create magic, that can be filmed from every angle, under bright lights, certainly never any camera cuts. We film the magic, we perform the magic straight through, I never stop when we perform the magic for the audience.

I'll give you an example. We did a levitation a couple years ago, and we put this levitation right down in the audience. I made one of my dancers float in the air. And talking about giving the home viewer a better view of the magic than if they were there live, we took the camera, the camera moved 360 degrees around the levitation. So you could see it not just from the front as if you were watching it from a theater, but all the way around.

I try to pick magic and create magic that can really utilize television to give it the best viewpoint possible and make it look as good as possible for the viewers at home.

 

BC: I remember that trick, I'm a big fan of the show and whether it's you going through a fan or going through a steel sheet, it's amazing what you do.

MG: Thank you.

BC: When you heard that Masters of Illusion was coming back for season five, talk about some of the tricks you had in mind to perform because I know the one that just aired was a never before seen trick.

MG: Yeah, so there's a couple pieces this year when we filmed for the show that I was really excited about. On the first episode of the season I was featured on, that aired on July 6, which is the second week of the show, I did a version of one of magic's classic illusions. Now we've all heard of sawing a person in half. That's an illusion that dates back almost a  hundred years. What I wanted to do was make it extremely visible and to be fair about it since magicians always cut their assistants in half. I figured this time I would cut myself in half. So that's what I did. I cut myself in half with a twenty-four inch, razor sharp, steel blade, and I literally separated my upper half from my lower half, while I'm standing, with no cover. There are no boxes put around me, there are no cloths put over me. It is just right out there in the open.

The fun of it for me was, when we taped the show, even some of the people on the production staff there, who obviously see a lot of magic because we've filmed the show for many years, were really taken back by that one. That was very exciting. So, that's one of the new pieces, and it's a great example of taking a concept in magic and just trying to put a different spin on it, trying to do something a little bit different with it, make it a little bit more unique and certainly very visual for television.

BC: Where do you come up with the idea to do that trick. Are you just sitting at the breakfast table saying, you know what I'm going to do today? I think I'm gonna design a trick where I saw myself in half.

MG: Well, one time I heard a musician say that the music is always kind of circling around their mind, and for me, that's very much the same way for magic. Magic is always, always, circling around my mind, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I can say 24 hours a day because even when I sleep, I kid you not, I have dreams about magic and doing shows. So, literally, it's always there.

The fun of it for me is trying to come up with new ideas. That's part of my job that I really, really enjoy. So, I would say that a good portion of my thought is devoted to what can I do that's new, what can I come up with this year? The creative process I really enjoy. And we've done many different variations of some of the standard premises of magic, but the sawing in half premise is one that I've always been fascinated with. This is one I'm really proud of. Like I said, the process is basically saying, I like this concept. What can I do to go as far with it as I can at this point and time? And this was the result of that.

BC: Now I'm always fascinated with the "magic of television," and when I watch the show, I realize that the episodes are edited so that each magician is featured on different episodes throughout the season. I've figured this out because I've seen you perform wearing a very similar shirt a few times during a season.

MG: You'll be happy to know that I changed my shirt this year.

BC: Oh good, very good. So how many tricks do you perform in a row for the audience and what's a taping day like for Masters of Illusion?

MG: As with all TV productions, it's a fast-paced schedule. The show is taped over a period of a week and we'll basically come in for a day or two and perform all of our segments in a row. Now, the show actually, when it's filmed, it's filmed like it's a live show. It's not like it's tape something and then stop, and then tape something and then stop. It's all organized so that you perform your illusion and when you're done, another part of the show happens, then another part of the show happens, then you come back, then another part happens.

So, the live audience, the 300 people that are there watching live, their experience is very much like watching a live magic show. But to make it look as good and as smooth as possible in that short amount of time, it makes for a very busy schedule. What helps me a lot is that I tour, I travel around the county a lot. So we spend a year working out all of the new illusions and if there are any rough spots we polish them up on the road so that, by the time the TV tapings come around, we've already done these illusions hundreds of times. So, that certainly helps when there's a very hectic tape day. For me and my team, it makes it a smoother process.

And when I say I tour, it's our show that we have, my show, and I have a great time traveling with it around the country, it is a blast. I just want to differentiate with you between that show and other magic tours that are out there.

BC: What's it like being on the same show as Superman, Dean Cain? 

MG: Dean Cain is a great guy. I've had the chance to meet him a couple times and do some promotions with him and he's just a really nice, down to Earth, good person. Extremely friendly, really, really seems to enjoy his work and being part of the show and I can't think of a better host for the show. He's just fantastic.

BC: So, I've been mentioning both the words "trick" and "illusion," but in the magic community, is there a difference between a trick and an illusion or is it the same thing?

MG: Well, I think the word illusion has an image of a more larger, more spectacular, more intriguing magic. I think a trick connotates smaller things and I think a trick sounds a little bit more informal to a degree. I think an illusion sounds grander, more dramatic, more polished, more theatrical. So, a trick almost sounds like a joke where an illusion sounds more like a piece of theater.

BC: That's actually a very good analogy. I, personally, have been a theater kid all my life and I've always loved magic acts because of the theatricality, and even if it's an intimate sleight of hand trick, there's still a lot of theatrics that goes into it, between the way the cards move or the way that you are showcasing the trick or the illusion itself.

MG: Oh for sure, absolutely. Whether the magic is a large scale grand illusion or a piece of interactive magic, stand-up magic or close-up magic, the theatrical element to make it look good to an audience is still very, very important. Every piece of it goes together, the scripting, the movement, whether it's hand movements or body movements. Even lighting and choreography. The choreography could be dance and body movement for a grand illusion, choreography could just be prop placement for a small illusion.

It's all the movement and emotion of what the audience is seeing, and it's all very important because, at the end of the day, it's the entire picture that the audience is taking in. Even on a subconscious level, that plays into whether they like or enjoy what they're seeing. So all the elements are very important.

BC: Now you do both grand illusion and sleight of hand. Is there one that you prefer to do because I know you've done sleight of hand for a number of television shows that you were a magic consultant for, but Masters of Illusions is more focused on the grand illusion. Of grand illusion and sleight of hand, is there one you like to perform more or do you like switching off sometimes and performing a mixture of both?

MG: That's a great question. I really like doing both because both have their benefits, and let me explain what I mean by that. When you do the large-scale illusions like you said, whether you're walking through a fan or levitating in the air, certainly those elements are spectacular and you really get to see a sense of complete and total amazement on the audience faces and eyes and expressions, and I love that.

To me, I do what I do because I love watching audiences completely amazed and completely happy. Knowing that you made an audience happy and amazed and giving them a good memory to go home and think about, that's why I get up every morning. So with the spectacular magic, that connects with them, certainly, on a very powerful level.

Now the close-up magic is so interactive. You can connect with the audience on a much more personal scale, a much more personal level, on a level completely different from when you do the larger pieces of magic.

In this year's show, I went back down into the audience and I did a piece of close-up magic with the audience surrounding me, and I used something borrowed from one of the audience members. And the gentleman who lent me this item was two feet away, the camera was two feet away, everyone on all sides was two feet away, and it made that piece of magic very personal. So that creates a whole different connection with the audience, which I enjoy very much. So I enjoy them both.

That's what I love about what I do. What I love about magic is that there are these varying degrees of what you do. But the performer and the audience keep it exciting along the way. It's like a musician. If you go see a musician, you'll hear some up-tempo songs, you'll hear some ballads, but it keeps the variety in the show, and I think that's important no matter what the art form is.

BC: Going back to my obsession with the "magic of television," do you have a say in the camera work and do you have any instructions for the camera people for each specific trick?

MG: Well, we have pre-production meetings and we talk over each of the pieces of magic that are gonna be performed. And certainly, if there are any concerns, I will discuss those with the production team, with the director, with the producers, with the camera people, because at the end of the day, we all want everything to look as strong as possible for both the live audience and the home audience. I also try to pick pieces where it's relatively safe.

For example, when we did that levitation, I can tell the camera people and the director, take any shot you want, shoot it from any direction and please do a 360, so I love having that. I wouldn't pick a piece of magic to do if the viewing angles were somewhat limited to make it look enjoyable to an audience. To me, I like to have variety in the way it can be filmed for television where you can give the home audience all the different angles. But, to answer your question, yes, absolutely, we do have meetings, we do discuss it and everybody's goal is to make the magic look as good as possible.

BC: Well that's essentially the "trick" of doing magic television because you have to play to the crowd right there but also to the audience at home and whoever's watching.

MG: Yeah, absolutely. You're essentially playing to both the live audience and everyone at home. But, in some ways, when you're up there performing for the show, because of the way it's set up, it feels very much like you're doing a live show. Once you have all the television elements worked out, once you've talked with the director and the producers and the camera people and the lighting people, once that's all figured out, when you go out there and perform, it feels very much like a live show.

You almost forget that it's television and you don't, in many cases, see the cameras because they're towards the back and zooming in. You may see the crane camera overhead at certain points of time but the television aspects of it, when you're out there performing, are not intrusive. It allows you to go out there and feel like you're just doing a stage show and I think that certainly comes across in what the audience sees, especially the home viewers. It feels very much like you're watching a live stage show.

BC: When I watch at home, I sometimes forget that I'm watching a television screen, especially when I really get so into the performance and want to know what's going to happen in the end, is it going to reappear, is it going to disappear, how do you do that? Magic TV, to me, is really magical!

MG: Absolutely, I agree with you 100 percent, you got it exactly right. It's all about the surprise and the looking forward to what's coming next and not knowing what's coming next and then being very uplifted by what's coming next. I always tell people, and maybe this will make sense to you because it seems like you're the type of viewer who really enjoys watching magic.

Magic is one of the few art forms, and one of the few things in life, that allows people to feel amazed. We don't go through our daily life feeling amazed too much, especially now with information coming at us a hundred miles a minute. But magic lets you, kind of, go back to what you felt like when you were a kid or when things were amazing. And I think the feeling of amazement is a very positive, very uplifting kind of feeling. I think that's why magic has endured over the years. It just makes you feel great to be amazed, and I think that's the fun of watching the show, not knowing what's coming next, being surprised when it happens and allowing yourself to let go and just enjoy the amazement.

BC: Well I certainly am that viewer, I am always amazed, especially with the stuff that you do. The sawing yourself in half trick was truly incredible, I can't wait to see what else you have in store for this season.

MG: I can't wait for you to see it. I really feel this is some of the best magic we've been able to do on the show. There's another piece that's coming on in July that I'm doing and it should be on tour at the end of July. So for years, another classic of magic that magicians have done is that they have these silver rings, and they link and they unlink these silver rings. This year I take these big silver washers and I do something really unique with the washers and an audience member's arm, and this is a piece that has never been on television before.

My big takeaway from that piece of magic is, the people that we get up from the audience have no idea what's going to happen. I mean, they are literally pulled at random at that moment. They're not talked to, they're not planned out, so when they come up on stage they don't know what's going to happen, and I remember, when I was performing this illusion with this young lady from the audience, just watching her surprised, especially at the end of the illusion, seeing that look on her face, I loved it. That's another one I can't wait for people to see.

BC: Well I'm a huge fan of audience participation. One of my favorite shows of all time is The Price Is Right and I love audience participation elements in anything, so I'm glad that you use tricks that use audience participation.

MG: I enjoy that very much. Like I told you, for me, it's all about seeing that look of amazement on an audience member's face, and when you're able to bring somebody up on stage and have them become personally involved with the magic, not just watch the magic up close but literally become part of the magic, it allows you to really build a special relationship with, not only the audience member but the entire audience. You get the entire audience knowing that it's an audience member up there, it's one of them, they're experiencing it sort of vicariously through the audience member themselves. It's much different than me just using one of my own assistants.

So, I think audience interaction and allowing the audience to come up on stage and literally become part of the magic using their hands, using their arms, using their borrowed objects, in some cases even making magic happen to them specifically, I think that's a lot of fun.

In my live show that I mentioned that I take around the country, the bulk of it is audience interaction. The focus of the show is just that, it's pulling the audience into the magic so that, by the end of the show, almost everybody in the theater has had a chance to participate, and I love that.

BC: Well, another show that's on the CW, another magic television show is Penn and Teller: Fool Us. Are you familiar with that show?

MG: Yes.

BC: Have you ever thought of going on that show and try to baffle two of the greatest magicians of all time?

MG: No, I am more focused on performing for the home audience and performing for the live audience there. It's a fun show and people had a great time on it. I know the viewers enjoy it, but for me, my goal is not to make magic a competition. My goal is just to perform it and hopefully have the audience enjoy it.

BC: So no America's Got Talent for you in your future?

MG: No, I enjoy performing straight for the home viewers, and I'm happy with the viewers watching at home, with their remotes in hand, being my judges.

BC: Well that's a good point. A lot of magicians will go on America's Got Talent and years ago on NBC, they had a show called Phenomenon which was basically magicians competing against each other. It's interesting how people go on, not only to win the competition, but it's a good way to boost their careers in terms of getting yourself out there. I enjoy hearing that you personally love to focus on the audience shows and particularly Masters of Illusion.

MG: Yeah, I enjoy it very, very much. At the end of the day, I try to create magic that appeals to everybody, and this kind of ties back into what we talked about in the beginning. Magic appeals to such a broad audience. My hope is everybody at home, no matter where they are, no matter what they're doing, no matter what kind of day they had, they can all sit down and just, for 30 minutes, kind of let go of the rest of the world, shut off the rest of the world and just enjoy. So that's what I enjoy doing.

BC: Now I want to talk a bit about how you started in magic. I know you got a magic kit when you were very young, I believe five years old, and, believe it or not, when I was six years old and in the first grade, I was Marvin the Magician for Halloween. I was a magician for Halloween, I had my own little magic set, I dressed to the nines in the classic magician's garb. Were you ever a magician for Halloween?

MG: I was. In fact, I was also six years old, but I bet your costume was better, mine wasn't so elaborate. But I went around, I remember I had one little piece of magic that I took around with me and I would show the people door to door. I'm lucky, I found what I love to do very early on by getting that magic set when I was five. It allowed me to find my purpose in life very early on and from that point forward, that was it for me.

I can't remember a time when magic was a driving force of my life. It was always there. I use to sit in my classrooms in elementary school, in middle school, and of course, I paid attention to the teacher and all that stuff, but I would daydream that someday I would go out and do shows and I want to be on a stage. It was always in my head, so I thankfully found it at such a young age.

BC: What magicians did you look up to when you were growing up and when you knew you wanted to pursue the magician route as a career?

MG: I watched every piece of magic that I could growing up. When I was a kid, when the TV listings would come in the newspapers, I would take those TV listings and I would go through line by line and look at every show, every talk show and see if a magician was going to be on any show that week, and then I would set the VCR, if you remember VCR's, and I would tape them and I would study them. I taped tons and tons of magic on TV and I learned what didn't fit for me, I learned what I like watching, and I would go to libraries, remember libraries? And I would take out books, there wasn't a lot of them, there were probably six or seven magic books in the library, and I would take them out repeatedly and just study them.

So, there wasn't any one source, there were multiple sources. Anything I could get my hands on, regarding magic, I studied voraciously. To this day, I'm still constantly researching magic, constantly, and not just new magic but what magic was done a hundred years ago. What is back there in history where I might be able to learn from and get an idea from?

BC: Well, before we continue, I want to make sure our younger readers know what a VCR was in case they are unfamiliar. Before YouTube, before DVR, there was this box, you put a video tape in it, you press record and hopefully, your show would come out. And a library is a place you go get books.

MG: VCR's were the YouTube and libraries were the internet from back in the day.

BC: Right, exactly, and the library had this thing called the Dewey Decimal System, but that's for another day.

So, what advice do you have for kids of today who might be inspired to one day become a Master of Illusion like yourself?

MG: Well, I would say, number one, study everything that you can about magic. The internet is a great resource, but I would also say search out magic books. There is something really valuable in reading a book and learning from a book and not just watching something and emulating what you may see on YouTube or online. Get a couple magic books and allow your own creativity and your own personality to infuse what you're reading in that book, and then go out and perform for as many people as possible.

I use to perform for our neighbors in the neighborhood and certainly my family when I was a kid and I loved performing, and the more you perform, the more you do it, not only is it tremendously fun but you're going to learn from it, and you're going to grow more and more and more. Like anything else, the more you do, the more you're going to learn and the better you're going to get. So study, and study all aspects of, not just the magic, but study performance. Study movements, study writing, study all theatrical elements just so you feel comfortable and have a good knowledge of those elements because, like we said earlier, they all come together, and little by little, you'll be on your way.

The last piece of advice I have is if you want to do it, if that's what you want to do, go for it ... go for it. You can do it. If I could pursue my goals and my dreams to be a magician, you can too. So, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of perseverance, but if it's what you want to do, go for it and make it happen.

BC: And it can be done because now you're performing on television, at sporting events and NFL halftime shows and you made the Philly Phanatic appear at Citizens Bank Park.

And speaking of that actually, are you happy that magicians like yourself are getting involved in sporting events because, from what I know, I've never seen any magician at a sporting event do a halftime show, but I'm glad to see it's not just singers performing at halftime shows anymore, there are magicians who perform as well. 

MG: I love that. About ten years ago, I really started moving to that direction, and now I've done a little over thirty halftime shows for NFL football teams and NBA games and even with Major League and Minor League baseball games. We've had a great time ... great time bringing magic to those environments. I love it. It's something that the people, who go see the games, are certainly not expecting to see. So it adds just a nice, fun element to it.

We've come up with ways to, believe it or not, involve everybody in the stadium at the same time. We have an illusion that involves all 60,000 people in the stadium at the same time, and so to pull everybody into the magic, even in those kinds of environments, it's just tremendously fun. So I enjoy that a lot and we have more halftime shows coming up so hopefully, I'll be near you and you can come and see us.

BC: Well I'd love to, and do you hope that more magicians will get out there and perform at sporting events like you do?

MG: Well I think I'd like to see, not just sporting events, but I think for magicians in general, the more the magic is out there, the better it is for the art form. The more well-rehearsed, well-planned, well-performed magic is out there, that will allow the art of magic to grow and continue. Magic dates back not just a few years, magic dates back hundreds and hundreds of years, and what's kept it going is people out there doing good work. So, anytime I see good magic out there it certainly makes me happy.

BC: And do you currently see a bright future for magicians and magic because, over the last few years, I've seen the popularity of magic grow and it's because of shows like Masters of Illusion and Penn and Teller: Fool Us and even just magicians getting out there and performing on television and other places. So, do you see magic getting even better in the future?

MG: Absolutely ... absolutely. I think there are so many creative directions and so many opportunities for magic out there. Think about it, people are on there phones all the time. I don't just mean talking, I mean all of the information that people are utilizing their phones for. Information is just flying at people all the time. I think magic has the ability to take people back away from all that and give them that simple moment of enjoyment and amazement. So yeah, I think there's a great future for magic ahead.

BC: And is there an illusion that you're hoping to, in a sense, "master" yourself or create for the audience? Or is there a place that you hope to perform next at? I know you've performed practically everywhere already, even at the Hollywood Walk of Fame you've levitated for an audience, but is there an illusion or a specific place that you hope to conquer next?

MG: There are a lot of things on my to-do list. I always tell people that I feel like, even though we've done quite a few things, it's just the tip of the iceberg, so I will probably run out of time before I run out of places that I want to take magic. But that keeps it fun for me. That means that, on a personal level, I have a lot that I want to do out there and a lot of mountains to climb and there's a lot ahead I hope we'll be able to do and I hope people enjoy.

BC: Well Michael, I have had such a fun time talking with you today. One more time, tell our readers when and where they can watch Masters of Illusion.

MG: Masters of Illusion airs Friday nights on the CW. It runs for 13 weeks. It started at the end of June and runs all the way through the summertime, and the exciting thing is, I believe for most of the season, they're going to be airing a couple episodes per Friday night, both new episodes and some encore episodes of previous seasons. So, people will be able to tune in and see a lot of magic.

Bradley, it was great talking to you, thank you for your time and for your enthusiasm and for being such a loyal viewer of the show, and particularly for doing all of your research and looking into what I do. It made me very happy to hear that you've enjoyed my magic I truly appreciate that.

BC: Well I appreciate you for talking with me and I can't wait to see what you do next, especially on Masters of Illusion. 

MG: Well thank you so much, I can't wait for you to see it and, like I said, there's a lot of magic ahead, so stay tuned.

BC: Well I certainly will. Good TV term there, "stay tuned."

MG: Thank you again Bradley, I've truly enjoyed this interview.

BC: Well I've truly enjoyed talking with you as well. I hope that I get to speak with you again in the near future. 

MG: Same here. I hope you enjoy the show this year.

BC: Well if your first illusion was any hint as to what is to come from you, I know I will definitely enjoy the show this year.

MG: Well you're going to have to let me know what you think of our illusions.

BC: I will, definitely. 

MG: Alright, well, thank you again. You take care.

BC: Alright, you take care as well.

MG: Alright, bye.

BC: Bye.

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