Mike Super calls himself a “mystifier.”
And when one sees his magic act — on America’s Got Talent or in person — it’s hard to disagree.
“In the simplest terms, I’m a magician,” Super told The Era. He’s going to be in Bradford for a performance at 3 p.m. June 3 at the Bromeley Family Theater at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford for the Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center’s final show of the season.
“I’ve always called myself a mystifier because I don’t like to be classified in one type of thing,” Super explained. “When you think magician, you think ‘kids’ birthday party.’ When you think illusionist, you think ‘guy in a shiny vest on a stage.’ The fun part is if you call yourself a mystifier, people ask what it means.”
And then he can show them. “Escape, close-up magic, big illusions — it opens up a whole giant genre. In my show, we include the mystical. We do illusions. I do an escape. I read minds.”
He’s proud of the fact that his show is one a family can enjoy together.
“Sometimes parents will take kids to Barney on Ice and the parents don’t enjoy it,” he said with a laugh. “My show is universal. It plays to all age ranges.”
A child may be enchanted by the magic happening before them, while the parents may be laughing at Super’s rapid-fire wit accompanying the visual displays.
“People are enjoying it at the same time together, for different reasons,” he said. “Even the teens enjoy it.
“The best compliment I get is from a parent,” Super explained. “They’ll say ‘my son didn’t want to go, but now he wants to bring his friends the next time you are in the area.’ I have two daughters. Anything we can do together is great.”
Laughing a bit, Super said his daughters, ages 4 and 7, aren’t as impressed with his magic as he hopes audiences will be.
“No kid is impressed with what their dad does,” he said with a chuckle. “If I take something, they say, ‘Dad, don’t make it disappear!’”
However, he added, when they sit in the audience during a show, they are pretty excited — “when they think it will make them look cool with their friends,” he added, laughing.
In today’s world of instant access to information, are audiences still mesmerized by magic and illusion? Yes, Super insists.
“The audience has changed in that people’s attention spans become smaller,” he said. “You have to work in more comedy, more emotions, make them identify right away with what you are doing. With technology, it’s easier to find out how things are being done.
“It’s my job to know what’s out there and how to respond,” Super said. When the “Masked Magician” had a television show revealing the secrets behind some of magic’s most famous tricks, Super paid close attention. “I would do the antithesis of it and that would amaze people even more,” Super said. “I’m kind of using technology against people — in a fun way. Science and magic are always in a race, I think. One betters the other in a constant race.”
He has some advice for budding magicians — keep at it.
“I would say magic is very relatable to a musical instrument,” he said. “You want to learn the basics first. Once you have that base, you can write any song you want. The internet is a great place to get a foundation, books and videos are a great place to get information. Like any other art, perform as much as you can.”
Super explained when he was a child, he got paid to attend birthday parties and put on a magic show. “I would perform at birthday parties for my friends and get paid. I would do restaurant magic, going table-to-table and performing tricks. It was a new audience to gain every night.
“Perform, perform, perform.”
And to the skeptics? Super invites them to contact him on social media.
“If anybody’s on the fence about coming to the show, message me on social media,” Super said. “I will read their mind online and hopefully impress them enough to buy tickets and come to the show.”
