The Magic of David Gichner

Hi! My name is David Gichner and I'm a 15-year-old magician. Back when I was 8 years old I saw a magic show and from that moment, my life changed, but I didn't realize it at first. I was just like every other 8 year old, I looked up magic tricks on youtube then performed them for my friends. I told everyone that I want to be a magician when I grow up but I was still young. I even decided to start a youtube channel and I taught some tricks that I learned from magic kits or other youtube videos. The years went on and I still said I wanted to be a magician as a career. I continued to see magic shows whenever I could. I was a little kid at the time though and I couldn't keep focus forever. When I turned 9 I started a business. At 10 years old, I did magic at 2 of my friend's little sister's birthday parties. That business didn't last very long because I was very young. I still loved magic but I didn't learn magic daily, I took tons of long breaks from it and then would come back to it occasionally. When I was 11 I realized that people don't want to hire a 10-year-old for their kid's birthday party. At this time I still practiced magic but only on certain occasions. This was until later on...

At the end of 2016, I decided to retry having my own business. This business composed of magic and DJing services. I called this business Zounds! Entertainment. This was the start of something huge! I got back into magic again and performed at some little kid's parties because now people would finally hire me. The business is still a great success today but my magic still seemed to be the magic I had performed since I was 8.

I forgot to mention that I'm a hockey player. I would always make the top team my second year in the age group until 2018. In 2018 I was cut from the top team. At the time I was crushed, all of my best friends that I had always played with had made the team and I was left all alone. This ended up teaching me a very valuable lesson. I can't care about the little things in life. Hockey... yeah its fun, but it's not going to be my future career and I accepted that. I continued to try to find the good out of this situation and the one thing that I found helped me was magic. All my friends that I had used to hang out with daily became busy. I needed something fun to do and that was magic. This point marked the turning point in my life.

Since the end of 2018, there has not been one day without magic in my life. I turn down plans with friends because this is what I want to do with my life. I could only dream of performing in a theater and having people come and watch me. As I continued to grow with magic by my side people began to discover me. I was asked to do magic at a bar mitzvah in early 2019. I had been booking birthday parties and more. In my middle school's talent show I performed a trick for the whole school and made everyone go nuts! I became addicted to buying new magic tricks. Currently, I own over 500 magic tricks that I still do not know. When something looks interesting to me I would just buy it.

As 2019 continued my magic got better and better. People could not believe I was only 14! Then came summertime. Over the summer I go to overnight camp for 8 weeks. My friends knew I loved magic but they had never seen me perform. I would show them tricks around the cabin and they would all freak! Kids from all over camp came to see my magic. One night at 2:00 am I was wakened up by the oldest cabin to come show them all magic. That was a big moment for me. Then the camp found out and I asked If I could maybe do a show on a rainy day. They said for sure so I had my mom send up tons of my props. I had written a last-minute show that I performed for over 350 people and it lasted over an hour and fifteen minutes. My camp's directors are now making my show a yearly tradition at camp.

After camp, I began high school at my local public school. I showed magic to everyone. Even seniors wanted to be my friends after they saw my magic. Each year my high school puts on a show full of different talents and it's called the Variety Show. You must try out to get into the show. The show brings in over 3000 people in a 3-night span. I auditioned and I found out that the show would take place during my high school hockey playoffs. My hockey team is one of the best high school hockey teams in Illinois yet I decided to try out for the Variety Show. When I tried out the judges were baffled. They asked me if I would be interested in hosting the show and performing 6 different tricks each night so I said I'd love too.

People around the community began to hear my name. I was asked to take a picture with a kid after a show because he loved my magic so much. This show was life-changing because it showed me that I belong on stage.

Now, what makes me different than other teen magicians? I know I have the passion and talent to become a professional magician. I just need some amazing people to help me get there.

The photo I chose as my cover photo says a lot about the type of performer I am. I love to engage with people when I perform. This photo looks like I'm about to do something odd. I think it's perfect to represent my magic career because right now my magic career is stuck on pause, but once someone hits play, the applause erupts. This was taken from our school's broadcasting program. The lighting comes from the stage lighting in our school's center for performing arts. I think this is the best photo to represent my magic because it shows multiple emotions and I try to incorporate that in my magic.

To view some of my magic please check out @davidgichnermagic on Instagram

To watch my performances in the Variety Show check out the link below

ACT 1:

ACT 2: