SYMbol newsletter featuring Mat Franco Photo credit: Richard Faverty
The audiences responded by voting for him over the other finalists – four musical acts.
One week after the win, I spoke to him on the phone. He was preparing for the America’s Got Talent Live Las Vegas show and was still trying to process his new-found fame. He was so excited that each sentence could have been typed out with exclamation points. Because Mat is the first magician to win America’s Got
Talent, I pointed out two facts about his win: 1) He is the first Stars of Tomorrow performer to become a “star” among the general
public. 2) In one night, Mat has been seen by more people than Houdini had in his lifetime.
Bruce Kalver: How did you get on the show? Did they recruit you?
Mat Franco: They tried recruiting me in the past. This year they did not. In the past I declined because I didn’t have material that was ninety-seconds long and appropriate, and probably because I was just scared to. So this time around, I decided to reach out to them. It was back in November of last year that I started thinking about it. I went to the open audition in Provi- dence, Rhode Island; it turned out to be a preliminary audition.
BK: Did you have to go through a few phases or did they move you right through?
MF: I went directly to the last phase because I had sent them some videos ahead of time. They had an appointment for me. I thought it was going to be nonsense and that I would be there all day. It wasn’t true. They were great. I showed up and had a
certain code that I had to say, and they brought me in immedi- ately. I was in and out in fifteen minutes. It was super fast and super easy. Part of that was because it was in Providence, so it was a smaller crowd. It wasn’t like going to New York City. I went in the audition room and did a couple of bits for them.
BK: What did you audition with?
MF: I auditioned with the story card trick that you saw on TV. It was a little different, but essentially the same thing. I had to change the address based on where I was performing as part of the Sam the Bellhop plot. Each time I auditioned I had to add the address of the theater. The other bit that I did was Cards Across.
BK: You auditioned February 1 in Providence. Did they call you right away after the audition?
MF: I didn’t hear back from them for a very long time. They didn’t contact me until late April. It was sort of like a final exam. You take the test and then you wait a long time to see what the grade is. They flew me out to Los Angeles to audition again. They called me a few days before. I later found out – because it seemed so last minute and I seemed like such a low priority – that I was brought in on the final day of shooting auditions.
They did some auditions with the judges in New Jersey and New York. The last was in Los Angeles. When I got called
Mat Franco performing his college show
Mat with the AGT judges Mel B.,Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel - Photo credit: Peter Kramer/NBC
And the winner is... Photo credit: Peter Kramer/NBC
days before, I realized that I was a replacement for someone who cancelled. When I asked my producer about it later on, she admitted that there were dropouts and she pushed to bring me in.
BK: On your second audition did you do the same tricks? MF: Yes, they told me to be prepared to do the same thing I did in Providence. I showed up and they said that they still didn’t know which trick they were going to film, so I had to be prepared for either one. They eventually said that they were going to go with the story. I agreed. They filmed it and that is how it all began.
BK: You must have been memorizing that story in your head all day long.
MF: Yes I was! In fact, I was rewriting and adjusting it on the plane ride to LA. You don’t simply change the address in the story. You have to change what cards appear to match the story. I had to figure it out each time.
BK: So when did you know that you were going to be on the show?
MF: The judges vote on the spot to give you a yes or no, which may or may not be the official final word. About a week later, I received the official email saying, “We want you the end of April.” The letter asked, “What are you going to do in the next round?” I then pitched my ideas. We shot “Judgment Week” mid May.
BK: Now that you made it, do you start thinking about a few routines to do in case you get through?
MF: I was thinking that from the very beginning even though it was on a very “just in case” basis. I was very careful not to get ahead of myself mentally. I still really expected nothing, which is where I was really coming from. However, the producers would
want to know from the get-go what you would do if you went through. Do you have some thoughts for the later rounds? So I did my best to produce ideas that I could pitch. I don’t think we used any of those, but I made sure I had ideas that showed that I had some depth and that I had concepts in mind that could be used for the live shows.
BK: What kind of magic works on AGT?
MF: Very few things can. It is so ridiculous. They want things that have never been done on the show before. The show has been on nine seasons, so a lot has already been performed. The trick has to be less than ninety seconds long and it has to be appropriate for television. It’s really, really challenging. I loved the challenge.
BK: Were there ideas you pitched that they said no to?
MF: Many! In fact if you think about it, when you present five ideas each time, they are only going to go with one of them. Sometimes I went back to one of the options that I previously pitched. What I was careful to do was to only pitch things that I would be happy doing. A lot of acts on these types of shows will complain, “They made me do this song or they made me do this routine that I didn’t want to do.” I made a conscious effort to pitch things that I would be comfortable and happy doing.
The producers were very helpful making the ideas become reality. Many times they had positive changes that helped con- tribute to it and other times they just said, “That’s good,” and I kept it as is.
BK: How did they feel about Cell Phone in Seat Cushion? MF: When I pitched that idea, they said, “Okay, that sounds good.” I said, “Wait a minute, are you sure? That’s it? No input at all?” The effect that I did the previous round had morphed into something completely different. When they liked the cell phone idea with no input, I was a little worried.
I love impossible location routines and wanted to use a cell phone. It was my girlfriend who said, “Wouldn’t it be great if you cut open a seat and found a cell phone inside?” I didn’t think they would let me do that. Then I realized that Radio City repairs seats every day. We ended up cutting up several since we had to rehearse the camera angles many times.
BK: The Cell Phone in Seat Cushion was the one trick laymen went wild over.
MF: That routine is the one I’m most proud of. We worked on it for a long time. After a while, you lose per- spective and you focus too much on the logistics. I remember wondering if this routine is gold, or is it boring? You really lose track. In the end I was so happy with how it turned out.
Method-wise and sleight-of-hand- wise it was extremely gutsy, especially
for live television. A lot could have gone wrong. In the end, I was very happy with it.
BK: There was a lot of camera work involved in that routine. MF: We rehearsed with the cameraman a lot to make sure it was YouTube-proof. AGT’s production crew was fantastic about protecting the secrets and worked very hard not to expose anything.
BK: So all in all, the staff on AGT was nice to work with? MF: They were all great to work with. One guy designed special effects for Cirque du Soleil; I asked him if he could build a hair dryer that spews out smoke. Within five minutes, he said he could…and he did!
BK: Did you have anyone advising you at the show?
MF: There was no one onsite with me. I get advice from a lot of non-magician friends who said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if this happened.” In terms of magic input, Eric Dittleman was definitely instrumental in helping me with some of the ideas. Another friend was Corey King, whom I called many times to bounce off some ideas.
BK: Do you think that being a member of the S.Y.M. as a kid helped you become a better magician?
MF: Absolutely! You can’t dismiss the whole interaction with other magicians. The Internet is great, but to communicate with people in person makes everything faster. There is nothing like going to a magic shop and interacting with the people there. Corey King and I got to know each other at S.Y.M. and S.A.M. events and bonded with other people who also love the craft. It’s inspiring to be around people like that.
BK: So do you believe that magic meetings and conventions are a better way to learn magic rather than combing the Internet?
MF: It is tough for me to even relate the two because I have never learned magic from the Internet. I surf the web to watch old classic magic clips. I get inspired by watching them.
BK: Why do you think you won?
MF: (Big laugh and then a long pause) I really don’t know. I would say a combination of luck and timing. I was surprised that a singer didn’t win. Look at magic now on television. It is once again becoming more popular. Another factor was that I was competing against four music acts, which may have caused those votes to be split up.
Many people view magic as a challenge. They immediately turn it into a puzzle. This makes it challenging to have a magician win. I made sure that I worked hard to connect with the live audience, as well as the viewing audience. I don’t have a character on stage. I’m just me. I felt that this might be a problem for me. I felt that I wouldn’t be memorable because I don’t have much of a gimmick. I hoped that for at least a few seconds I made the audience care about and appreciate the magic art.
BK: I wrote a blog for magicsam.com saying that a magician would never win AGT. Of course, you proved me wrong! All the things I mentioned in the article about the judging were wrong this year, because the judges took the right approach this time.
MF: Yes, the judges this year acknowledged how hard a magician has to work. A singer can pick a song that has already
been written. A novelty act, including a magician, has to create something new each week. They actually brought attention to that, especially Howard Stern. It was great for magic. It was great for the direction of that show. I was so happy to be a part of that.
BK: Your life changed the minute they announced the winner to be Mat Franco.
MF: The million dollars has not sunk in yet. (Mat gets either $350,000 in one lump sum or $40,000 in forty years of payments.) I am still the same Mat Franco. I’m just trying to stay organized. I don’t have time to get too caught up in
much of anything. You get pulled in all kinds of directions and the decisions I make over the next few weeks are very important for my future. I am trying to take a step back and evaluate. I really need to focus on the many opportunities and decide on which ones I want to tackle.
I am taking time to reflect and see how I want to use this new fame. I mean this is not what I planned on happening. I planned on being on the show during auditions for fifteen seconds and using that to promote my college shows. Once I won, I literally said to myself, “So now what am I going to do with my life?” It’s only been a week, so my focus hasn’t defined itself yet. I’m working on getting a manager to help me organize. That’s the toughest thing.
BK: Will you be doing a Vegas show like past winner Terry Fator?
MF: That’s one of the directions I could do. I just don’t know yet. Six days ago that was something I couldn’t even consider. People expect it, but I have to think about what I want to do, what would be best for me, and what I would enjoy.
Mat Franco has a lot to think about. Will his win cause a resurge in the popularity of magic? Time will tell. Whatever he decides, Mat Franco will be represent- ing the art of magic in a way that we can all be proud of.
Photo credit: Fernando Martinez
I believe in ghosts, or should I say “spirits,” and feel strongly they walk among us. I say this because I have too many examples among family and friends to conclude otherwise. And, after reading a new book by William V. Rauscher on the life and times of “Silent” Mora, I’m even more convinced that if B.F. Keith’s vaudeville theater in Boston still stood, a visitor backstage peering into the shadows would surely see the specter of Mora, resplendent in Chinese robe, waiting to perform. But that theater, vaudeville, and Mora are, of course, gone. However, with the pub- lication of Silent Mora: The Story of
Louis J. McCord, he walks among us
again – still gone but now not forgotten. Over the last two years, Rauscher, a noted biographer and historian, gathered every story, reference, or magic trick about Mora published in magazines like
M-U-M, The Sphinx, Genii, Tops, Con- juror’s Magazine, The Linking Ring, and
many others, as well as Mora’s personal
letters and correspondence. Magic historians around the world provided him access to their files on Mora. He even tracked down and befriended Mora’s grandchildren and just barely missed meeting Mora’s daughter Augusta, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 101. What emerges from all this effort is the story of a perfectionist, an artistic magical genius, an inventor, a talented pantomimist, and a major talent of Chautauqua, Lyceum, and vaudeville. He was a magical insider who befriended and influ- enced the greatest names in magic.
In the preface of his new book on Mora, Rauscher writes: “In the first half of the previous century, the popularity of vaudeville, Chautauqua, and Lyceum kept thousands of perform- ers, magicians included, fully employed. These venues, coupled with nightclubs, private dates, and clubs produced heady days of success. However, the advent of silent motion pictures and then ‘talkies,’ combined with the Great Depression, World War II, and the dawn of television, changed all this, and many performers were left to wonder where they could work and how they would survive financially.
“Such was the case of Mora, who was a well-known star of Chautauqua and a popular and creative vaudeville entertainer with expert manipulative skills. He knew all the top magicians of his day and carried on an extensive correspondence with them. He traveled the width and depth of the United States by rail, car, and even wagon, staying in hotels, keeping in touch with his family, and sending his earnings home whenever he could. Even with his busy schedule he was a major contributor of articles and original tricks to magic magazines and a frequent correspondent with many of the magic stars of his day. He had a prolific mind for
magical ideas and the magic world knew his name and greatly admired him.
“Like so many performers of his time, his image faded after his death, only to surface fondly in conversation. In Mora’s case, however, his name was immortalized when Boston Ring 122 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) named their club in his honor. This occurred on September 15, 1952, and was the undertaking of Ray Goulet, Mal Robbins, and Irving Weiner. Today Mora is recognized by magic collectors, who eagerly seek out his handmade props, such as his custom- made and decorated bamboo Chinese wands, fans, and other effects as shown in this book.
“Few magicians ever attain the status of household names and Mora is not re- membered like Houdini, or even Kellar and Thurston, who were America’s favorite magicians in their time, but who are forgotten by the general public today. He was, in a sense, a magician who was popular with the magic fraternity and certainly a star within certain entertainment fields, but not the wider world. He led a full and active life of dedication to the magical arts, was a internationally recognized master of billiard ball manipulation, and was a creator of magic novelties, but there came a time as in the quote from Shakespeare, ‘And then is heard no more.’
“He deserves a brighter spotlight in magic history and this book is an effort to resurrect him and to imprint his magic and name in theater history. So let the curtain rise again for the talented and widely admired Silent Mora, who may have struggled offstage, but who onstage was radiant and perfect in performance. Perhaps his friend, the noted magician Joseffy, captured it best when he inscribed a book to Mora and wrote, ‘To Mora, he who makes silence eloquent.’”
I interviewed Rauscher at his Woodbury, New Jersey, home, which is a jewel of a repository of magic history and which overflows with theater trunks of magic, poster-lined walls, and shelves of conjuring collectibles, each of which are threads in the tapestry of magic history.
Tom Ewing: What prompted you to write about Silent Mora, who died over forty years ago?
William V. Rauscher: It was several factors. The idea was