Grand Illusions

THE Millionaires’ Magician does not like doing magic every waking moment. He goes to cocktail parties or dinners and everyone expects lamps to levitate and cards to materialize inside wine bottles. It gets excessive. But magic was the point. So all right, he would do something. When we first met, Steve Cohen had made my pen disappear and turn up behind his ear. Next time, I said, how about something better? He phoned. He told me to come to Riverside Park at 72nd Street just before sunset. “That’s when wishes come true.”

Magician to the Rich

Steve Cohen knows lots of neat tricks, like how to get hired by people with deep pockets.

On a recent night at the Waldorf Towers Hotel in Manhattan Steve Cohen was casting a spell over the room. Primped up in a tux and horn-rim glasses, Cohen, 37, sidled up to a few people and asked if they’d lend him some one-dollar bills. After teasing the guys and flirting with the girls, he crumpled up the bills in his fists and, when he opened his hands, out came a few hundreds. He calls the trick “Instant ROI.”

Cohen made $1 million last year turning tricks like this at the homes and corporate events of America’s richest people. He’s been flown in private jets all around the country, from Aspen to Cape Cod, playing at the homes of Forbes 400 members Martha Stewart (where he made three spools of thread pop out of a loaf of bread), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Reebok founder Paul Fireman 

VANITY FAIR Q&A

Since 1999, magician Steve Cohen, aka “The Millionaires’ Magician,” has been performing his sold-out show every weekend to small audiences at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. A master at prestidigitation—meaning “sleight-of-hand,” or, literally “quick fingers” in French—Cohen has made a career (and a very good one, at that) entertaining with his “Chamber Magic” show: some of those he’s performed for include David Rockefeller, Martha Stewart and Barry Diller. During the week, when not at the Astoria, he can be found—true to his title—performing at resorts, private clubs, and on the occasional yacht.

If its Vegas-style magic you prefer—in the Criss Angel-vein—Cohen’s understated approach might not be to your liking. There are no special pyrotechnical effects, no lasers, no loud rock music with bands that have umlauts in their title; all that stands between the audience and Cohen is a few feet and a silver dollar, a tea kettle, or a single pack of cards.

VF Daily talked with Cohen during a rare lull in his performance schedule—close to 350 a year—about the history of salon magic, the connection between certain tricks and the internet, and where this ancient art might just be headed.

The Bespoke Magician

Vera Wang referred to Steve Cohen as the best-dressed magician she’d ever seen. Cohen was hoping for just best dressed. When the dandy magician isn’t shocking the who’s who of New York City from his private suite at the historic Waldorf Astoria, he’s conjuring up bespoke suits from London and ties from Tokyo’s finest men’s shops. In between ducking in and out his closet to show off more “gems,” we asked Cohen a few questions about his personal style influences and the importance of always dressing the part.

The Millionaires’ Magician

For 13 years, Steve Cohen has performed at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. 250 shows a year. 5 Shows a week, 50 weeks a year. To date, a quarter of a million people from across the world have watched him perform ‘Chamber Magic’.

It’s a cold, crisp evening in New York and I leave my hotel for the Waldorf-Astoria. Entering through the private entrance to the Waldorf Towers, I was the first to arrive so sat amidst the grandiose surroundings as other guests followed suit, each adorning the required formalwear.