Q&A with illusionist Leon Etienne

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Q: Tell me a little bit about what got you into magic in the first place.

Leon Etienne: So, when I was 12 years old, I was growing up; I had a pretty normal childhood. I was very much into sports, playing baseball, ice hockey, football, run track – all that stuff. And one day, I was grounded by my mother, and I was bored out of my mind. And now, you’ve got to remember: I'm in my room. I'm 12 years old. This is before the internet. I didn't have a TV in my room at the time. So, under my bed was my fire trucks, my hockey equipment, and then I had a magic book under their, that my grandparents had given me as a gift. And I literally was so bored, I just opened up the book and learned my first trick.

And when I learned it, I wanted to show it to someone, obviously. So, I left my room, and the first thing my mom said to me was, “What are you doing out of your room? And “You're grounded. Get back in there.” I said, “Mom, hold on a second. I just want to show you this thing.” And I did a card trick for her – my first card trick – and I literally watched her mind melt (laughs).

For a 12-year-old, that was like the best power in the world, right, because this woman who's been telling me what to do and taking care of me my whole life, all of a sudden didn't have an answer, and it was so cool. So, that's how I got bit by the bug.

And then what happened after that is it just became another activity for the first couple of years. So, like within six months, I had done my first “professional show,” because my mom's friends at work were like, “Oh, your son's doing magic; would he come do my kid's birthday?” That story, which is old as can be.

And what happened was, after that, I started getting serious, and my dad had no idea what to do, because he was like he was a sports guy So, he's like, “I don't know anything about magic.” So, he opened up the phonebook and literally looked up magicians in Utica. And the first name he came to, he just called the guy. He's like, “Hey, my son's into magic. What do we do?” And the gentleman explained to him that there was a local magic club that he could join. I had to do a little performance test to get in to show I was serious. Just to show I'm not in to just learn secrets, but I actually had a genuine interest.

And then at age 16, I started competing in magic competitions. I started winning those competitions. And then by age 18 – this is pretty cool, and it kind of ties into how I do my career now. … We're really trying to bring something positive to the USA side of Niagara Falls; and obviously for it to work, it needs to work economically. But also, I think we've already had people this weekend came to the show that are in better position than a lot of people in the community, and they're like, “Hey, let us know if you can hook up with some underprivileged students,” or whatever, “We’ll sponsor tickets to the show.” So, I think that's already cool of the Niagara Falls community. But how I decided I could go professional is, when I was 18, I was graduating from Proctor High School in Utica, New York. In order to graduate, you have to do a community service project as part of senior year. I graduated in spring of 2002. So, that fall was September 11. And after that whole tragedy happened, I got to think and I was like, “You know, if I could put on a magic show in the auditorium for students, and students donate $1 or $2,” I think we ended up saying you give $2 to your teacher, you get to leave eighth and ninth period and come down to the auditorium and see a magic show. And what happened was so many students left class and donated we raised like thousands of dollars for the 911 fund. And that was my community service project.

But I put two and two together: I was like, “Wait a second. If we can do this a couple of times a weekend in different parts” – at that point I was only thinking New York state; I was still 18 – “we could really make a decent living here.” And that was the first time I saw that it could actually be a profession you can make a living at it. …

I've never had another job. I was a paperboy from the age of 12 to like I think was 16, and I used to deliver newspapers, and I used all my tip money to buy magic tricks with, and the salary part of it my dad put away for me for college. And literally, all through high school I did magic shows for friends, family, community events. And then when I got to college, I literally paid my way through college doing card tricks. I would work at local restaurants on the weekends and just do strolling magic, and I'd pick up private shows out of there.

I was practically running the business already when I was in college, but I guess if people wanted to put a date on it, I went “full time” where I was only doing magic, and not a student as well, it would have been right after college. It was 2006. But I mean, literally, I did my first show when I was 12. So yeah, it's been 27 years. I've never looked back. No one ever told me “No.” I was very lucky.

My guidance counselors in high school – I know this is way too much for the article – but, my guidance counselors in high school would pull me in and be like, “Hey, show us some tricks.” It wasn't like, “Hey, what's your real plan for life?” It was like, “No, no, no; come in and practice on us. One, we think you're good; and two, we want to encourage it.” And then when I got to college, I studied – I had a great mentor. He goes, “Look, you can absolutely make a living in magic but, just in case you 1) you get sick of it, or 2) the economy goes bad or something unforeseen happens, let's get a college degree. And my degree was in business management, with a focus on marketing. And I just never got another job. I just use those skills, currently, to this day, to market my business of magic.

(Photo courtesy of Etienne)

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Q: I'm sure there are a hundred things that go into your show. But, if I look at two of the main components, certainly it requires sleight of hand and showmanship. Watching you the other night, the first word I wanted to use was “effortless” – but that's not really accurate, because we saw how much work you put into it. And so, I think maybe the better description is that it looks super polished and professional.

What I was going to ask you is if these things came easy to you or if they were challenging – but it sounds like, from 12 years old, you got this thing right out of the gate. Not only did you master the sleight of hand, but just coming out of your room and doing that performance for your mother, it seems like you were a showman even back then.

Tell me about that process. How did we get from that point, when you're 12, to where you are now, going all over the world, on television, and now doing the show in Niagara Falls?

Leon Etienne: I think, just as an aside for the perfect analogy for you, the way I think about it, anyway, is it's kind of like a duck, right? On the surface, they look very smooth going across the water. But underneath those fins are those feet with a webbing that are going crazy, or at least maneuvering so that they can get around. That's really what's going on.

I'd say at 12, the beautiful thing about magic is, when you first get bitten by the magic bug, it's tiered, right? So, a lot of the basic magic tricks, if you just take a little bit of time to read and understand the description, like I could probably teach you a basic trick in five minutes and then have you go around and blow people's mind. That's the beautiful thing about magic is that, if you don't know the secret, to other people it looks like a miracle. And it's tiered.

So, at 12, I would say it was built so that I could grasp it quickly at a certain level. So, beginner-level magic is pretty low barrier to entry. So, that first trick was a simple trick, but effective. And then I learned a few more simple tricks; and then by the time I'm doing that first birthday show, I had gone through the rest of the book and now stuff starts to get a little more advanced. Like, how do you take a coin, put it in your hand, and cause it to vanish? That's your first sleight of hand lesson.

I would say I liked being in front of people. I was already playing sports and stuff like that. So, that was never an issue. And I was also an altar boy, because I went to Catholic school for the first six years of schooling, and then I went to public school in seventh grade. And I think that, being in Sunday church and stuff, actually got me very comfortable in front of an audience. Because, you know, it's basically an audience; it’s the same thing. And so, that was never really an issue.

Do I get nervous before big shows? Absolutely. I think that's natural and, if you're not nervous, that means you just don't care anymore. I never want to be there.

The other night before I came out and dropped that bowling ball for you guys, as the music's ramping up, I'm back there and I got that energy going. But from 12 to 27 years later, it's been a growth. Some tricks are way harder than others. I've been working on one routine for about six years now, and it's still not ready to see the stage. And then I just created something new the other night that I'm probably going to put in the Niagara Falls show in like a week, just to get it going.

So, there's a whole range of stuff. And some tricks, especially the really pure sleight of hand, come easy; but other pure sleight of hand tricks, depending on how hard the maneuver is – like the card manipulation you saw me do; so, when I was pulling the cards out of thin air and then they come flying out of my mouth. That routine took me a solid year and a half just to be able to present it, and that's all pure sleight of hand. So, a year and a half before it ever went in front of an audience. And now I've been doing it for years and years and years.

But, seriously man, on any given night, if I just move a finger one wrong way, the whole routine could be ruined. And it's happened before, and it does; and that's just natural. If you don't have screw ups, if you don't have mistakes, it just means you're not doing it enough.

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Q: So again, not to oversimplify or to mistake what I believe you said the other night, but you said part of the reason for coming to Niagara Falls is you’re doing this for love. What can you tell me about that?

Leon Etienne: Yeah, so, my longtime girlfriend now (Chelsea LaCongo), she lives in Orchard Park, and we've been touring together for nine years, all over the world, literally six of the seven continents, all over the place, TV shows. We're just at a point now where, during the summer months especially – because we still do big tours. We do a fall tour and we do a winter/spring tour, and that can take us anywhere from the northeast, to Florida, to this coming spring – this March – we’ll be over in Colorado. It’s our first big West Coast tour. So, that's kind of a steady in our life. But during the summer, we just kind of want to be with family; be in a place where it’s familiar to us, instead of living out of a suitcase or a hotel, which is what we've been doing pretty much 10 months a year for the last eight years we've met.

And Chelsea has a really big family in the Buffalo area. I have a much smaller family left in Utica. I just have my mom and my brother, basically. So, we were finding we were spending time off out here in Buffalo anyway. So, we ended up moving out here permanently, because I was still kind of living in Utica. She was living out here.

And then we talked to our friends, and it's a big trend all over the country – these mini magic residencies. A lot of guys actually have bought property and put magic theaters up in tourist hotspots all around the country. And it really works. It takes some time to get the ball rolling. But when it does, if you have the volume of tourists – which Niagara Falls certainly does – it's just a matter of educating them and keeping them on the U.S. side at night. It could work.

So, it was those two things. It was the need of wanting to be close to family and actually having some time to ourselves, and then also the mix of, “Hey, Niagara Falls is right here, and it happens to be one of the seven wonders of the world that people care to see. So, it could really work.”

Q: How does she fit into your act? You have been doing this for 27 years, but she didn't miss a beat. I mean, it's not like she's holding you back. Tell me about training her and how easy it was to incorporate her into the show.

Leon Etienne: Well, the beautiful thing about it is Chelsea, when I met her, was and still is a professional dancer. So, she had already showbusiness in her blood. She's been dancing since she was a little girl. Very comfortable on stage; very comfortable in large casts. And then the transition for her when I met her – and it's a funny story: We met on a cruise ship in the middle of Alaska. We did not know each other. We didn't know we were both from three hours away, me being from Utica, her from Buffalo. We met. We happened to be working the same cruise ship. She was in in the production show, as a dancer onboard the ship. I was the guest entertainer. And one night we were just, “Oh, you're from Buffalo,” and she's like, “Yeah.” I’m like, “I’m from Utica.”

We kind of had the romantic thing first, and then she was getting ready to move out to Vegas to pursue dancing out there, for showgirl stuff, and I said, “Hey, before you do that, would you want to just try some illusions and see how we do?” And we went into a rehearsal space in Utica, and she just tackled that thing. She's a go-getter. She's highly motivated, as you have to be as a dancer, and she crushed it, man. Like, it was very natural to her. You probably have to ask her but, but every time we've talked about it, when I first threw her in her first illusion, she just didn't want to disappoint me. So, even though she didn't know exactly how to do it, she's like, “I'll just figure it out.” You know what I mean? So, she literally, I threw her in the first prop, and she just made it work.

And then over those years, what happened is repetition. So, we got good working together, because we've just done so many shows together. At this point, it's thousands of shows. And because she was already a professionally trained dancer in show business, it just worked, and she just kind of took to it naturally. And over the years, her role has really, really grown. She's gone from an assistant in the show to now she choreographs the show, she co-produces the show. When we're on tour, she's doing everything. We’re basically partners in the behind-the-scenes side of it, for sure. And then the residency show, you saw her: she runs the whole show, man. I'm back there getting everything ready, and mentally ready to go. And then she not only has to check people in, but sell concessions, sell merchandise, and then also come out there and perform and be on the ball. So, she's a huge asset.

Q: And the fact that your relationship can withstand you cutting her in half every night, I think that's really remarkable.

Leon Etienne: (Laughs) Yeah, it's, you know, it's not easy. We know a lot of couples similar to us that work in show business together. And you know, you spend literally every waking hour together. There's no separation, I would say, in a “normal” relationship, although what is normal? Some people, they get up and they go to work for eight hours a day, and then they reconvene that night at home. Whereas we get up, we got to work for 14-15 hours a day, and then we're still together at night; and then wake up and repeat that – and that's been going on for almost 10 years now.

So, it definitely has its challenges, but it's also extremely rewarding. And we also love working for ourselves, and we love partnering with good people like everyone at the NACC. Everyone that we've come in contact with. You guys were amazing the other night. Everyone that was there in a professional sense, to try to help spread the word, I mean the feedback has been unbelievable.

The Niagara Arts and Cultural Center

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Q: You mentioned you're doing a version of your show. Certainly, you have to accommodate the size of the venue. For people who have seen you on television or have seen you on YouTube, can you describe your show in Niagara Falls?

Leon Etienne: So, what I like to think of this as, it's kind of like the intimate, up-close, in-your-face version. Everyone that watches on TV, it's always like, “Man, I wish I could see that in-person.” And then we tour to a big theater, like something like Shea’s or the casino. And that's the big version of the show. But even then I talk to people – because you're there with anywhere from 400 to 2,500 people, depending on the venue – and it's still like, “Oh, maybe if I was just sitting a little closer,” and I really think – and I'm smiling as I say this – I really think the beauty of the venue at the NACC is that we can only fit 90 people in there. So, there's not a bad seat in the house. You're right on top of the action. The first two rows are basically onstage with me, and you're literally getting to see some grand illusions as you will never see them. Audiences just don't have opportunities to sit that close to performers, usually. And the intimacy of this venue, I think, is what's really special, because it's almost like the audience and the performer become one and everyone's working together. It's highly interactive.

Q: I think it’s a very, very cool room that you're in (Woodbox Theatre), but in a room that size, certainly, you are going to have interaction. You want that; but interaction can go either way. You're the professional; the audience is not. And so, I really liked the way you rolled with everything the other night; the various – I don't want to say heckling, but there's different forms of interaction on any given night. So, what is the key to, like I said, rolling with that, and turning it into something entertaining, and not just having it be awkward for everyone.

Leon Etienne: There's nothing that will ever replace experience. So, I mean, thousands and thousands of shows at this point – and still, all the time, new stuff that I've never seen before happens. But just having that experience, I think, definitely helps me deal with it. And then also realizing that, over the years, most people, if they are saying something during the show, it's just because they want to contribute in some way. Nine times out of 10, it means they're enjoying themselves, and it's their way of contributing to the show. So, I don't take it as a bad thing.

A lot of times, I'll tell you, some of the best lines, some of the best moments that are in our show currently, happened on accident because of audience interaction. And then we were just present enough to be like, “OK, that was hilarious. Let's recreate that every night, but make it look impromptu,” you know what I mean? So, I never shun on those moments. I always accept them. It's almost like the golden rule in improv, right? It's like, “Yes, and.” You never say, “No,” or shut a situation down, because you never know what kind of gold could be mined out of that.

“Magic Rock” is on stage each weekend, through July, at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center at 1201 Pine Ave., and online at www.thenacc.org.

For show dates, times and tickets to see illusionist Leon Etienne, visit https://www.nfmagic.com/. He is online at https://www.magicrocks.com and @magicrocksshow.