David Kaye (born David Friedman) is a professional magician and author. He performs under the stage name Silly Billy.
He authored a long-running column for Magic magazine entitled, "Turn it around: Magic for the family audience." [1]
Kaye is the son of Arnold and Elaine Friedman. He is the eldest of their three sons. Kaye's younger brothers are Seth and Jesse. He grew up in Flushing, Queens, and then moved to Great Neck, Long Island, with his family when he was a teenager. [2]
In 1987, Kaye's father Arnold and his youngest brother Jesse were charged with molesting young boys in computer classes taught in the basement of the Friedmans' Great Neck home. [3] In 1988, Arnold and Jesse pled guilty to child sexual abuse and went to prison. The case was chronicled in the 2003 documentary Capturing the Friedmans . There was never any inference that Kaye had any knowledge of, or was involved in any way, with the activities of his father and brother.
Kaye adopted his current surname in the 1990s. [4] Kaye's registration of the surname Kaye with the SAG-AFTRA union for his stage name was due to 'David Friedman' being registered with 27 other individuals as of 2003. [2]
Kaye is the foremost children's magician in the United States, author of numerous books including Seriously Silly [5] and Super-Sized Silly, [6] a columnist in both Magic (American magazine) [7] and Genii magazine, [8] and creator of numerous marketed tricks: "Peek-a-Boo Bunny," "Yes, No, Maybe So," "Princess in a Pickle," among others.
Capturing the Friedmans is a 2003 HBO documentary film directed by Andrew Jarecki. It focuses on the 1980s investigation of Arnold and Jesse Friedman for child molestation. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2003. Some of the Friedmans' alleged victims and family members wrote to the Awards Committee, protesting the nomination.
Harry Bouton Blackstone Jr. was an American stage magician, author, and television performer. He is estimated to have pulled 80,000 rabbits from his sleeves and hats.
Spoon bending is the deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, purportedly by paranormal means. It is a common theme for magic tricks, which use a variety of methods to produce the effect. Performers commonly use misdirection to draw their audience's attention away while the spoon is manually bent. Another method uses a metal spoon that has been prepared by repeatedly bending the spoon back and forth, weakening the material. Applying light pressure will then cause it to bend or break.
Harry Lorayne was an American mnemonist, magician, and author who was called "The Yoda of Memory Training" and "The World's Foremost Memory-Training Specialist" by Time magazine. He was well known for his incredible memory demonstrations and appeared on numerous television shows including 24 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His book The Memory Book was a New York Times bestseller. His card magic, especially his innovations in card sleights, is widely emulated by amateur and professional magicians.
Drew Friedman is an American cartoonist and illustrator who first gained renown for his humorous artwork and "stippling"-like style of caricature, employing thousands of pen-marks to simulate the look of a photograph. In the mid-1990s, he switched to painting.
Jay Alexander is an American magician and comedian known as a corporate and society entertainer. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America and MTV, and also on many local morning shows.
David Roth was an American magician widely regarded as one of the world's greatest coin magicians. Roth was an important contributor to Richard Kaufman's Coinmagic, an influential text on contemporary coin technique; his major work was chronicled in David Roth's Expert Coin Magic, a book written by Richard Kaufman. Roth was associated with Fantasma Magic, a magic manufacturing and retail company in New York City before going to work for the Conjuring Arts Research Center during the last decade of his life.
Genii, The Conjurors' Magazine is a magazine devoted to magic and magicians. It is a monthly magazine first published in September 1936, currently edited by Richard J. Kaufman and owned by Randy Pitchford. The magazine is based in Washington, DC.
David Berglas is a British magician and mentalist of German-Jewish descent. His secret technique of locating a particular card within a pack has been described as the Holy Grail of card magic. He was one of the first magicians to appear on UK television.
Marvin Nathan Kaye was an American mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and horror author, anthologist, and editor. He was also a noted magician and actor. Kaye was a World Fantasy Award winner and served as co-publisher and editor of Weird Tales Magazine.
Brother John Charles Hamman S.M. was a close-up magician and Marianist Brother. The tricks he invented are still an integral part of many close-up magician's repertoire. Hamman was world-renowned in the magic community. His initial interest in the art started as a child. As he recuperated from polio, he spent hours learning, practicing and inventing card tricks and other magic involving sleight-of-hand. In many cases, he "reinvented" classic maneuvers or streamlined them. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Catholic Magicians' Guild and the Society of American Magicians.
Children's magic is a specialized aspect of parlor magic and is meant to entertain children. It is typically performed at birthday parties, churches, preschools, elementary schools, Sunday Schools or libraries. It is often the only type of magic most Westerners experience other than that seen on television. This type of magic is usually comedic in nature.
Charles Kraus, also known as "Charles the Clown", is an American clown, magician, writer, and comedian.
John Northern Hilliard was an American newspaperman, poet, novelist, and playwright. Among his works is a best-selling book on magic, Greater Magic.
Danny Orleans is an American magician, one of the top trade-show performers, corporate entertainers, and magical educators in the country.
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.
Richard J. Kaufman is an author, publisher, illustrator, and editor of books and magazines in the field of magic and amateur magicians of noted skill.
Ralph Dewey, also known as Dewdrop the Clown, is an American balloon twister who is known as the "grandfather of all twisters". He started twisting balloons in 1975, and in 1976 published his first book, Dewey's New Balloon Animals. Since then he has published 30 books, numerous videos and DVDs, and dozens of magazine articles.
Mark Setteducati is an American magician and inventor of magic, illusions, games and puzzles. He is also an author, known for the book, The Magic Show, and featured on PBS Inventors.
David Williamson is a professional sleight-of-hand artist, magician, and author. David Britland of Genii magazine called him "an exceptional stage performer" and "a magician who changed the way we do magic." He was named Magician of the Year in 2017 by the Academy of the Magical Arts, and was named an Honorary Member of prestigious British association The Magic Circle.