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Michael Kent (born January 14, 1979) is an American comedian and magician from Columbus, Ohio, United States. He tours internationally, primarily performing a stand-up comedy-style magic show in American Colleges and Universities, cruise ships and on overseas military bases. [1] [2]
Born and raised in Urbana, Ohio, Michael Kent became interested in magic at the age of six and cites watching David Letterman on television as one of his earliest influences in comedy. [3]
Kent is a graduate of Ohio State University, where he majored in Communication and played the snare drum in the OSU Marching Band. He also has spent time in Chicago, Illinois, studying at The Second City Training Center. [4] He now tours the US performing in as many as 80 colleges a year, often performing in as many as 40 states. [5] Cleveland.com listed Michael, along with Drew Carey, Dave Chappelle and Bob Hope, on its list of "Famously Funny" notable comedians from Ohio. [6]
In 2011, Kent helped create a series of Public Service Announcements for The Kristen Brooks Hope Center, a suicide prevention hotline, IMAlive.org, and Post Secret to help raise funds for DC Gives Day of Charitable Giving. The PSA's are continuing to be used to raise money for Suicide Prevention. One of the videos features Kent performing magic with a specially printed Suicide Prevention deck of cards. He has also used his performances to raise money for the National Alliance for Mental Illness. [7]
Kent was featured on the Season 3 premiere of Penn & Teller: Fool Us on The CW, hosted by Alyson Hannigan. He performed the Multiplying Martini Bottles and did not fool Penn & Teller. Penn Jillette said of Kent's performance:
I wanna really address something important here that there's this view that laypeople have, and I think even some magicians have, that real technical skill – sleight of hand skill – is cards or coins, small stuff you manipulate, and you can palm; you can do all this. With apparatus magic, they often think that the props are doing the trick. I want people to know how hard this is to do. It's a really hard thing to handle. The speed that you do that; the clarity, the cleanness ... not only are you– obviously you're funny, but everybody knows that. And obviously you're likeable, everybody knows that. But what they may not know is just handling those props – if you told somebody, "Here are the props, here's how it's done, here are the secrets," they would still stumble through it for months. And you just have a beautiful presentation.
Penn & Teller: Fool Us Ep. 304 [8]
Kent was named "2014 Entertainer of the Year" after being nominated for the award in Campus Activities Magazine for three consecutive years in 2012, 2013 and 2014. [9] Kent has seven career nominations in the publication after having been nominated for Best Rising Star and Best Small Venue Artist in 2009. [10] [11] The Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) named him 2014 Magician of the Year. [12] He has been selected as a showcase performer at more than a dozen Regional and National showcases for the National Association of Campus Activities and the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities.
In 2008, Kent was extended a personal invitation to perform a series of private shows for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron. In an air show in Ypsilanti, Michigan, they extended an offer to give Kent a VIP ride in Fat Albert, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft during its air show flight demonstration.
In February 2010, Kent performed a tour for the U.S. Army's MWR Dept. in South Korea. Kent had to undergo training to become a military contractor for the tour, which sent him to 12 Army Garrisons throughout the month. [13] In December 2012, Kent was invited by Navy Entertainment to spend Christmas and New Years performing on Naval Bases throughout Asia. He toured through Tokyo, Philippines, Thailand, Diego Garcia, Okinawa and Guam performing alongside the Kelly Bell Band, a blues band from Baltimore, Maryland. [14] In April 2015, Kent flew around the world performing on Navy Bases to celebrate the "Month of the Military Child. The grueling schedule had Kent flying to a new country almost every other day for a month. [15] He was asked to return to many of those bases to perform his show again in 2016. [16]
In 2024, he traveled to the Middle East to perform for American Naval Forces serving at NSA Bahrain in the Kingdom of Bahrain and on-board the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower while at sea. [17] [18]
In total, Kent has performed on 29 military installations throughout the world and continues to dedicate time to entertain American Armed Forces.
In 2011, Kent invented and released an original effect, "repAIR," a popped and restored balloon effect that allows the magician to start and end with empty hands. This effect was the first of its kind in the history of magic both in plot and method. [19] [20]
In 2020, Kent introduced a weekly live-stream talk show, Joke/Story/Trick LIVE. [21] The show had several notable guests in its 60 episode run including Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI), Comedians Hal Sparks, John Fugelsang, Bruce Vilanch, Larry Hankin, Pro Wrestler Eugene, and U.S. Navy Seal Kristin Beck. Kent has also worked as a commercial actor, appearing in television commercials and industrials and as a print model for companies ranging from Intel, AEP, The Ohio Lottery, Miami Valley Gaming and Kemba Financial.
Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.
Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured in numerous stage and television shows, such as Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, and is currently headlining in Las Vegas at The Rio. Jillette serves as the act's orator and raconteur.
John Max Thompson was an American comedian and Las Vegas illusionist who performed under the stage name The Great Tomsoni with his wife, Pamela Hayes. They had a comedic slapstick act with the well-dressed Thompson and his gum-popping assistant, Pam, performing illusions while enduring a series of mishaps. Within the magician community, Tomsoni was considered a virtuoso, widely known as a mentor and teacher of magic, and a creator of tricks, as opposed to simply a performer. He worked behind the scenes with magicians such as Penn and Teller, Lance Burton, Criss Angel and Mat Franco. In 1999, he was awarded one of the highest honors in the magician community, a Masters Fellowship with the Academy of Magical Arts. January 30, 2020, Showtime released a documentary about Thompson written and directed by Emery Emery called Gambler's Ballad: The Legend of Johnny Thompson.
Joshua Jay is an American magician, author, and lecturer. He has performed in over 100 countries and was awarded top prize at the World Magic Seminar in 1998. He worked with Penn and Teller on the show Fool Us, and he holds a Guinness World Record for card tricks. Jay has performed on shows including Good Morning America and The Today Show. In January 2018, Jay was recognized by the Society of American Magicians for his contribution to the art of magic.
John Archer is a British comedy magician, television writer and actor. As well as performing magic, he has also commercially released a number of his tricks through various magic suppliers.
Mike Super is an American magician who is the winner of the NBC show Phenomenon. He was a top finalist on Season 9 of America's Got Talent. He's also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Penn & Teller: Fool Us series. Super currently tours the U.S. and Canada with his illusion show.
Shawn Farquhar is a Canadian magician and illusionist notable for his title as the "Grand Prix World Champion of Magic" from the International Federation of Magic Societies.
Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a magic competition television series in which magicians perform tricks in front of American magician-comedian duo Penn & Teller. Its first two seasons were hosted by Jonathan Ross, the third through ninth seasons were hosted by Alyson Hannigan and the tenth season by Brooke Burke. Fool Us was filmed at Fountain Studios in London, England and the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, located in Las Vegas. After each performance, if Penn & Teller cannot figure out how a trick was done, the magician(s) who performed it win a Fool Us trophy and a five-star trip to Las Vegas to perform as the opening act in Penn & Teller's show, also at the Rio Hotel & Casino.
Peter Kenneth Wood is a magician and "Collector of the Impossible" based in Maryland.
John van der Put is an English magician and comedian, who performs under the stage name Piff the Magic Dragon. A winner of multiple awards from British magic societies, he toured as a supporting act for Mumford and Sons and has appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and America's Got Talent. In June 2019, van der Put was named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch for 2019. Van der Put lives in Las Vegas and has a residency at The Flamingo.
Joel Ward is an American magician. A Magic Castle favorite, Joel has been seen on The Tonight Show, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, as well as Comedy Central, Bravo, The CW, Fox, and more. He has served as a magic consultant for film/TV projects such as Arrested Development, Netflix's Magic for Humans, Hulu's Shut Eye, Disney's Magic Camp, and for Jane Lynch and Jordan Peele on Funny or Die. He served as Emma Stone's magic consultant for a Vogue original, directed by Ruben Fleisher. He tours regularly with his comedy & magic show and performs full-time at private parties and corporate events.
Kostya Kimlat is a magician, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and business consultant. With the use of magic tricks, Kimlat helps companies train employees. As a speaker, he lectures on the importance of perception in daily life through magic and sleight of hand.
Mysterion is a Canadian mentalist, magician, collector, comedic writer and occasional wrestling manager.
Liang-Shun Lim, known professionally as Shin Lim, is a Canadian-American magician, recognized for his use of card manipulation and sleight of hand. He is known for elaborate close-up card magic routines, during which he remains silent with the tricks set to music. He is self-taught, having learned most of his skills from watching YouTube, and has in turn shared some of his own techniques in videos on the site.
Young & Strange are a British comedy magic double act. The duo perform on stages around the world with a magic, comedy and illusion show and currently headline the touring production of Champions of Magic which frequently tours theatres in North America.
Xavier Mortimer, is a French magician and variety performer. A winner of multiple awards, he has appeared on television shows Penn & Teller: Fool Us, America's Got Talent, Masters of Illusion, Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, and The Next Great Magician on ITV. Mortimer lives in Las Vegas and performs his resident show at the Strat.
Ryan Lam known professionally as Ryan Hayashi, is a Chinese Canadian magician, mentalist and performer. Hayashi focuses on coin magic and is known for his coin matrix. He also works in other forms of magic including cards, mentalism and displays of skill such as blindfolded performances with a samurai sword. Hayashi has performed magic in 18 different countries. He is a self-described "samurai entertainer" and has performed on multiple talent contests including Germany's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent and Czechoslovakia's Got Talent.
Wesley Barker is a Canadian magician and YouTuber, known for starring in the TruTV stunt magic show Big Trick Energy. He has appeared on Ellen and America’s Got Talent as well as fooling Penn & Teller on their show Fool Us. His YouTube and Facebook channels have received 100s of millions of views. He is also the co-host of the Bottom of the Barrel Podcast with Chris Ramsay.
Keelan Leyser is a British-born magician, mentalist and quick change artist, who is known for his multiple television appearances spanning over 25 years. He is recognised for his magic with digital technology and his quick change act.
Richard Essien, known professionally as Magical Bones, is a UK-based magician, illusionist and Bboy.
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