📈 Carl Mercurio: From the Boardroom to the Stage
Today we're going to shine the spotlight on magician Carl Mercurio, co-star and co-founder of the Broadway Magic Hour, New York City's favorite family magic show. Some folks dream of leaving their day job for a career onstage... Carl actually did it!
📺 An Early Interest in Magic
Carl’s interest in magic began by accident in 1972 when he saw a television commercial for Schaefer Beer featuring noted card magician John Scarne.
Carl’s reaction at the time to Scarne’s on-screen card tricks, flourishes, and gambling demonstrations was probably typical for a 12-year-old boy from the Bronx. “That’s cool,” he thought without further exploring exactly how someone might learn the skills on display.
Carl had the same reaction to a card cheating demonstration performed in the movie The Sting. Paul Newman was the actor, but his hands were again played by Scarne, who by now was something of a legend in the magic world.
It would be several years before Carl learned that the Schaefer Beer commercial and The Sting had actually launched the careers of other budding magicians, driven by the same nascent interest in learning something “cool.”
🎩 The Wizard of Westport Years
By the time Carl was 16 years old, his family had moved from the Bronx to Westport, CT, where one day Carl wandered into a magic store called The Wizard of Westport, which had recently opened in town.
Within six months, Carl was a salesclerk at the store. Within a year, he was the manager. He quickly learned how to perform all kinds of magic tricks, gags, and illusions, including all of the card tricks, cheating demonstrations, and flourishes he’d seen on TV a few years earlier.
His stint at the Wizard of Westport also exposed him to the broader magic community, and he got to witness performances by close-up magic legends like Slydini, Al Goshman, Frank Garcia and others who became his idols.
🍸 The Bar Magic Years
Carl continued to perform magic throughout high school and as a student at the University of Connecticut. In time, however, his interest waned as he pursued a career in business information publishing and committed himself to raising a family.
Then one day in the mid-1990s, Carl was sitting in his living room, essentially bored out of his mind, when his wife said, “Maybe you need a hobby.” To which, Carl responded, “I used to do magic.”
What followed was an explosion of activity as Carl rekindled his interest in magic, becoming the resident bar magician at the Riverdale Tavern in the Bronx and a regular performer at Monday Night Magic at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City.
The bar magician gig was the easiest one Carl ever got. He just said to his brother Rocco, who owned the joint, “Ok if I do magic behind the bar every Friday night?”
Bar magic is a great experience for a magician because on any given night, you get to perform dozens of tricks and routines to all kinds of people. You learn how to manage crowds; deal with drunks, hecklers, and distractions; and hone your craft.
Around this time, Carl also became a regular contributor to Genii: The Conjuror’s Magazine, the magic community’s leading industry publication. Carl also published a well-received set of lecture notes titled, Bar None: The Bar Magic of Carl Mercurio.
🎭 Variety Show Headliner
As magic grew in popularity, more opportunities arose for Carl to take his magic to the stage. Carl became a regular performer at a variety of venues, with an emphasis on cabaret-style comedy magic.
To this day, he performs regularly at nationally known venues and magic shows, including Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut; The Slipper Room, and the Magic Ensemble in New York City; House of Magic in Philadelphia; and the Chicago Magic Lounge.
Combining classic magic with off-beat comedic presentations is one of Carl’s true loves. He is often a crowd favorite wherever he performs.
🗽 Broadway Magic Hour
Carl’s magic career took an even more exciting turn after he retired from his day job as a managing director at one of the nation’s leading healthcare consulting companies. His friend Jim Vines needed help putting together a family magic show to raise funds for the North Fork Community Theater in Mattituck, NY.
After nearly a dozen sold-out shows at North Fork, Carl and Jim were approached to launch a family magic show at the Broadway Comedy Club on 53rd Street in New York City.
The Broadway Magic Hour, which debuted in August 2024, was an instant hit and even led to a guest appearance by Carl and Jim on the Fox 5 television show Good Night New York.
Carl and Jim have been performing the Broadway Magic Hour to sellout crowds ever since. The duo have also taken the show on the road and performed for several fundraisers and charitable events.
While Carl has received many accolades during his long magic career, he still believes the most important are the reactions of audiences to his comedy and magic. Or as the New York Daily News said of The Broadway Magic Hour: “The audience becomes the real star.”
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