I started performing semi-professionally in high school. After high school I started working full time on cruise ships and resorts. I did that for about 5 years. I performed in Japan, Mexico, Aruba, and all over the Caribbean.

I had a lot of fun, but I wanted to move on to something different. When I was 15, being an illusionist sounded really cool. It was, but then I got new ideas about what would be "cool", wearing sequins isn't one of them

I still perform on occasion in South Florida with comedy groups or other fun venues. I like to perform in less "magic" traditional venues. I prefer theater environments to showroom or comedy club venues. I like it when an audience really has no idea what to expect. Even though I'm known as an inventor of magic effects, my magic really isn't as much about tricks as it is about character.

I think David Copperfield and David Blaine have done a lot for our art. The guy I'd travel a hundred miles to see if he performed again is Joel Hodgson. His comedy and thinking is so out there. I dig his stuff a lot.

Some of the people in magic who inspired me include Jim Steinmeyer, Paul Osborne and my friend Rand Woodbury.

No. I see this question on message boards. I just have a weird mind. Magic is actually a small part of my life. I'm involved with other things that are really my main focus. Some people do crosswords for fun - I think up magic ideas.

The simple answer involve two concepts:

• Identify a problem you want to solve, like a better or impromptu way to do something or create an effect using a minimum of materials.


• Look beyond magic for influence. I spend much more time studying movies, television and video games for ideas than I do magic. Watching a movie like the X-Men can give me lots of ideas.

That's a question that really has to be asked on a case-by-case basis. Like everyone else, I've been influenced by a lot of different ideas in the magic world. If something inspired me I would only consider releasing my version if I felt it was sufficiently different than what came before it. That difference has to be more than cosmetic.

I try not to step on other people's toes. That can be difficult when you have people claiming to have invented stuff that was around before they were born and other people claiming not authorship of an idea, but ownership because they're "known" for it.

As a rule, if it's just a cosmetic change, like if you changed the shape of the mirror on my one-man walking through a mirror illusion; the fundamental method hasn't changed and it's still the same trick. If you came up with a different method than the one I used, but the effect looked the same; that would be something totally different in my book.

If you have a technical question I'll do my best to give you an intelligent response. They key to a quick and useful response is to be concise and specific. Please don't ask me about other people's methods.

If you want me to evaluate an idea you have, here are some things to consider: Keep in mind that I have a lot of ideas I'm working on in different form. My unpublished material far exceeds the stuff I've released. This is true of most professional magic inventors (all three of us). On at least two occasions I've been asked by television producers to develop something that I had already been working on for someone else. So only send it to me if you promise not to sue me if I've thought of something similar.

Please don't send me your idea for an Ambitious Card routine. I have nothing against card tricks, I'm just not that knowledgeable about them.

If it's something you can make a video of and you want my opinion, that's the best way to get my opinion.

There are two reasons: 1) Each book would be as big as a phone book. 2) Precise measurements are a BAD idea in magic props if you don't know how big the person is who is going to be put into the illusion. I've had assistants that were 5'2" and assistants that were 6'2". It'd be pretty silly for me to try to squeeze a person who is 6'2" into a box meant for a person who is a foot shorter. Likewise, putting a small woman into a box designed for large man isn't as impressive. There's a reason why David Copperfield's illusions look so good - they're custom made. There's also the factor of materials. When I got started building props it was still the plywood, screws and glue days. Now you can use plastics, fiberglass, and aluminum - there are so many different choices.

Yes, but not in any creative capacity. When I was a teenager I was a production assistant on his FLYING television special. I ran all sorts of errands relating to TV production (yelling at extras, getting food, grunt work). It was really cool to see the attention to detail he puts into his craft. I was really, really impressed.

I worked on the development of some their material for their appearances on David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and their special with The Boston Pops. I got to go to NYC with them and make sure everything worked. That was pretty cool. No experience can compare with placing a bucket of worms by Letterman's feet as he looks on wondering, "What the hell are Penn & Teller up to?"

I'll relate one experience that pretty much sums it up. We were working on the bit where they cut open Conan O'Brien's stomach and retrieve a lost ring. They needed to practice the staging of the routine with blood and everything. So we made a fake set with a large laundry cart as Conan's desk. They needed someone to play Conan, so I stood in. The only problem was that we were using fake blood and I was wearing white pants. No problem, I just took off my pants. Moments later I'm manhandled on top of the laundry cart and covered in blood. Remember the movie Shawshank Redemption? Remember the scene right before Tim Robbins gets molested? This is what it would have looked like if they hadn't cut away (Um, Penn & Teller didn't actually molest me - I was just covered in blood in my underwear and bent over a laundry cart). The office assistant walked in and relayed a phone message during the thing like it was no big deal. As I laid on the cart looking up at the ceiling with blood dripping off my partially clothed body I realized this was exactly what my mother was afraid of when I told her I was going to go work for Penn & Teller.

There's an effect somewhere on this website that I was asked to develop for him. I'm not going to bust out and say it, but I have a gut instinct you can figure out what I'm talking about.

He's a guy that kinda looks like me who writes books on things like filmmaking and articles on critical thinking and science. I also heard he once killed three men in a bar fight in Tijuana, but that may have been an exaggeration, some say it was only two people.