You’re a What Now? Confessions of a Professional Magician

“It was all a dream…” - Biggie Smalls

Recently, my girlfriend and I were invited to a wedding reception. For once, I wasn’t booked to do magic.I was just there as a guest. We sat with a couple of magician friends and four very nice people we didn’t know. At some point, an older woman turned to me and asked the classic question:

“So, what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a magician,” I said.

She looked at me, laughed, and asked again:

“No, really. What’s your real job?”

My girlfriend, who has mastered the art of the polite-but-deadly glare, leaned in and said—sweetly but firmly “He’s a magician.”

That was the beginning of a half-hour table discussion about how, yes, it is indeed possible to make a decent, honest living as a professional magician.

Can You Actually Make a Living Doing Magic?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: yes.

I discovered magic at 10 years old. If you told 10-year-old me that someday I’d travel the world, perform for families, corporate executives, and even the occasional drunk uncle at a wedding reception all by “playing pretend” I would’ve laughed just like that lady at the wedding.

But here we are. Magicians charge anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands per event, performing everywhere from school assemblies to bar mitzvahs to Fortune 500 holiday parties. We’re like the DJs of live entertainment—minus the turntables and the “cool factor.”

The

Other

Questions We Always Get

• “Can you make my wife disappear?”

  Yes, but only temporarily… and I’ll send her back. Eventually.

  
  

• “So… how much do you make?”

  Let’s just say I don’t live in a car full of rabbits and doves. (Though that sounds like a Netflix series waiting to happen.)

  
  

• “What’s your backup plan?”

  This is the backup plan. The dream became the job.

• “How do you even become a professional magician?”

  Besides my Master’s Degree in Magical Arts from Hogwarts? Decades of practice, building relationships, countless magic books, mentorship from people I look up to, and, honestly, a little bit of delusion that it would actually work out. Spoiler: it did.

Why This Matters (For Clients and Magicians Alike)

For clients, here’s the takeaway: magic is more than just card tricks. Hiring a magician means you’re investing in someone who has dedicated years to creating wonder, laughter, and memories at your event. Yes, it’s a real job. Yes, we pay our bills. No, we don’t keep pigeons in the trunk of our cars.

For magicians (or anyone with a “silly” dream), here’s the inspiration: don’t ever let someone tell you your dream isn’t a “real job.” People are professional dancers, food truck owners, voice-over artists, even greeting card writers. If you want to spend your life turning a deck of cards and your imagination into moments of joy, you can.

At the end of the day, I’m living proof that you really can be whatever you want.

Even a magician.

-Jonathan Molo

The Man in the Purple Suit