About Chad
I've been doing this for 47 years.
Here's how that happened.
The long version — including the part most corporate sites tell you to hide. I'm not going to.
The Short Version
Hi, I'm Chad.
I'm a comedy entertainer, mentalist, magician, keynote speaker, children's author, and — in the right room — the guy who escapes a straight-jacket as a tribute to Houdini.
Started doing magic in 1979. Turned pro in 1986. 10,000+ shows later, this is still the only job I've ever wanted.
Today I split my time between corporate and family work. The Magical Spark — the site you're on — is where the corporate work lives.
The Thing Most Corporate Sites Hide
Yes — I'm also Mr. Twisty.
Mr. Twisty is the family character I created in 1997. He's done over 5,000 shows in multiple countries, runs a free site for kids, fronts a school assembly program in BOCES districts across New York, and is the reason I have nine published children's books.
Lots of well-meaning marketers told me to scrub him from this site. "Corporate bookers don't want a kids' entertainer."
I disagree. Strongly.
The thing that makes me good in your room — ballroom, conference, board offsite, fundraiser — is the same thing that makes me good in a cafeteria of second-graders or a banquet hall full of doctors. It's the ability to read the room I'm standing in and pick the exact right material, banter, and pace for that room.
You don't get to 10,000 shows on three continents by being a one-trick magician. You get there by knowing how to walk into a room you've never been in before and earn it inside the first three minutes.
So: Mr. Twisty isn't the secret. He's the proof.
The Long Version
How a 10-year-old magician became 47 years of stories.
1979 — trying to be Doug Henning.
The famous magicians of the day were Copperfield, Henning, Siegfried & Roy. Big illusions, big animals, big hair. I tried to be like them. I wasn't. At all.
What I actually loved was telling stories, doing comedy, getting the audience involved, and making the grown-ups laugh harder than the kids did. Turns out I was already most of the way to my real act — I just hadn't admitted it yet.
1986 — turning pro.
The first paid gig. Then a second. Then a string of them. Discovered I could read a room better than I could palm a coin, which was a useful thing to learn early.
1997 — a balloon beats a tiger.
Talent showcase. Three magicians. Other two had real animals on stage — show stoppers. I had a balloon. Twisted it into something silly, told a story about it, made the kids scream, made the adults snort. The balloon won. Mr. Twisty was born that night.
Late 90s through early 2000s — the world tour.
Headlined the Family Arts Theater at Zygofolis / Zygo Park in Nice, France. Performed on Nickelodeon's Slime Time Live. Toured fairs, festivals, libraries, schools, weddings, corporate parties, fundraisers, after-dinner gigs — and exactly one nightclub at age 16 that I will tell you about over a drink.
2000s — five years on Radio Disney.
Five years on Radio Disney AM 1460 and satellite. Introduced the world to the Jonas Brothers (true). Hosted the only kids' talk show on satellite radio. Did pre-shows for every Disney star of the day. Five years of live broadcast does something to your timing — you stop being able to perform out of time.
2010s onward — the corporate stage.
The corporate work grew. Boards. Fundraisers. Conferences. After-dinner. Galas. The mentalism material got sharper. The keynote material started taking shape — how magicians think, how that translates to teams, what "impossible" actually means when you're holding it.
2020s — the writing.
Nine books in print. Sit Still. Be Quiet. — about kids whose brains move faster than the room. Birthday Buddy. The Wizard of the North Christmas series. Little Lily and Eddie the Earthworm. Plus a working keynote framework called Sleight of Mind, which is what I bring to your stage.
2026 — same job.
The job is the same as it was when I was ten in my parents' living room: get an audience, tell them a story, make them feel something they didn't expect. Twenty kids in a backyard counts. A board of directors at an offsite counts. Three thousand people in a ballroom counts.
10,000+ shows in. Hasn't changed.
Same brain. Different room.
Pick yours.
The shape of the show changes with the audience. The craft underneath does not.
Get In Touch