Please introduce yourself, what you do, why you do it, and what you want people to know about you.
I’m James Chan and I’m a kid magician and juggler. I love performing magic, juggling, comedy, and more! Why do I do it? I get paid to crash parties for a living!
I’ve been performing since I was age 5. At age 5, I was juggling 3 balls. At age 8, juggling 5 balls. By age 10, I was juggling 3 flaming torches and picking pockets. By age 12, my credits include two national television appears, one on Kids Say the Darndest Things, and another on Access Daily with Penn & Teller.
Most recently I auditioned and got accepted into the most prestigious magic society in the world – The World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood CA. (We’re currently dually based in Silicon Valley and Hollywood.)
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I can juggle 3 flaming torches and pick pockets – and I’m only 13 years old. Who else can do that?
Describe THAT moment when you realized you wanted to do what you do now. Who did you tell first? What has it been like since that moment?
My dad was the person that knew I had to be a magician, so he trained me to do that. Unfortunately, he was new to this “reverse psychology business,” and instead of keeping the secrets and “reluctantly revealing them to me,” he forced me to learn them. That didn’t work out so well.
When that failed, he brought me to the streets of San Francisco and told me to juggle out on the streets. Someone tipped me, and a whole universe exploded into existence. After that, magic started to seem better, ESPECIALLY when I met celebrities.
Some of the clients I performed for include the SF Giants, the Oakland Athletics, the Warriors, and the 49ers. The warriors even gave me box seats for a game after my performance!
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
A lot of people have assumptions based on my age. They don’t think that I can be any good. I had to put lots of content and lots of video and social proof. If you’d like, I can send you a sample email of the number of videos on my sales page. When you see that much video and even on the national television appearances that I was on, people start trusting you. Come on, how many 13-year-olds make $250-$750 per hour… That’s the level of events I’m currently booking right now – locally.
If you had to pick the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could take your career (or business) to the next level…who would those 3 people be?
My top 3 would be the President or a former President, royalty (A King, Queen, Prince, Princess), and maybe a showrunner. The President, former President, and royalty I could use in my marketing (and it’s cool), while the showrunner might be able to help me get on TV, such as America’s Got Talent.
List the direct links/URL to your social media profiles so people can follow you:
Instagram: kidmagician
https://www.danchanmagic.com/jameschan.html