Creating Wonder with Nate Staniforth

Nate Staniforth started his career in magic at age 9 and by the time he was 11 had become his hometown’s premier, and only, magician.

“I was the only act in town because there were no other magicians in Ames[, Iowa] so I got a lot of time on stage even before I was a teenager,” said Staniforth. “When I was in college I got an opportunity to play at an art gallery above a bar. . .and that marked the end of my career as a student. I very quickly was spending most of time inventing magic that I could do at my shows. The majority of my senior year in college was done through email.”

Since then his life has been a whirlwind of booking as many shows as possible and collecting experiences along the way.

Those experiences are also what he was spent the last few years compiling into his newly released memoirs, Here is Real Magic: A Magician’s Search for Wonder in the Modern World. The book, released January 16, is a focal point for the his Make Magic Real tour.

“Every stop on the tour we’re partnering with a local bookstore to help people find out about the book,” said Santiforth. “It’s a book about wonder and magicians have known for ages that one of the best ways to share that experience with people is through magic so it just seemed like a natural fit.”

The spark of inspiration to write his memoirs came from a trip he made to India where he ran into a 3,000 year-old clan of street magicians.

“When I came home from that trip I felt like I had been struck by lightning,” said Staniforth. “I had discovered something I needed to share and for the first time I didn’t know if I could do it with magic tricks so I started learning a few other ways to communicate.”

Staniforth set about learning public speaking as well as writing.

“I’ve got a practice routine I do everyday to keep skills up so I can work on stage and I just added 15 minutes a day of writing and then that quickly became 30 minutes of writing then an hour of writing. As a magician you get pretty good at learning new skills so I just treated it like learning a new piece for my show.”

While the book has only been out for a week, as of writing, some fans have already read it and had the chance to talk with him about it.

“It’s amazing talking with them about the book after a show,” said Staniforth. “Normally as a stage performer my relationship last about 90 minutes and the difference with a book is that’s a 10 to 15 hour relationship so they’re coming to the show with a lot more context than audiences in the past have and I am enjoying that tremendously.”

Santiforth will be at Proud Larry’s Thursday, January 25. His book will be available for purchase at the event as well as at Square Books. Tickets are available here.