September Meeting: Kozmo – Street Magician and Busker – Virtual Seminar
Kozmo’s lecture is a combination of his experience and experiences of performing magic on the streets as well as a tips, traps and tricks of how to be a busker. He will also teach some killer busker magic tricks along with a Q&A session throughout the entire lecture. Kozmo has appeared as a headliner at all the major magic conventions. He has also appeared on the covers of most of the magazines throughout the magic community. Below is a short biography of Kozmo from the Magic Café;
Kozmo was born Ted Brainard in upstate New York. As a child, he was endlessly fascinated by the art of magic and at the age 9 he made magic his hobby.
In the early 1980s, Brainard worked at Cornell University as a broadcast engineer. Brainard found himself unhappy in his career, discovering there was no passion in what he was doing and felt he needed a change.
One day he heard about a street festival and wanted to see if he could make some extra cash performing card tricks there. Unbeknownst to him, Brainard made out like a bandit. In just three days, he raked in nearly two thousand dollars!
In a state of disbelief in how much money he had just accrued, Brainard wanted to test the streets out once again. So he brought his bag of tricks with him to the streets and performed – and again he yielded great results. Brainard was about to take his childhood hobby and turn it into a professional career.
Brainard went back to Cornell University to quit his job in order to pursue his career in street magic. He decided to seek out the best in the art of street performing, so he set his sights on legendary street magician Jim Cellini.
He had heard Cellini was performing in New Orleans at the time, so Brainard took a 4 day road trip from New York to New Orleans to meet the master. Cellini delightfully took Brainard under his wing and began training him during the late 1990s through 2003.
Brainard, under the teaching of Cellini and the instruction of the legendary Gazzo, adopted the stage name Kozmo, and went on to become one of the world’s top street magicians.Since that time Kozmo has also been the biggest voice in promoting Cellini’s name in the United States and one of the biggest in promoting busking through various media.
In 2006, he started a company called “Kozmo Magic,” which is recognized as one of today’s premier magic video production companies.
A year later, he launched Reel Magic magazine, a conjuring magazine sold in video format. The magazine is jam-packed with exclusive interviews, magic trick reviews and tantalizing articles. Reel Magic Magazine continues to be the benchmark in the video magic industry.
In December 2008, he used his earnings in busking to create a two-disc DVD set entitled, Tales from the Street, which teaches the successful secrets of working and entertaining on the streets.
Aside from lecturing, performing and working with new artists, he is currently focused on the continual improvement and quality of Reel magic Magazine.