T
he moment Mario the Maker Magician
walked on stage at the Sebastiani Theater
in Sonoma, California, every single child in the
audience followed his every move and every word.
For over an hour, he performed magic, but his
real magic was how the children were beside
themselves in wonder and laughter.
I sat in the second row with my two young
grandchildren, surrounded by many more
kids bouncing up and down in their
seats. I wished every kid
could experience Mario’s
performance, especially
now as we struggle to
come out of Covid,
and we realize
what we’ve
been missing.
Kids need to
experience being
a part of live
events.
In talking to
Mario, I realized he
needed this, too, to
use his special talent.
For the last two years,
he hasn’t been able to do
what he does best. He adapted,
just like all of us during Covid. He
performed for an audience in front of a camera
but he was really by himself, just as each person
watching him was by themselves. It wasn’t the
same as creating the energy and excitement with
a live audience.
Earlier this year, Mario and Katie Marchese
decided it was time to go out on tour again. Their
two children, Gigi and Bear, would go with them
and help as crew. “The main goal of this tour is
just to reconnect with people in all these venues,”
said Katie, who manages everything. Usually
their caravan is a 1971 VW bus but it broke down
for the last time. So they drove an SUV from New
York to Georgia, and then to Tennessee, Texas,
and Colorado before making it to the West Coast.
“Sometimes we’re asking ourselves ‘What are we
doing?’ but for these crazy experiences, we’re all
together,” said Katie.
Mario makes all the props he uses in the
show, and he tells kids that they can make
anything using stuff all around them. His props
use Arduinos and one of them is a robot, which
has a mind of its own. He tells the robot to do
something and the robot does the
opposite. Everybody laughs. You
just can’t expect robots to do
what you want...
After shows in
Sonoma and
Oakland, they
drove to Portland,
Oregon, for a
performance. The
next night outside
their hotel,
someone broke
into their SUV,
stealing a bag of
their props, including
that adorably defiant
robot, as well as some
camera equipment. They
also took a “Do What You Love”
banner that Mario and family fly at
the end of their show. The unexpected happens.
“When you get robbed, guess what? The
community jumps in,” said Mario with gratitude.
“They reach out. They 3D-printed the parts that I
lost and overnighted them to me.” As they headed
to Utah, Mario was building circuits in the car. “By
the next show I had my robot back,” said Mario.
“I also had a great new story to tell about the
maker community.”
In every show, Katie says, Mario is telling kids
that whatever toy you have in the world, “It can
break. You can lose it. Someone can take it from
you. But if you learn how to make something, no
one can take that from you, ever.”
Dale Dougherty
6 makezine.com
WELCOME
Performing Live with Robots
by Dale Dougherty, President of Make: Community
M81_006_Welcome_F1.indd 6M81_006_Welcome_F1.indd 6 4/12/22 1:15 PM4/12/22 1:15 PM
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