iPad Magic in Germany
Steve Jobs was sure the iPad would be a “magical device” when
he introduced it in 2010. But even the great personal computing
visionary did not foresee a magician like Simon Pierro.
Shortly after the first iPad hit stores, the magician,
who had grown up in southern Germany, began using one in
his stage act, pulling scarves and cards out of its screen. His
act exercised sleight of hand in a way that flowed seamlessly
between the real and virtual worlds.
The tablet gave him a new moniker, “The iPad Magician,”
and his combination of old-school magic with the latest tech-
nology helped him develop a unique act that puts him in front
of large audiences for as many as 100 shows a year.
Catch one of his acts live or find them on YouTube and
you’ll want to know, How does he do it? But Pierro stub-
bornly holds on to one timeless tradition: a magician never
reveals a trick’s secret. The mandatory coyness also holds
for any question about apps.
“‘It’s magic!’ might not be a satisfying answer to hear,”
said Pierro, who lives in Munich and has made his living as a
magician since 2004. “Most of the time, I am combining tra-
ditional magic with my new approach, trying to take the best
from both worlds. I am trying to make magic more relevant
again for many people who think about magic in clichés.”
It was a family trip to New York City when he was 15
that introduced Pierro to magic. A monte hustler working
a street corner pulled Pierro in with the shell game. The
kid quickly lost the money he had saved for a portable CD
player. It was the best $20 he ever lost, however, because to
make him feel better, his sister bought him a magic book so
that he could understand how he’d been conned.
From this book, he learned his first card trick and dev-
eloped an obsession with magic. He practiced his growing
repertoire of tricks on anyone who would watch, entering
and winning magic competitions.
Pierro received engineering and business adminis-
tration degrees from the University of Karlsruhe, but with
regular appearances on German television, he was making a
decent living from performing magic.
The real trick was to develop an act that would make
him stand out. He tinkered with technology, using projection
screens, but magicians before him had used screens as well.
It was in 2008, when he set an act in an electronics store
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