My father was the Formica King of Long Island, and my mother was the daughter of a Bengal Lancer in India.

I certainly was performing before my writing was published, because I was performing when I was very young. And the thing is I'm very comfortable on stage, so a large portion of my act did come from ad-libs.

Writing is the only thing in my life that doesn't get easier. It just doesn't.

For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.

I think a lot of people just assumed I came to L.A. to do more television and get into show business.

The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.

One of the reasons I don't like to use the word "tricks" , I do think of them as theatrical pieces, and as pretentious as that might sound, there's a real reason for it. It's not the idea of tricking you; it's the idea of taking you along on this particular journey the way you would in any other theatrical situation. But, hopefully, you're going to be fooled at the end.