Today morning, while since he won
Americas Got Talent magician Mat
Franco has reinvented magic and
his show is back in Las Vegas.
He joins us this morning.
Good morning to you Matt.
Thanks for being with us this Monday.
Good morning.
How are you doing?
Well, so you just celebrated
your 6th anniversary, right?
Tell us what this has been like.
I mean, obviously the show was
put on pause for a little while.
What's it like to be back?
It's amazing yeah we were paused
for 412 days but who's counting and
we're just so thankful to be back.
We've just celebrated six years.
I think even the more exciting part
of that is we've just signed on for
five more years at the LINQ Hotel
and experience in Las Vegas at
the Matt Franco Theater where our
goal is just to make people happy.
Bring them some smiles and and
share some amazing magic that
people have never seen before.
And hey, another five years.
That's a big commitment.
Obviously. They like you there.
They know you do a good show.
And I mean the name of the show,
reinventing. That magic,
how do you reinvent it?
What do you do to keep a show,
especially a magic show fresh and keep
people coming maybe year after year?
I think that actually the silver lining
in having a quite a bit of time off
was to be able to really focus on
creating new magic, revamping the show.
We have new set design, new lighting,
new visual elements and and love new
music and lots of new magic too.
So it's not just a matter of reinvent,
inventing magic and bringing people
magic they haven't seen before,
but also reinventing from night tonight.
My show is so interactive and
fun for the whole family that I
let the audience really guide.
How we get from point A to point B?
In other words,
there's lots of improvisation,
so even after almost 2000 shows in Las Vegas,
it always stays fresh for me
when you go out on the stage.
That's kind.
That was
kind of my question.
Are there ever times where you
look back on some of the video
and you know, like I know for us,
we do news every day, right?
And it's it's kind of like you look
back on it and it's you know, vaguely.
Remember it is every day that fresh for you.
Did you like are you? You know?
How do you stay in the moment
while you're on that stage?
I I, I think that's the only way to
perform is to be there in the moment.
I think that's what people are coming to see.
That's what separates live theater
from going to see a movie.
It's different than even a play.
If you go see a play from night tonight,
it has to look the same each time.
Whereas what my show does,
it's going to be a different experience
even from one show to the next.
So in order for me to really do what I do,
part of it is about being present and
in the moment and making it special for
that audience we create an experience.
That can only happen in that room in
that one moment in that one night,
and it's different the next night.
And for people who are maybe
unfamiliar with your style right,
people are starting to book their tickets,
going back to Vegas and join
their vacations once again,
tell us, and then the hey,
I hear you might even be able
to demonstrate for us a little
bit of what your style is like.
Yeah, I'm I'm the sight of hand guy, right?
So that's what helped me
win America's Got Talent.
That's what kept me in Vegas for
the past six years and being able
to share what I do for people.
I enjoy the stuff that takes
a lot of practice.
It's sort of the antithesis
of what you think of when you
used to think of Vegas magic,
and you would think of Siegfried and Roy.
And sort of these big boxes and contraptions.
It's sort of the opposite of that.
It's intimate and sort of skill
based in a sleight of hand.
Way, and So what
do you have for us? I hear you might
be able to bring a little show
to the morning show here. Bring a
little magic, yeah, yeah,
you know I've been collecting
playing cards 7 for years.
I'm not sure. Do you know
what this is? By the way, no. What
is that you've never seen?
One of these I don't think so.
It's basically a card box,
but this is what
they look like before they printed.
OK, gotcha, yeah. But
in order to print it all I
have to do is go like this.
OK, there we go. Now that's just on one side.
You know. The inside obviously stays blank.
You know that, right, right?
But if I fold up the box like this,
all I have to do is snap.
And I actually can get the cards
to appear inside that sand and
just so our viewers know you're
here with us on zoom. There is no.
There are no camera tricks to this.
You're doing it live.
Yeah, and that's why I'm
sharing this with you live
because I share this stuff
to to Instagram all the time.
And sometimes people think wow,
this has got to be a green
screen or editing of some kind,
but I want you to see this live
and see that it's real if you
take the blank deck and just
give a little pass like that,
you can actually get one
of the cards to print now.
That might
have been too fast, so I'll tell you
what will just wave over it again.
I'll start over. This is what they
look like when they're all blank
before they leave the factory. Evan,
do you play cards at all? A
little bit here and there? Not much good.
You're the guy I've been looking for this
if I snap my fingers in a poker hand.
Let's say you have maybe a king,
maybe a queen, maybe a 7,
maybe a Jack and a six.
That would be great, but of course
I don't have any of those cards.
If I did though, even if I did,
they would look like this.
Now I'll be honest with you,
this is a trick card, you know, why?
Why 'cause there's nothing on the back?
Right, But if I snap I
can make the back up here,
not here but down here now you
have a back without a face,
seven in a face without a
back. It doesn't make sense tell
you? Well, let's just start
again. Here's what they look like
before they leave the factory.
Here's what they look like
after they've been printed,
but Evan not just one card but every
card in the entire deck, not just the
faces but also the backs.
Now if there's one thing I want you to
remember from this whole thing, Evan.
Is that this is what cards look like
before they leave the factory,
so please, if anybody asks you
how it's done, just tell them you
have no idea. That's incredible and
I will say when I was growing up I
used to love magicians and magic shows
and being able to do that with short
sleeves is also incredibly impressive.
You like there, there's nothing
hiding your arms there, you're showing
us just completely what's going on
there? That's pretty cool.
I appreciate you reinventing magic.
That's what we do. No sleeves,
no big boxes, just pure sleight
of hand and entertainment.
Just happy to share it with you, so
thanks for having me here.
All of our anchors are wowed
about what you just did.
A quick reminder for viewers
who are watching maybe booking
their tickets to Vegas.
How do people find
tickets for your show?
Yeah, get them when you can.
We sell out fast where at the
ticketmaster.com or mattfranco.com
it's met with one TMAT like a doormat.
Walk all over me if you want to.
It's totally up to you were at
the LINQ hotel and experience
and we hope to see you there.
All right. Matt. Thank you so
much for being with us.
This morning that was really
cool to see, appreciate you.