Episode 4: Gary (Magician & Mentalist)
Name: Gary Ferrar
JOB: Magician & Mentalist
EXPERT IN: Rapid experimentation & agility
Listen on Apple, on Spotify, or right here — and view the full transcript here.
I’ve spent a lot of my professional life working with entrepreneurs of fast-growing technology startups, and I’ve always admired people who have the determination to pick up an idea and just run with it — for as far as the wind will carry them. And one of the reasons why I started this podcast is because I wanted to bring to light some founding stories that aren’t often heard and widely shared in the technology sector.
Enter: Gary Ferrar, magician and mentalist.
For a master class in entrepreneurship and agility, you need look no further. While he started out his career as a theatre major, Gary pick up magic as a hobby, and tinkered (as so many great company founders and leaders do) until he got it right. As I learned in our conversation, tinkering and experimentation is the core to how Gary not only adds just the right polish to every effect — but also how he’s been able to land on his feet as doubly successful in an all-remote era of Zoom magic.
“It’s been weird to read minds over the Internet and transfer everything I know into a virtual realm. But somehow, I’ve done it.”
I first met Gary when I hired him to work the room at an event of CEOs for our annual summit at Union Square Ventures. He spent the evening wandering the room, making fast friends, and blowing the minds of tech CEOs and VCs alike. I’ll never forget the way he turned even my most skeptical colleagues into fans by the end of the night. “There’s something we can all take away from this subtle approach to human psychology,” I remember thinking at the time. And after we sat down together for our first interview, he blew me away all over again.
Of course, the world of live performance has been among the most severely disrupted due to the pandemic of 2020. In early March and April, many magicians (Gary included) worried that their industry, built upon connecting people together, would disappear like a rabbit in a top hat.
But almost just as soon as the rest of us started to sink into that hopeless feeling of stuck-at-home life, Gary saw an opportunity for a new niche: Zoom magic. Tune into this episode of Everyday Experts to learn just how Gary got so good at his job, and what it takes to read minds over the Internet in 2020 and beyond.
You can watch some of Gary's work on his YouTube channel , book a show for yourself or friends on his website, www.ahrealmagic.com, or follow him on Instagram.
Listen on Apple, on Spotify, or right here — and view the full transcript here.
