Meet Nelson Lee

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nelson Lee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nelson, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

I grew up in a small town in Southern California. There were many great things about being in a small town where people knew each other, all my friends grew up there, and it felt very personable. Magic was something that I was doing for fun for my friends and family. I was mainly practicing on my own because there were no other Magicians in my area. To tell you the truth, I didn’t think any other Magicians existed beyond where I lived. Being in a small town has its perks but the downside was I felt like I was never going to be able to reach my full potential staying there.

I took a risk and moved out in hopes to accomplish my dream of being a Professional Magician. Everyone called me crazy, turned a side eye towards the dream, and just thought I was going to fall flat on it. Fast forward to today, Magic has become my full-time career and it has allowed me to travel around the world, become a Headliner at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, and to even become the youngest ever Champion of The Magic Castle Olympics.

I would say what I have learned in this whole process to allow me to be successful was the opportunity is always there and is up for grabs. You can accomplish your goals and it just requires you to take that first step towards it. It is going to be a scary thing. Some are going to believe in you, but the unfortunate reality is the majority will root against you. For myself, I wanted to make decisions that I knew were something I had to try out. I did not want to live in regret not knowing what would have happened if I didn’t.

Magic was a long shot.

No one in my hometown was a Magician, it was brand new territory for everyone around me, and it just felt like an unrealistic dream. But I stand here now living an amazing life, doing what I love, and to have this great opportunity to share how much making this decision and the habits that I’ve kept along the way have made my life what it is today and I want to keep encouraging people to go after it. The opportunity is there, you just have to find out if it’s yours.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Nelson Lee. I’m 24-years-old and I’m a Professional Magician. I first got into Magic when I was 7-years-old. My dad got me a Magic set and it ended up changing my life forever. I started to perform for friends and family as a hobby but it wasn’t until I got to college where it became my playground to connect and meet a lot of people. When I was a Senior in college, I was at a roadblock. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I was a Business, Film, and Law student at the University of Southern California and although it was a diverse resume for me to have with all those degrees, I still didn’t feel fulfilled in pursuing anything in those respected fields. The only thing that genuinely made me feel happy was Magic. Thus, what began was my journey into becoming a Professional Magician.

I had found out about a place called The Magic Castle, which is this private club in Hollywood that houses the best Magicians in the world. I wanted to be part of it. I understood the brevity of how difficult it is for one to perform there and become a member so I knew I had to put in the work. I started performing everyday, perfecting my Magic, and trying to get my foot in the door as much as possible. It ended up becoming my main priority over my school work (I still graduated with Honors, so don’t feel like you have to skip school). It was many months to a year spent doing free shows, spending late nights practicing, and questioning whether I was good enough. But the time came for me to audition for The Magic Castle and I ended up passing on my first try.

My life was now changed forever.

My entire Senior year of college was full-time school and Magic at the same time. My schedule was to go to class from 10AM – 4PM and head to the Castle to perform from 6PM – 1AM. I would get back to my apartment around 2AM, head to bed, and start all over again the next day. As tiring as it sounded, I genuinely loved it and never felt it was a burden on me. I would eventually graduate and I took the leap to pursue Magic full-time. What I love about my job is being able to connect with people through Magic. I’ve had amazing opportunities of traveling around the world to showcase my Magic and it has opened up my eyes to many life experiences of building personal connections with people from diverse backgrounds. To some people, a card trick I do is just a card trick. But to others, a card trick is a miracle in front of their eyes. That’s what makes it special for me because I have the opportunity to bring someone into a different world where they can experience wonder and have that feeling of what it’s like to be a kid again. It’s truly a beautiful thing.

But this was not all accomplished on my own. I’m part of a group of amazing Magicians known as The KingMakers where we focus on providing great Magic to the world but also to mentor up and coming Magicians. Our mission with our group is to get bad Magic off the street. There’s a rise in Magicians now but the issue is a majority of them do not know where to head in order to make it a lifelong thing. We want to be able to help with that because the goal is never about performing the best trick, the goal is to put on the best show.

I love to share my Magic so for anyone who would like to keep in touch and see when I’m performing next, my Instagram is @nelson_L28 where I post magic content and updates on my next and upcoming shows. My group also has our own independent magic show we do called The Lucid Magic Show and we post updates whenever we perform on our Instagram which is @lucidmagicshow. We hope to see you there!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I would say the three things that were the most impactful in my journey are Passion, Initiative, and Relatability.

First, passion is very important as if you don’t have the passion or drive to pursue what you want, there’s no point in pursuing it any further. You have to love what you do as everyone who sees your work can see the love you put towards it. For myself, it doesn’t matter whether it is the best day of my life or the worst day of my life, if someone asks me to see a card trick, I’m gonna show you a card trick very happily because I just love it so much.

Second, initiative is the engine behind it. You can have all the love and passion for something in this world but if you don’t take the initiative to pursue it even further to reach your full potential, everything is negated. I had no connections and opportunities in college for Magic. But I took the initiative to perform Magic for free to people until I would eventually land my first gig with a club organization on campus. That gig would put me on a path to more gigs and it gave me confidence to just keep going…before I knew it, I found myself finally becoming a Headliner at The Magic Castle. Taking that first step is always the hardest thing to do…but I guarantee you, it will make things easier along the way.

Lastly, how much you relate to the people around you. This is something that I feel is very important because unfortunately a lot of people don’t do this. When a first-timer goes to a Magic show, their first perception of a Magician is someone that wants to fool them. I never liked this mentality. Yes, my job is centered on secrecy and knowing something that the audience doesn’t. But it is never my true intentions to fool an audience with it or to make myself look better because I know something they don’t. I perform Magic because I want to simply entertain and have fun. People often ask if it is ever detrimental when someone figures out how a trick works. The honest answer is I keep the secrets of Magic not because it would make me look bad, but I do it for the sake of the audience. As soon as someone finds out how a trick works, that sense of Magic they felt when they first saw the trick is gone. It no longer feels special. I want to give people that feeling of Magic because it brought a smile to their faces. So my truth is even though I’m a Magician and I’ve done this and that, it doesn’t make me any higher up to whoever I’m talking to. I’m still the same person that I always was and I just want to connect with everyone. I never want people to leave after meeting me thinking “That Magician was amazing and mysterious”. I want people to think of me saying “It felt like Nelson was an old friend that we’ve haven’t seen in a while and it was a lot of fun to hang out with him”.

My advice to everyone who are early on in their journey is to keep progressing towards these three things as they will change your perspective on how you approach everything and it can entail you more opportunities. No matter what it is or how skilled you are in a certain field, people will forget what you can do or what experience you have, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

To be honest, I would spend this decade being the best person I can be to everyone close in my life. Magic is a big part of my life. But it is not my full identity.

Outside of Magic, I’m very extroverted and want to develop deeper and personal connections with everyone around me. I’m very lucky to have an amazing family and a great group of friends where they’ve taught me to be a great person above being a great Magician first. Magic is something that provides me joy when I perform for people. When I see people having fun, I’m having fun. But every once in a while, I can put the cards down and just be present with everyone.

So I would spend the decade developing closer and closer bonds with the people in my life so that when they talk about me to others, I hope to hear them say that Nelson was an amazing Magician but an even better human being.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nleemagic.com/
• Instagram: @nelson_L28
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nlee288

Image Credits

Academy of Magical Arts | LMCaptured