Jamy Ian Swiss

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Jamy Ian Swiss is an American close-up magician. Working primarily with cards, he is a highly praised prestidigitator.

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[edit] Career

Swiss is a sleight of hand artist who is world renowned as a performer specializing in close-up and intimate card magic. He is also a corporate entertainer, a stage mentalist and mind-reader, a lecturer, public speaker, author, teacher, consultant, designer, television writer, skeptic and more.

Swiss has performed magic throughout the United States for presenters ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the Smithsonian Institution. He has been featured in The New Yorker[1], Vanity Fair, The Washington Post and New York Press.[2] He has also been included in television programs such as 48 Hours, the PBS series NOVA, and the PBS documentary The Art of Magic. He has also made repeat appearances on The Today Show.

Swiss also worked as a comedy writer and chief magic consultant for Penn & Teller on their television program, Sin City Spectacular. He also served as head writer and associate director for The Virtual Magician starring Marco Tempest, which aired in 45 countries; created, produced and performed in the Discovery Channel documentary, Cracking the Con Games; and has consulted on feature films including The Fantasticks.

Swiss is also a co-founder of the National Capital Area Skeptics[3] and the New York City Skeptics.[4]

[edit] Performer

On stage, Swiss has presented his one-man theatre show, The Honest Liar, as part of the 2000 New York International Fringe Festival. His show of intimate sleight-of-hand magic, Magic: Close-up in Concert, ran for six months at the Rainbow Room in New York City, and has also been presented in repeat performances at the Players Club.

Swiss is a co-producer and performer for Monday Night Magic, New York City's longest running Off-Broadway magic show. [5]

[edit] Author, reviewer, and lecturer

Swiss is the author of the essay collection, Shattering Illusions; co-author of The Art of Magic, the companion volume to the PBS documentary on magic history; co-wrote a chapter of Visual Explanations with author Edward Tufte; contributed to the book Magic for Dummies; served as creative consultant on the book, Penn & Teller’s How to Play with Your Food; is a contributor to Skeptic magazine; is a columnist for the quarterly magic journal Antimony; and has served as book reviewer columnist for Genii, the Conjurors’ Magazine since 1994. He has lectured to magicians in 13 countries about the art and craft of sleight-of-hand magic, and created and produces "Card Clinic: three days that will change your magic forever," a three-day intensive seminar on sleight of hand with playing cards.

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