Whit Haydn

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Whit Haydn, 2006
Whit Haydn, 2006

Whit Haydn (born July 19, 1949 as Whitney Wesley Hadden in Clarksville, Tennessee) is an American magician, the winner of six "Magician of the Year" performing awards from the Magic Castle. In February 2006, he also became Vice-President of that organization.

He has opened for Jerry Seinfeld, the Smothers Brothers, Loretta Lynn and others, and performed on cruise ships of many different lines, including Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Diamond Princess. Haydn has worked hotels and casinos including Caesars Tahoe, and was one of the first acts chosen in 1996 to open Caesar's Magical Empire in Las Vegas.

He was the chief magic consultant on Norman Jewison's Bogus starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Depardieu and Haley Joel Osment as well as a consultant on multiple television documentaries including the Discovery Channel's "Houdini, People Came to See Him Die" and David Copperfield's television special, "Orient Express."

He is known as an "original performer," meaning that he is one of the members of the magic fraternity who actually creates new methods and routines for classic magic effects, that are then performed by other magicians around the world.

Contents

[edit] Life

Whit Haydn was born to minister (Disciples of Christ) William James Hadden, Jr. and Margaret Shumate, an elementary school librarian. At a summer camp at the age of 10, Haydn witnessed a magic show by a Methodist minister who was an amateur magician, and Haydn reportedly stayed up all night trying to figure out what he had seen.

Three local North Carolina magicians--Dick Snavely of Raleigh, Bill Tadlock of Rocky Mount, and Wallace Lee of Durham--became mentors for the young magician. At fourteen, he borrowed money for a bus ticket to one of the major American magic conventions, Abbott's Get Together in Colon, Michigan, having convinced his parents to let him take the long bus ride alone.

1973, in his street-performance days
1973, in his street-performance days

He graduated from Rose High School in Greenville, North Carolina, and attended college at East Carolina University in the 1960s, where he also became heavily involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements. He left college in 1969 to challenge the draft, and became one of Pitt County's first conscientious objectors. He did some alternative service at New York University Hospital, but after being released from C.O. status, and the job, when he flunked the physical (due to poor eyesight), he started doing street magic in the West Village.

In 1970, he went back to school at Lynchburg College in Virginia, receiving a degree in philosophy in 1972, after which he attended Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia to become an Episcopalian priest, though he continued performing magic to help support himself at the school.

Dr. Reginald H. Fuller, a New Testament scholar, saw one of Haydn's performances at a faculty party, and suggested that Haydn's passion might lay not in the ministry, but in magic. A few weeks later, Haydn dropped out of the seminary and turned to magic full-time. Working as an actor/juggler/magician with a touring political theater under the direction of Bob Leonard, The Road Company, Haydn continued to develop his magic performances.

In the mid-1970s he performed at the prestigious Magic Castle, where the Master of Ceremonies, Billy McComb, stumbled over the name "Hadden", so he, Dai Vernon, Kuda Bux and some other well-known magicians encouraged Hadden to change his name to something easier to pronounce. They settled on "Haydn"--pronounced as "Hāden." McComb became a mentor and major influence on Haydn's career.

1979, "Stage Magician of the Year"
1979, "Stage Magician of the Year"

Haydn is the co-founder (with Chef Anton) of the "School for Scoundrels". Since 1996, this program has held a four-week course once a year at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, to teach magicians, gambling experts and law enforcement officers the history, psychology and methods of street scams such as Three-Card Monte, Fast and Loose, and the Shell Game.

Haydn currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nancy. He has one grown daughter, Jessamine, and one granddaughter.

[edit] Awards

  • Magic Castle:
    • Stage Magician of the Year -- 1979
    • Closeup Magician of the Year -- 2003, 2004
    • Parlor Magician of the Year -- 1995, 2002
    • W.C. Fields Bar Magician of the Year 2005, presented at Academy of Magical Arts Awards Banquet, April 1, 2006 [1]

[edit] Works

Whit Haydn, 2001
Whit Haydn, 2001
  • The Chicago Surprise copyright 2000
  • Street Magic copyright 2001
  • The Intricate Web of Distraction copyright 2001, also VHS and DVD [2] [3]
  • The Mongolian Pop-Knot, copyright 1982 also VHS
  • Comedy Four-Ring Routine, copyright 1979 also VHS and DVD
  • Trio in Gold, East Carolina Poetry Forum Press, 1968
  • Tar River Poets, East Carolina Poetry Forum Press, 1969

[edit] With Chef Anton

  • School for Scoundrels Notes on Three-Card Monte, also VHS and DVD
  • School for Scoundrels Notes on the Shell Game--Introduction to the Shell Game, also DVD
  • School for Scoundrels Notes on Fast and Loose, also VHS and DVD

[edit] References

[edit] External links