| Lee Asher | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. Born July 1976 |
| Residence | Eugene, Or |
| Occupation | Technological inventor, Sleight of Hand Artist |
| Height | 5'7 |
| Title | CardStar |
| Website | |
| LeeAsher.com | |
Lee Asher (born 1976) is a close-up magician noted for originating new card tricks and hypnotic[1] sleight of hand moves.[2]
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Lee Asher was born in Ft Lauderdale, near Miami in southern Florida, to Louise and her husband, Mark Horowitz. He is the eldest of two children and has a sister, Alexis. His father managed an optometric practice, and as a boy he would learn magic from Al Flosso and Lou Tannen in New York City in the 1960s.
He attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland until 1994, and then the University of Nevada/Las Vegas, which he graduated with honors. During this time, he would often sneak into casinos like the Golden Nugget. Here, he would watch master magician Michael Skinner who would later influence his magic. After jobs as magic demo man at the Magic Mansion, he was hired to work at Caesars Magical Empire in Caesars Palace performing card magic, from 1996 to 1997. He worked with world famous magicians like Earl Nelson, Jeff McBride, Chappy Brazil, Joey Burton, Daryl, Michael Ammar, Jonathan Pendragon, and many more. His official character title was 'Cardius Sharkus'. Once work was over, he finished school - officially graduating from university in 1999.
From an early age, Asher knew that he wanted to be a magician. His first magic gigs were wherever he could get a job, performing evenings, and weekends - though his real passion came from inventing magic. At the young age of 15, he invented a technique titled 'The Asher Twist'. The Eugene Weekly reported, "After inventing "The Asher Twist," a sleight-of-hand card trick that made an international name for him, Lee Asher spent the better part of 10 years traveling the world and performing his own brand of cutting-edge magic.[3]
He is the first place International Brotherhood of Magicians Junior Close-up Champion (1991 and 1992), and was a featured lecturer at the inaugural Session Convention, a British convention for close-up magicians, in 2006.
Since then, Lee has been given several opportunities to appear on prime time television on channels such as the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and 'The World's Greatest Magic on NBC. He has also traveled the world, lecturing to magicians.
He has published in industry magazines such as Trapdoor, Channel One, The Penumbra, The Magic Circle, Apocalypse, Labyrinth, and Genii Magazine.
Lee Asher was the 2001 special guest at Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp.
Lee Asher was a guest on the iTricks.com podcast for the week of 12/10/07.
In 2006, in an unprecedented move, close-up performer Lee Asher announced that he will be sending his Asher Twist DVDs out free of charge. Free? Well, yes, but in exchange for Magic Makers' Ghost Kings DVDs; a product that Asher says was an inferior result of the theft of his original idea.
It all began in 2003 when Asher was approached by Magic Makers asking to purchase the rights to his Four-Ace routine that originally appeared in print ten years earlier. Asher declined, but in December of that year Ghost Kings, a suspiciously Asher Twist-ish looking routine with four Kings, appeared on the market in Europe, and then eventually went worldwide.
Lee hopes that his trade-in program will pave the way for other performers and marketers who find themselves in the same position of having their inventions ripped-off. Asher says that he has spoken to the CEO of Magic Makers about this, and that they both decided it's water under the bridge. But, Lee continues, initiating action to educate the masses, and at the same time recall the entire unauthorized product from the market, is something all creators can do. It's just a question of how far you're willing to go. [4]
Lee Asher's mainstream releases: