| Val Valentino | |
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Val Valentino, after he received Latin American Academy Award. |
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| Born | Leonard Montano June 14, 1956 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Other names | Masked Magician, Mr M. |
| Occupation | Illusionist |
| Website | |
| The Masked Magician's Official MySpace Masked Magician's Official Website |
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Val Valentino (born June 14, 1956) is an American illusionist who gained fame by starring in four magic specials exposing magic secrets on the Fox network, using the stage name the Masked Magician.
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Valentino was born as Leonard Montano in East Los Angeles, California. His father Artur Galstian is an Armenian emigrant from Turkey, his mother Elle Montano is of Italian descent.
Valentino's first foray into magic was at the age of five with a trick called "the ball and vase" that his father gave him.[1]
In his teens, Valentino performed with the “International Cultural Awareness Program” for over a million students throughout the Unified School Systems. The performances also included revealing magic secrets to encourage others to become magicians.[1]
By the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, Valentino had moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and was performing in casino shows including Viva Las Vegas and Splash, after having appeared on The Merv Griffin Show, as well as in a music video by Herb Alpert.
For a span of two years (circa 1997-1998), Valentino performed, unbilled and disguised, as the "Masked Magician" on Fox network television specials called Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed which exposed long-guarded trade secrets.[2] The Masked Magician was also shown in the UK on the ITV network during the late 1990s and is still occasionally repeated on ITV4.
Valentino had been approached by Fox while he was performing in Las Vegas showrooms. After some negotiation, Valentino signed to do the program, promising that he would only reveal the secrets behind old illusions. However, when the programs aired, many newer illusions were also revealed. This sparked controversy, as many magicians feared that their illusions were now worthless.[1]
When he finally revealed himself at the end of the fourth show, he emphasized that he felt that revealing the secrets would encourage kids into trying magic instead of discouraging them, and that the entertainment of magic shows was more in the magician's showmanship instead of the wonder of how the trick was pulled off.
New episodes of the show later returned to broadcast on MyNetworkTV. Episodes can also be seen on Fox Reality Channel. It has been disclosed that Valentino is reprising the role.[1]
Valentino also appeared in the Masked Magician persona on a 1999 episode of Diagnosis: Murder.
In an episode of the animated series King of the Hill, "Sleight of Hank" Bobby Hill wears a mask like the Masked Magician while narrating the secret behind a magic trick witnessed by Hank and Peggy Hill.
In October 2007, a graphic novel starring the character of the Masked Magician was released.[3]
A character also called "The Masked Magician" was created earlier by Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda as part of Kaufman's comedic stage act.[4]