Whatever you do, don’t ask magician Jordan Goldklang to reveal his secrets. Not because he won’t tell you (of course he won’t), but because for him, magic is about so much more.
“I’m not impressed by the trick or the illusion,” says Goldklang, who holds the first-ever university degree in magic. “I’m impressed by how it’s performed, the staging and the routine, and the connection with the audience.
“Magic doesn’t happen with the cards or coins — those are extensions of the performer. The magic comes from the mind of the audience.”
Dressed in a black velvet jacket, colorful dress shirt, black pants, black vest, and wing tips is how 23-year-old Goldklang, aka the Great Jordini, works a bar or bat mitzvah party. He’s on his turf, in the zone and ready to reveal why he’s a “bar mitzvah magician.” After all, he’s been “on the circuit” for 10 years.
“I understand the mentality at the parties,” says Goldklang of Mill Valley, whose family belongs to Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon. “It’s not about the magic at all. It’s about the connections you make with people. I could be flailing my arms — as long as the kids are watching and not causing mischief, the parents are happy.”
His oversize top hat and larger-than-life magic wand usually grab the attention of the younger guests, tweens eager for entertainment during the adult cocktail hour. But Goldklang knows he’s not there to show everyone how cool he is. He’s there to enhance the evening, not take it over.
He dazzles the kids with coins vanishing from his hands to the kids’ hands and back again. He rubs a hole out of one steel washer, only to have it appear in another. He makes cards “jump” from the middle of the deck to the top. There are plenty more tricks up his sleeve — or are there?
The would-be rambunctious kids are captivated, the way Goldklang was before he made his own magic for the first time years ago.
Every day, Goldklang would fill his pockets with toys before going to class at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Rafael. He fiddled with rubber bands, shuffled a deck of cards or played with any number of trinkets he stashed in his pockets.
His first-grade teacher dubbed him the “tchotchke man.”
“My hands always needed to be busy,” Goldklang says. “So I took all that energy and practiced something, like moves with cards and slight-of-hand. Magic was a great outlet for me.”
Goldklang likes to say he was “born to perform,” craving attention and the spotlight at a young age. He went to the Sausalito Art Festival as a child, sitting mesmerized as magicians and jugglers entertained in the children’s area. At age 7, he got his first trick, the Crystal Cleaver, in which a tiny sword penetrates a clear plastic box and a solid metal ring. He still has the trick today.
Four years later, Goldklang, then 13, got serious about his magic. He started performing at birthday parties, friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs and neighborhood get-togethers. He added the stiff rope trick — hypnotize a soft rope to be stiff and straight on command— and a few coin tricks to his repertoire, and hasn’t stopped since.
By the time he entered high school, first at Tamalpais High, then at Tamiscal High, an alternative school for students seeking less time in the classroom to focus on the arts, athletics and extracurricular activities, Goldklang was known as “the magic man.”
“People would say, ‘Hey magic man, show me a trick!’” Goldklang recalls. “It was neat to be recognized. I’d go to a movie theater and people would shout out my name. It was definitely a big step forward.”
Similar reactions happened at University of Indiana in Bloomington, where Goldklang, who treated his freshman orientation staff to impromptu performances, originally planned to study music.
An avid violinist of 15 years, Goldklang played in chamber orchestras during high
school and was set on majoring in violin performance until someone uttered a name that would ultimately change his academic path: Will Shortz.
Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor at the New York Times, is the only person known to hold a degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles. He achieved this feat by designing his own curriculum through Indiana University’s individualized major program.
In his sophomore year, Goldklang swapped music for magic. He created a curriculum for a major in magic, incorporating classes within the university that applied to what he wanted to learn. He took theater classes for voice training and performance, psychology classes to understand why and how people experience magic and an independent study course on the history of magic.
Not a white rabbit or a woman sliced into three pieces in sight.
“When people hear I majored in magic, they think it’s all about the tricks,” Goldklang says. “It’s about everything you have to know to be a professional magician, without the tricks. It’s all about performance and telling a story. It’s sort of like a musician. What makes a great musician isn’t what song he plays — the important thing is to play beautifully.”
After switching majors, Goldklang says it was the first time he realized a career in magic actually could be lucrative. His confidence grew and he further developed his persona: a serious magician with an “I can read your mind” look on his face, and a bit of tongue-and-cheek humor thrown in.
Don’t worry, though … he’s not actually reading minds. There’s an ethical line, Goldklang says, between magicians and psychics. Magic is something everyone can do, he says, and he’s devoted his life to perfecting the art of illusion.
“I never say I’m going to read your thoughts,” Goldklang says. “Even if you can get someone to believe that you did, ethically there’s a problem with that. Psychics want you to believe they have supernatural powers. Magicians give you the sense that anything is possible.”
Like many recent college grads, Goldklang is looking for work. And while he’s hoping to line up more gigs at bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and private parties, he’s got his eye on something bigger — a membership with the Magic Castle, the world-famous club for magicians in Hollywood.
As for the future, “I see myself doing what I love,” Goldklang says. “Nothing is better than the interaction when performing for one or 20 people. Doing magic directly in front of someone and getting live feedback is so enjoyable.”
For more information, visit www.jordini.com.