Michael Carbonaro brings his magic to New Jersey

Michael Carbonaro has been performing hilarious feats of magic on Tru-TV's "The Carbonaro Effect" for the last five years. On December 29th he brings his national theater tour "Michael Carbonaro Live" to the NJ PAC complete with audience interaction, video clips, and the mind-blowing magic we've seen him performing on his show, according to his press release.

Carbonaro, who has performed over five-hundred comically perplexing and improbable feats of magic on his hit TV series talked about what got him into magic when he called into my show:

"I was in love with, really like Halloween and horror and special makeup effects," Carbonaro said. "I wanted to be a special effects artist for the movies...I used to go this magic shop in Hicksville, Long Island to buy supplies for special effects makeup, and I started hanging out with the magicians and learning some tricks...and I just decided like you know what, magic is kind of like special effects live."

Of all the tricks you've played, which was your favorite?

"It's been labeled 'Crab Cats,'" Carbonaro said. "It's this one where I was at a science museum and I convinced this woman that I was working with that this meteor, that was apparently found by an astroid site, it like fell into a mop bucket and it swelled really large and it cracks open and there's this weird like, spider-crab creature inside of it. And the thing multiples and it climbs itself on top of like a science book that has a picture of a cat on it, and it covered it with a bowl to keep it still. And then when we lift it, the thing like assimilated and morphed into a cat...it's like this weird shape shifting crab alien that turned into a cat. I can't believe she believed it."

Which was the one you wanted to do but they wouldn't let you?

"This season, I had wanted to for a really long time to, do this trick with a portal, like a time...like a wormhole," Carbonaro said. "Where I would drop objects through a hole in the floor of a house, and it would fall out a hole in the ceiling from like the other room. And then I would jump down it and then fall through the other side. Aside from the insurance...we couldn't find somebody's house to like break a hole though the floor or break a hole through the ceiling. And low and behold this season we pulled it off."

Michael was named “Magician of the Year” by the Academy of Magical Arts and presented with the first-ever “Copperfield Prize,” which recognizes an individual for elevating the art of magic. Was Carbonaro a big Copperfield fan?

"Huge Copperfield fan," Carbonaro said. "I credit learning how to become a showman from watching David Copperfield's TV specials."

If you could make something or someone disappear, what or who would it be?

"Trump," Carbonaro said.

For more information about the tour or to purchase tickets, please visit www.MichaelCarbonaro.com.