Siegfried Tieber - The Coffee Incident

 

 

Even after all this year, I still get a little nervous before I step on a stage. I was born and raised in Ecuador. When I turned 18, I enrolled at university for mechanical engineering. My father founded a textile company. So, the plan was always that I would earn my degree and help in the family business. 

 

Just a few months after enrolling at university, someone lent me a book, a thick book, A Thousand and One Easy Card Tricks. I read it eagerly, cover to cover to find out that out of 1,001, a 1,000 of those tricks were not good. [audience laughter] Most relied on convoluted mathematical principles that involved dealing playing cards in multiple piles, adding numbers, subtracting numbers. So, after all that, the result wasn't very exciting. Not very magical at all. 

 

However, there was this one trick buried in there somewhere that got my attention. So, I started to practice, practice, practice relentlessly for several weeks without ever showing it to anybody. One Sunday afternoon, I gathered my family in the living room, small family, mom, dad, brother, sister, and decided to show them this thing I had been practicing for so long. I hand my sister a deck of playing cards and I ask her to shuffle it. I take a different deck of cards and shuffle it myself. 

 

We go through a series of steps, at the end of which my sister takes a card out of her deck. I take a card out of my deck. We pause for dramatic effect. [audience laughter] I ask her to show her card to everybody. It's the 2 of clubs. I show my card to everybody. It's also the 2 of clubs. A perfect match. 

 

Now, it's a decent card trick. However, I was so familiar with the mechanisms, all the steps involved in this card trick, that it wasn't that exciting to me anymore. My family, they freak out. [audience laughter] I didn't see that coming. I freak out after they freaking out, and I was hooked. I fell in love with magic. 

 

Now, most people who decide to devote their lives to this, starting magic at an early age. Many kids have an uncle who pulls a quarter from behind their ear. That's their first exposure to magic. Other kids receive a magic set for the holidays. There was an influential figure in the art of magic who, late in life, was still performing. He would introduce himself by saying, “Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am 78 years of age. I've been studying magic for the last 72 years. I wasted the first six years of my life.” [audience laughter] 

 

Even though I stumbled upon magic when I was 19 years, relatively late in life, I never felt like I wasted all those years. I was just ecstatic that I found something that resonated so deeply with me. Now, a few months after that performance in my parents living room, I also met the person who would become my first mentor. Ecuador is a tiny country. Only 13 million people. Still to this day, the magic community is practically non-existent. [audience laughter] So, I had the extreme good fortune of meeting this person who was extremely knowledgeable, very well read, wise beyond his years. He was also very generous and very kind. Always willing to share his knowledge. 

 

So, my first mentor taught me many magic tricks and techniques. He taught me all about the psychology of deception, the real secrets of magic. But most importantly, he taught me to care about magic. He led me to understand that magic is an unconventional art form most people don't experience very often. So, it's not unlikely that whenever I step on a stage as a magician, there might be more than a few individuals out there for whom this will be the first- and last-time experiencing magic in their whole life. So, it feels like a great responsibility. It's on me to impress upon them that magic is an art form with great potential. Thanks to my mentor, that is the way I always approach magic. 

 

Now, fast forward five years into the future. I graduate from university. I get my degree in mechanical engineering. I gather my family in the living room again. I tell them I want to do card tricks for a living. [audience laughter] My parents were furious. My mother was furious. My father was deeply disappointed. His heart was broken. Both of them felt that I had betrayed them. However, they knew, they understood and appreciated how interested I was in magic. 

 

So, eventually they saw that and essentially they told me, “Well, we're happy if you're happy.” I was extremely happy. Since then, still until this day, they have been extremely supportive. So, I get into magic full time. Also, it's important to mention that through these five years, when I have been going to a university to get my degree in mechanical engineering, I had already started to be hired to perform at private parties and corporate events. So, at this point, after five years of that, the idea of becoming a full-time professional magician didn't sound that far-fetched. 

 

One way or another, a few months after I get into magic full time, I am hired for a big gig. A pharmaceutical company was holding a fancy cocktail party for some of their top clients and executives. They wanted entertainment, so they hired me as a magician. It was a big deal, because I was doing magic full time now. It was a very well-paid gig. And of course, I wanted to leave them with a good impression. Hopefully, the word would spread, they would even hire me again. And at the time, I had been experimenting with this trick, this illusion where I would enter the stage holding a cup full of coffee. I would cover it with my hands, I would turn the whole thing upside down and remove my hand to reveal that the coffee had vanished. 

 

My mentor planted this idea in my mind early on. The amateur practices until they can get it right. The professional practices until they can't get it wrong. I was a professional magician now, so I was practicing even more diligently. The coffee trick relies on a small mechanism hidden in the cup and a sleight of hand maneuver that activates the mechanism, contains the coffee and creates the illusion that it has vanished. I have practiced every single part of that relentlessly. I knew it inside out. I had even performed this illusion for many audiences to great success. 

 

So, [unintelligible [00:25:24] occurred to me, what if instead of simply covering the cup of coffee with my hand, what if I were to place it over someone's head, [audience laughter] and I would turn the cup upside down to reveal that the coffee had vanished. It would be the exact same trick that I was so familiar with, but it would be much more dramatic. [audience laughter] 

 

So, the night of the big gig arrives. Corporate, a fancy cocktail party for this pharmaceutical company. The emcee announces my name. I walk onto the stage, cup of coffee in my hand and I see this woman in the first row. Big smile on her face. I think she will be perfect for this. [audience laughter] I approach, I look her in the eye and I ask her, “Do you trust me?” Still with a big smile on her face, she says, she does. So, I hold the cup of coffee over her head, I look at the audience, I pause for dramatic effect. [audience laughter] 

 

I turn the cup upside down, the coffee doesn't vanish. Instead, it goes all over her beautiful white dress. I freeze. She freezes. [audience laughter] The audience gasps, not in a good way. [audience laughter] I stood there without moving a muscle for four or five seconds that felt like an eternity. Without saying a word, I ran out of that room, [audience laughter] straight to the bathroom. I grabbed as many paper towels as I could from this tiny little paper towel dispenser. When I had a good bunch, I go back to the room. This poor woman, soaking wet, was exactly where I had left her. She hadn't moved a muscle. I hand her the paper towels and tried to utter an apology. 

 

This person, this angel sent from heaven, still with a big smile on her face, looks at me. She tells me she understands. She knows it was an accident. Accidents happen. The show must go on. So, I fumble awkwardly through the next 15 minutes of the performance. Eventually, I'm finally able to calm down, collect myself and bring the show to a somewhat successful conclusion. Most people actually seem to enjoy it. 

 

The next day, I send this poor woman a big bouquet of flowers, a handwritten note. She replies with an email. We talk still to this day. She still became my friend. It's been 10 years, a little over 10 years since the coffee incident. [audience laughter] And for the longest time, just thinking about that experience would make me cringe. However, at this point, I've learned to understand and even laugh about it. And by the way, I'm glad to report that still to this day, I'm still a full-time professional magician. [audience cheers and applause] 

 

I've never had a real job in my entire life. Even after all this time, I still get a little nervous before I step on a stage. With time, I've come to understand that the nervousness comes out of care and excitement for what I do. Ever since that first performance in my parents living room, for me, magic has always been an excuse for human interaction. It's a reason to reach out to friends, family or strangers, ask them for a few minutes of their precious time and attention, and attempt to share with them something all of us can share and celebrate together. 

 

That said, sometimes that nervousness and excitement turn into anxiety, fear and doubt creep in. When that happens, I think to myself, what is the worst, the absolute worst [audience laughter] that could ever happen? I think back to that day, and it's quite comforting to think that the worst, the absolute worst, that could ever happen already happened, [audience laughter] and I survived.