Michael Grandinetti

 

With performances on national and international television, in stadiums, arenas, casinos, and theaters around the country, with symphony orchestras, for Fortune 500 companies, and even at The White House, Michael Grandinetti has made a name for himself around the world as an extremely talented and innovative illusionist. Over the past 20 years, Michael has strived to make magic contemporary and to give it a wide, mainstream appeal while taking his magic in new and daring directions. He has been featured on NBC’s “The World’s Most Dangerous Magic II,” CW’s “Masters of Illusion” series, Pop Network’s “Street Magic” series, “Entertainment Tonight,” “SportsCenter,” ”New York Today,” “FOX & Friends,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Crook & Chase,” and “The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.”

 

Possessing a true passion for amazing live audiences, Michael has performed at Heinz Hall with Oscar-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Grand Central Station in New York City, Navy Pier in Chicago, John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA, the Four Seasons Resort in Lanai, Hawaii, on the red carpet of ESPN’s ESPY Awards in Hollywood, and at The White House Easter Celebration. Michael was recently honored to be the first illusionist ever invited to perform in the National Independence Day Parade in Washington DC. During this remarkable celebration of our country, Michael levitated a girl high above one of the floats as it moved down Constitution Avenue, in front of a live audience of 250,000 people.

 

Last summer, Michael was one of the headlining performers in “Masters of Magic”, a large-scale production show, which ran nightly for two months at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, in Reno, Nevada. Presented on the world’s largest indoor stage, with a full acre of usable space, Michael caused a 500-lb. motorcycle to appear in mid-air, levitated 10 feet into the air at the front of the stage, created interactive magic with everyone in the theater at the same time, and melted his body through a 7-foot tall wall of solid, examined steel.

 

Michael is currently starring in the CW television series “Masters of Illusion”, hosted by Dean Cain (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “Hit The Floor”). Showcasing the world’s top magicians and illusionists, Michael performs both grand illusions and interactive stage magic in front of a live studio audience, including shrinking a girl to the size of a basketball, vanishing borrowed rings and causing them to reappear baked inside a loaf of bread, and escaping from a platform suspended 20 feet above the stage. In one of the latest episodes, special guest Ace Young, star of “American Idol” and “Hair on Broadway,” assisted Michael onstage for his “Walking Through Steel” illusion.

 

Season 2 of Masters of Illusion premieres on The CW this summer. Michael is also featured in the new Pop Network series “Street Magic”, in which he performed both large-scale grand illusions and sleight of hand while surrounded, outdoors, on location throughout Hollywood. “Street Magic” premieres nationally this May.

 

Taking the show on the road, Michael also is a headlining performer in “Masters of Illusion Live!”, the largest touring magic production in the world. The tour has performed 116 shows to date, nationally and internationally, with recent venues including Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada, and Harrah’s Casinos in San Diego and Atlantic City. The show consistently plays to capacity audiences.

 

Always dreaming big, Michael pioneered live magic in one of the most challenging environments imaginable, professional football and baseball stadiums. He performed an NFL halftime show at Bank of America Stadium while a live audience of over 70,000 people watched with a 360-degree view as Michael caused people to appear, vanish, shrink in size, and levitate high into the air, right on the 50 yard line. At Citizens Bank Park, Michael made the 7-foot, 300-pound Philadelphia Phillies mascot, The Phanatic, magically appear in the center of the outfield. At Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium, Michael performed one of the largest live interactive illusions in history when he read the minds of all 45,000 people in the stadium at the same time. This is magic on a major scale.

 

Michael Grandinetti has come a long way since first taking up the art of magic at the age of five, when he received a magic set for Christmas. His personality and style were introduced to the world when he performed his original creation “The Spike Tower” on the NBC television special “The World’s Most Dangerous Magic II.” While covered with a mixture of gasoline and kerosene and secured by chains, Michael had just 60 seconds to escape before two walls of flaming steel spikes were thrust towards him at over 50 mph. Bringing together seven illusionists from around the world, at just 21, Michael was the youngest performer on the show.

 

Michael combined magic and live music into a seamless experience that captured the audience’s imagination when he performed with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. During the show, Michael transformed a black tuxedo and conductor’s baton into Music Director David Lockington, levitated high into the air while surrounded by the playing orchestra, and, for the finale, caused the orchestra to read the minds of the audience by playing pieces of music they were only thinking of.

 

In addition, Michael has created and developed custom magic presentations for Fortune 500 companies and major corporations including Mazda, Hewlett Packard, Grainger, Ernst & Young, The American Marketing Association, Harley-Davidson, Rite Aid, and Bayer.

 

As a respected creative consultant, Michael has taught sleight of hand magic to the actors on the CBS daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful,” consulted on a national commercial featuring magic for the United States Treasury, and provided historical information for “Spellbound,” a biographical book on famed illusionist Doug Henning. His original illusion designs have been featured around the world, including stage productions in Japan, Korea, and Italy. Michael was even called about the possibility of making Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, magically appear – before it was built!

 

Michael Grandinetti is making the ancient art of magic charismatic and contemporary. By blurring the line between illusion and reality in a groundbreaking yet personable way, Michael gives the audience an engaging, entertaining, and one of a kind experience they will not forget.