When pediatric dentist Dr. Eyal Simchi posted a video of himself performing a magic trick for a patient last May, he was stunned to see it go viral, surpassing 10 million views in just three days and hitting 42 million by the time he pulled it from his Facebook page last November.
Dr. Simchi had experienced the Prisma Lites effect, an upshot of using the best-selling magic trick of all time.
The trick was invented in 1994 by magician Rocco Silano, who had a revelation as he played with a fake thumb.
“The fake thumb was already a [common] magic prop, and a battery and light was too. I combined the two,” said Silano. “It was like a chocolate and peanut butter, Reese’s kind of accident.”
The effect makes magicians appear as if they’re tossing a ball of light from one hand to the other. Called D’Lite at the time — Silano has since renamed it Prisma Lites and currently sells versions with and without sound — it became a true phenomenon with over 6 million units sold worldwide.
Rocco Silano and his Prisma Lights.
“Magic is a really powerful and profound tool to create a moment with someone,” said Ian Frisch, author of the new book “Magic is Dead” (Dey Street Books), which explores the modern world of illusionists and how they operate.
That was the feeling for Dr. Simchi, who called Silano to thank him for helping him connect with his special-needs patients.
“When I do that trick, it catches their eye and piques their interest,” Dr. Simchi said. “And once they get to that point, we can build more of a rapport.”
While many magicians sell their tricks to companies, as Frisch’s book makes clear, it’s rare to make a living off them.
Another successful example is Adam Wilber, who created the popular PYRO effect, which gives the illusion of shooting fireballs from one’s palm and has sold more than 20,000 units at $174 a pop.
Wilber estimates that only about 15 to 20 magicians in the US earn a full-time living from selling their tricks.
“There are guys that put out one or two effects, but the [number of] guys who can put out five or six effects a year is very small,” says Wilber.
Silano’s invention, which cost $20 to $35 at outlets like KB Toys and Spencer’s Gifts, catapulted him into a stratosphere few magicians ever experience. He says he earned around $125,000 a year for several years during the height of the device’s popularity in the 1990s.
“It was a gift from God,” he said. “I drove new Corvettes for a long time.”
When Michael Jackson saw the trick at the Hollywood Magic Shop in Los Angeles, he was so enamored that he hired Silano to perform at his son Prince’s birthday party at the Four Seasons in 2002.
“Michael came over to me and shook my hand, and he said, ‘Rocco, you are a real artist,'” Silano recalled. “I produce live butterflies at the end of my show. Later, he wrote a song called ‘Butterflies,’ and he wanted me to come to the house. I never got a chance to do it, and then he passed away.”
Silano’s patent expired after 21 years, and he has since joined with a company called Murphy’s Magic to repackage his effect as Prisma Lites, but competitors now eat into his profits.
While Silano caught lightning in a bottle, he’s also seen how fleeting success can be. He currently earns around $500 a month from Prisma Lites, a sharp dip from his Corvette days, and is eager to recapture the magic.
“I’ve made a couple million dollars from selling magic tricks,” said Silano, who is now 59 and living in Wayne, New Jersey. “But I spent that much, too.”
