A Career Built Backwards
Zach Waldman's older brother did magic for money at birthday parties and nursing homes, and a young Zach Waldman bugged his mom for tricks from the magic shop until she made him a deal: build a real show, get paid, spend it on whatever he wanted. His sister, a professional belly dancer, connected him with agents who started booking him for kids' shows, and he was doing paid gigs for adults before he was old enough to drive to them. At 21, he quit magic entirely. He was tired of hauling props around, so he moved to New York, worked for The Howard Stern Show, then for Kenny Kramer, the real person Seinfeld's Kramer character was based on. From there he went to Chicago and trained at The Players Workshop of The Second City, working with a sketch and improv troupe. At 27, in Los Angeles, he realized he missed magic too much to stay away. He auditioned for the Magic Castle in 2001, got in, and has headlined there ever since.
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