The excerpt below comes from Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Technology Report’s recent full-length interview with Marco Tempest, a Swiss magician based in New York who is known for his use of multimedia and interactive technology. A Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, Marco travels the world astonishing audiences with his “technoillusions” and shares with us the cutting-edge techniques that he uses to continually push the boundaries of his craft.
Tell us a bit about your background and how you first became passionate about magic.

I grew up in Switzerland and I did what all Swiss kids did: I spent a lot of time in school and a little bit on my hobby – trying to become a magician. During my vacation time, I was part of a circus that was made for children by children, and would tour Switzerland. When I was 10, I had an audience of 3,000 kids watching me perform magic. When I was 12, I saw a magician at a street fair and I went back stage and said “Hey! I’m a magician, too! We should work together.” This was my way of asking “Can you teach me?” Fortunately he agreed, and he came to my house and taught me the basics of magic every two weeks.

I had a really lovely path for easing into magic, and had lots of opportunities to perform and to explore. After completing the standard 12 years of school in Switzerland, I decided that I wanted to focus on becoming a professional magician. Read the rest at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshwolfe/2015/07/06/modern-magician-turns-to-tech-for-new-age-of-illusions/