Ep. 20: Magician Dan Chan Performed for Elon Musk, Plans to Build Magic Mansion in the Bay Area

Chinatown 2.0

Dan Chan is a magician that has performed at corporate events at fortune 100 companies and lavish parties hosted by celebrities. He recently got to perform for Elon Musk at the PayPal 20-year reunion party, hosted by Peter Thiel.

Prior to his illusionist career, he was an employee at PayPal, where he met Thiel.

Dan has also been grooming his 14-year old son to become a magician, who has been doing his own $1000 shows in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We talked about how Dan decided to become a magician, how he received his training, his experience of tiger-parenting his son to learn magic tricks, how he found success in Zoom-based magic shows after Covid dropped all his bookings, his plans to build a private VIP magic mansion in the bay area, and his plans beyond magic.

0:00 Dan's magic

2:24 Dan at Paypal

05:13 Starting out performing magic at local libraries

08:47 Dan studied at a clown conservatory

09:24 Dan disliked studying but enjoyed magic

11:58 Teaching his son to reverse-engineer his success

13:49 Dealing with flops

14:42 How Covid made him pivot into Zoom magic

16:28 Plans to make a private magic club in the Bay Area

20:42 Tiger-parenting his son for the career of a magician

23:15 Plans to become a better speaker, do a TED talk and write a book