Biography
Named by Entertainment Weekly as "a great magician who can truly communicate with a TV audience" and Hidden Remote as a "fan favorite...with charisma and an easy rapport with an audience", Michael Grandinetti is not your ordinary magician.
With performances on national and international television, in stadiums, arenas, casinos, and theaters around the country, with Oscar-winning composers and symphony orchestras, for NFL and NBA halftime shows and major sporting events, for Fortune 500 companies, and even at The White House, Michael has made a name for himself around the world as an extremely talented and innovative illusionist.
Over the past 20 years, Michael has been driven to make magic contemporary and to give it a wide, mainstream appeal. He has had starring roles on NBC's "The World's Most Dangerous Magic II", The CW's "Masters of Illusion", and Pop TV's "Don't Blink", and his magic has been featured on the Emmy-nominated FOX series "Bones", "The Today Show", the "Hollywood Christmas Parade", "The Bold and the Beautiful", "Access Hollywood", "Entertainment Tonight", "SportsCenter", "NBA on TNT", "FOX & Friends", and "The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon". Michael has also appeared as a guest on radio shows across the country and in media including Parade Magazine, Starpulse, The Huffington Post, MAGIC Magazine, Young Hollywood, Pittsburgh Magazine, The Beverly Hills Times Magazine, Tucson Living, DC Life Magazine, and The Marilu Henner Show.
Michael was recently featured on CNBC's "Make It", a series about people who have achieved success in challenging industries, as well as the cover of TV Times magazine, released nationally in newspapers across the U.S.
Possessing a true passion for amazing live audiences, Michael has performed at a wide range of venues including Heinz Hall with renowned composer Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City and San Diego, United Center in Chicago, Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada, Grand Central Station in New York City, the Four Seasons Resort in Lanai, Hawaii, on the red carpet of ESPN's ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, and at The White House Easter Celebration. Michael was also 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, while a live audience of 250,000 people lined the streets.
In addition, Michael was recently 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, a full acre in size, Michael caused a 500lb motorcycle to appear in mid-air, levitated 10ft into the air under bright lights at the front of the stage, created interactive magic with everyone in the theater at the same time, and melted his body through a 7ft tall wall of solid, examined steel.
Michael is currently starring in the hit CW television series "Masters of Illusion", now in its fourth season and airing in over 100 countries around the world. Hosted by Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Hit The Floor), "Masters of Illusion" showcases the world's top magicians and illusionists in front of a live audience in Hollywood. During the run of the series, Michael has performed both grand illusions and interactive stage magic including shrinking a girl to the size of a basketball, vanishing borrowed rings and causing them to reappear baked inside a loaf of bread, bringing a painting to life, levitating a lady in the center of the audience, and escaping from a platform suspended 20ft above the stage. Special guest Ace Young, star of American Idol and Hair on Broadway, assisted Michael onstage during the show for his "Walking Through Steel" illusion. Michael is also a headlining performer in "Masters of Illusion Live!", one of the largest touring magic productions in the world.
To promote the series, Michael performed a daring live stunt in which he levitated in the air, for 4 hours, 15 feet above the Hollywood Walk of Fame. During the event, helicopters hovered overhead, traffic along busy Hollywood Boulevard came to a halt, and observers flocked from blocks away to wave their hands all around to try and figure it all out. The event was broadcast by news sources across the country and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette listed the stunt as one of the 5 things they loved during the week.
Michael also starred in the recent Pop TV series "Don't Blink", a docu-series that took viewers inside the underground world of street magicians as they performed for the unsuspecting public and celebrity guests live on-location. For the series, Michael filmed 30 pieces of magic, from large-scale grand illusions to close-up sleight of hand, while surrounded by audiences at Hollywood Boulevard, Venice Beach, and Universal Studios.
Always pushing the boundaries of what is possible, Michael has pioneered live magic in one of the most challenging environments imaginable, major-league football stadiums, baseball stadiums, and basketball arenas. He has performed NFL halftime shows at Bank of America Stadium (Carolina Panthers vs. defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants) and University of Phoenix Stadium (Arizona Cardinals vs. Baltimore Ravens) while live audiences of over 70,000 people watched with a 360 degree view as Michael caused people to appear, vanish, float, and shrink in size, right on the 50 yard line. The game at University of Phoenix Stadium was broadcast live on ESPN's Monday Night Football and legendary rock band Journey performed the national anthem. At Citizens Bank Park, Michael made the 7ft tall, 300lb 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.
Michael has also created basketball halftime shows for teams including the Chicago Bulls, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Golden State Warriors, the University of Michigan, Penn State, USC, and for the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship at Barclays Center in New York City. Michael's halftime show for the Chicago Bulls NBA playoff game at United Center in Chicago, where he levitated at the center of the court while surrounded by a sold out crowd of 22,000 people, even caused commentators Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley to comment in amazement during the live national broadcast on TNT.
This is magic on a major scale.
Michael combined the worlds of magic and music when he created special performances and appeared as a featured guest artist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. During these shows, while the orchestras played musical selections specially themed for each illusion, Michael magically transformed a tuxedo into the orchestra's conductor, made roses bloom on the stage, levitated into the air while surrounded by the playing orchestra, and, for a finale, caused the orchestra itself to read the minds of the audience by playing pieces of music they were only thinking of.
Michael Grandinetti has come a long way since he received his first magic set for Christmas, and performed his first show, at the age of five. 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 only sixty seconds to escape before two walls of flaming steel spikes were thrust towards him at over 50mph. Bringing together seven illusionists from around the world, at just 21, Michael was the youngest performer on the show.
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 is also very accomplished behind the scenes. He has taught sleight of hand magic to the actors on the CBS daytime drama "The Bold and the Beautiful" and, for the TBS show "Conan" starring Conan O'Brien, Michael consulted on a special illusion design intended to make comedian Zach Galifianakis magically appear at the panel for his interview. Michael was also contacted to contribute an original illusion for the Pamela Anderson show at the Hard Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. In addition, Michael has consulted on a national commercial featuring sleight of hand for the United States Treasury, provided additional techniques in the instructions for a unique piece of close-up magic marketed after its appearance on a David Blaine special, written several articles on magic published in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country, and he was a historical/magic consultant for the book "Spellbound", detailing the life of famed illusionist Doug Henning.
Michael's original illusion designs have been featured in productions in Atlantic City, Branson, Seoul, Korea, and on the television series "Paolo Limiti" in Italy and he was once 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 his audience an engaging, entertaining, and one of a kind experience they will not forget.
