Local magician’s college intership ends with guest spot in show
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
Thirteen years after a 7-year-old entrepreneur began mixing and selling zany concoctions of soda, Gatorade, lemonade, and ice tea to brave neighbors in Sharon Mews, “Schick’s Soda” landed on the Las Vegas Strip — and it was pure magic.
Matt Schick, 20, of Robbinsville, wrapped up a six-week internship with renowned magician Nathan Burton last week with a guest spot in the “Nathan Burton Comedy Magic Show” in Las Vegas, where he performed his “Schick’s Soda” comedy/magic act inspired by his childhood adventures in the beverage business.
In his five-minute routine Mr. Schick joked about his shortcomings as soda mixologist (“it tasted like, well, Schick”), then dazzled the audience with a magic act that “fixed” his most unpalatable beverage mistakes.
”I take green Mountain Dew, blue Gatorade and red Kool-Aid and I pour them into a bucket and mix them around,” Mr. Schick says. “Then I’m able to take three plastic cups and separate it into three different color drinks again and show the empty bucket to the audience so they know there’s no hidden pockets or anything.”
Mr. Schick won’t reveal how the trick is done, but one secret he will share is that he had to overcome a major case of the jitters to walk onstage at the Flamingo Hotel on Aug. 26, his last night in Las Vegas.
”He (Nathan Burton) told me the day before. He said, ‘hey do you want to perform on my stage?’ and I couldn’t believe it,” Mr. Schick recounted. “The fact that I was performing on that stage in front of 730 people, and there’s a balcony, there’s lights, and there’s showgirls and it’s Vegas was just overwhelming,” he said.
”Then I found out Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are sitting in the front row with their kids,” Mr. Schick said. “I was extremely nervous. As he was introducing my name, my heart was pounding and I’m thinking I’m going to pass out … but the second I stepped on stage all that went away.”
Mr. Schick, a Robbinsville High School graduate now majoring in marketing at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, said he has spent two summers interning with Mr. Burton in order to learn the business side of show business. During that time he has worked in the dressing rooms, pushed props on stage, sold tickets and worked on marketing plans for the show.
”It’s the best possible learning experience for someone in my situation because it really does allow me to get a full perspective of what it’s like to have a really successful show in Las Vegas,” Mr. Schick said. “A lot of people don’t realize there is so much work behind it; it’s not just what you see on stage.”
The most important lesson he said he has learned from this show-biz internship is that an entertainer needs more than just talent to succeed. A performer also needs a sound business plan that targets the markets and people who will want to come to see his show, he said.
Mr. Schick noted that during his six short weeks in Nevada there was another Las Vegas show that opened and closed, losing millions of dollars in the process.
”I was just really fortunate to have somebody who cares enough to show me around and what it takes to have a successful show,” Mr. Schick said. “This internship gave me a very realistic perspective on what to expect when you’re producing your own show.”
Mr. Schick said he has been fascinated by magic ever since he was 6 years old when he saw a magician perform at the Robbinsville library.
”I don’t remember who the magician was or what tricks he did, but I just remember the feeling. I remember thinking that’s what I want to be when I grow up,” Mr. Schick said. “I’ve always loved watching magic.”
He said his childhood was spent studying magic books, going to magic camps and attending magic conventions in his quest to learn as much as he could. His local performances have included two sold-out shows he did at his high school that collectively raised $27,000 for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Mr. Schick said he picked business as his college major so that he would gain the financial and marketing knowledge to produce his own comedy magic show someday in Las Vegas or some other major city.
”My dream is to keep doing this,” Mr. Schick said. “Hopefully, when I get out of school I can make this work.”