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Catching Up With...
Walking through a brick wall? Easy. Sawing a woman in half? No sweat.
Illusionist Michael Grandinetti, B’99, recently opened up a baseball game for the World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies, incorporating several new “tricks” in front of 45,000 people. He made the 7-foot-tall, 300-pound Phillies Phanatic mascot appear out of thin air, he levitated 10 feet in the air in the center of the field, and he read the mind of everyone in the stadium at the same time.
Grandinetti’s days are full of magic.
Last year, Grandinetti was the featured performer for 22,000 guests at the 2008 White House Easter celebration. He made hundreds of colored eggs and a large U.S. flag materialize during the show, much to the delight of the crowd.
“Standing on the lawn, with the president 50 feet away, was an amazing experience,” says the illusionist.
The White House gig was only one of 150 performances last year for this professional magician. From his home base in Los Angeles, Grandinetti travels the country for shows in concert halls, casinos, convention centers and corporate venues for clients such as Harley- Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, Guardian Insurance, Grainger Industrial, Benjamin Moore, the American Marketing Association and others. He is also seen regularly on television.
“I am truly fortunate. I love what I do and enjoy keeping a very busy schedule. Sometimes it feels like I’m on planes more than in my car!” says Grandinetti.
One of his early shows, a two-hour production staged for a sold-out crowd at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh when he was 20, drew fellow students from Duquesne. Though he took up the art of magic at the tender age of five, he honed the business aspects of his trade on our Bluff.
“I always knew I wanted to pursue magic,” says Grandinetti. “But, I also knew that I would need to attend a good business school to learn how to market myself, develop my career and run my own business, so I enrolled in Duquesne’s business school.”
Grandinetti commuted to Duquesne during the week and worked on his company in the evenings and on weekends. His fondest collegiate memories include producing a show in the Student Union Ballroom as a freshman. And when a big break came in the form of a national television opportunity during his senior year, Grandinetti says he felt as if all of Duquesne was behind him.
“I had to ask permission to make up class work in order to appear on World’s Most Dangerous Magic,” says Grandinetti. “My professors were supportive in so many ways at Duquesne—and they continue to be now.”
The show ran months later, during graduation week. Appearing with a handful of the world’s top illusionists, Grandinetti was the youngest performer. The experience helped launch him into the world of television and confirmed to him the importance of carving out a marketing niche.
Today, Michael Grandinetti Magic is known for creating custom illusions that convey a business message or promote a product. Tapping into his marketing and business background, Grandinetti provides clients with cutting-edge visual effects to accentuate sales programs, motivate staff, and sell products and services. He appears at trade shows, corporate galas and other events at the request of some of the largest corporations in the country.
“Our aim is to seamlessly combine magic with a theme or message, creating a memorable experience for the audience,” says Grandinetti.
When a business wanted to illustrate that it could not be harmed by a competitor’s dangerous lies, Grandinetti magically passed a wall of steel spikes through the CEO. He recently put the finishing touches on three new large-scale illusions that he will use to highlight particular products and themes at corporate shows in 2009.
All of Grandinetti’s performances feature grand illusions, stage magic or close-up sleight of hand. He levitated a woman while surrounded by crowds at Grand Central Station, Central Park and Rockefeller Center in New York City to promote the World Magic Awards television special. His other television credits include Entertainment Tonight, The Bold and the Beautiful, Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, Fox & Friends, and the World’s Most Dangerous Magic special he performed in while a student at Duquesne.
Grandinetti has appeared in productions around the world, yet he remains close to his DU friends and professors.
Several fellow Duquesne alumni travel the country with Grandinetti handling sound and lighting, and setting up and tearing down illusions. He also keeps in touch with the Reverend Sean Hogan, C.S.Sp., executive vice president of student life, and instructors from the A.J. Palumbo School of Business Administration, including Dr. Audrey Guskey, Dr. John Lanasa and Dr. S. Jay Liebowitz.
“My Duquesne professors were a big influence on me,” says Grandinetti, whose brother Patrick Grandinetti, A’98, and sister, Becky Grandinetti, E’04, are also alumni. “Because of them, I was able to combine the marketing and business background I gained at Duquesne with the world of entertainment, both running my own company and in finding ways to offer custom magic to convey business messages.”
Looking back, he says Duquesne felt like a big school small enough to provide personal attention to its students, including a magician set on creating grand illusions.
By Colleen C. Derda, A’83 |
