Magician, Entrepreneur& Theater Guru Danny Archer Joins Brad

Danny Archer is a very successful, interesting and awesome dude. He is a serial entrepreneur, a world-class magician, and is currently knee-deep in running and owning the Smoke and Mirrors Theater in Philadelphia.

There were so many wonderful parts of this interview, I encourage you to listen to it all. Danny is such an interesting guy. But allow me to offer up a few highlights:

• Danny started his niche, 60 seat theater 2 1/2 years before the pandemic. Amazing. He fessed up to having a higher than average risk tolerance. And I would say anybody who starts a small business is brave. Anybody who starts a small theater is braver. And the fact that he’s had success it’s just wildly impressive to me.

• The coronavirus has been tough on all of us. To Danny it means that the theater has been closed nearly 1/2 of the time he’s owned it. Danny is proud of the fact that he’s still in business and the theatre is starting to recover. But hearing just what a massive hit his business suffered during the pandemic was really impactful to me. Well done, Danny!

• Danny had a heart attack while doing a magic show at his theater. That story is near the end of the podcast…you just have to hear it.

• Danny told a touching story about his wife being TOTALLY supportive of his decision to go into magic full time. It was striking how totally supportive she was. (And is.) There is a cliche about every successful person has the support of some awesome partner.  Danny and his ex-wife fit this perfectly!

• My favorite part of the interview was hearing two contrasting stories about two contrasting magical mentors. In the first story Danny asked a seasoned magician for help, and that older magician literally blew cigar smoke into Danny’s face and was absolutely discouraging. But years later, Danny had an opposite experience: another seasoned magician gave Danny some very solid advice that helped set him on the correct path towards becoming a world class magician. The best part? Danny had a chance later in life to tell off the first magician, but decided it wouldn’t be worth it. But when he had a chance to tell the second magician about how he had made such a positive impact, Danny jumped on the opportunity. To me this was such an excellent example of why Danny is a very wonderful human being.

Well done, Danny. It’s an honor to know you. Thanks for making this podcast special!