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YouTube illusionist claims employee lawsuit aims for ‘shakedown payout’

A YouTube personality and illusionist is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed against him by a former producer who alleges he portrays himself as having a “Christian persona,” but in reality is a “gifted liar” and “narcissist” who sexually harassed her by leaving his underwear on her office floor.

Elisabeth Logan’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against Zach King and his company, King Studio LLC, alleges wrongful termination, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, retaliation, wage discrimination, failure to prevent harassment discrimination or retaliation and various state Labor Code violations.

But in court papers filed Monday with Judge Lia Martin in advance of an April 2 hearing urging dismissal of Logan’s complaint, King’s attorneys state that the plaintiff enjoyed years as the second highest paid person in the company and never once complained about the work environment.

Now, Logan is suing and “advancing inflammatory, false claims she hoped would result in a quick, shakedown payout,” according to King’s attorneys’ court papers.

Only after King Studio declined to meet Logan’s “unreasonable” proposed new contract terms did she attempt to “falsely and retroactively reframe ordinary workplace interactions and compensation structures as discrimination, harassment, and wage violations,” according to King’s lawyers’ pleadings.

King, 35, is a social media celebrity who shot to fame performing in magical illusion videos, which are highly staged and edited to appear as if King is performing magic. When Logan sued in December 2021, King had more than 12 million YouTube subscribers, more than 24 million Instagram followers and more than 66 million TikTok followers.

“Zach King falsely attracts brands to work with him based upon a charming, clean-cut, Christian persona,” the suit states. “In truth, Mr. King is a gifted liar, a narcissist who believes the rules do not apply to him and a misogynist. Unfortunately, plaintiff Elisabeth Logan found this out the hard way when she began working for Zach King at 23 years old.”

King Studio LLC hired Logan as a part-time executive assistant in April 2015, and her initial duties included email management, overseeing day-to-day operations of the office, organizing and maintaining files and records, calendar management, scheduling meetings, appointments and productions, miscellaneous errands and production runs, the suit states.

Within a few months, King — who like Logan graduated from Biola University in La Mirada — requested that the plaintiff work full-time for King Studio with promises of opportunities to further her desired producing career in film and television production, according to the suit. She was given the title of producer in February 2016, the suit states.

But throughout 2016 and 2017, King consistently excluded Logan from any involvement in the development of television or film projects, despite his prior promises to the contrary, the suit states.

King sexually harassed Logan throughout her employment — including by leaving his underwear on her office floor — and discriminated against her in pay and treatment throughout her employment, paying her less than her male counterparts for substantially similar work, the suit alleges.

Logan also was expected to pick up the slack of her male colleagues, who spent days horsing around or napping, and King questioned Logan’s ability to advance in her career because he thought she should be a wife and mother, according to the suit.

“Zach King belittled, verbally attacked and yelled at Ms. Logan for the slightest perceived misstep, while turning a blind eye to male co-workers’ grave errors,” the suit states.

King fired Logan over Zoom in May 2020, and during the video conference, he acknowledged that the termination would come as a “total surprise” to the plaintiff, the suit states.

While acknowledging that Logan’s work was always “great” and “impressive,” King said he fired her because she “complained too much,” the suit states.

“As part of Mr. King’s continuous pattern of misogyny, Mr. King told her to ‘think of it like a breakup,’” the suit states.

But in their court papers, King’s attorneys state that in September 2016, Logan thanked King for being “encouraging, generous, flexible, gracious,” and for maintaining “open ears” to team members’ ideas.

Three years later, Logan said she felt “incredibly blessed” to work with King and grateful to have a friendship with her colleagues beyond the workplace, according to King’s lawyers’ court papers.

Article From: https://www.ocregister.com/2026/01/02/youtube-illusionist-claims-employee-lawsuit-aims-for-shakedown-payout/

Simon Drake's career as a Magician was inspired by prog

He helped create Bush’s one and only tour show, corrupted light entertainment TV into a counterculture variant, and refused to star in Cats – mainly because of Arthur Brown and Peter Gabriel

“My father died when I was 12, leaving a wife and five children. He was cremated the same month that I bought Fire by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown; and Arthur was about to change me forever. When I saw him on Top of the Pops cavorting about in a flaming helmet, I thought, ‘I want to do that!’

My brother was older and into John Peel, so I’d hear great things like Arc or Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs. My brother stayed in music school in London while Mum took the rest of us to Nelson, New Zealand. There was a big population of young people there. Neil Young and Jethro Tull ruled; Aqualung was everywhere – a terrific album.

I fell out of school at 15 and in with a group of heads. You were either a surfer, a biker or a hippie or a hairy. I was a hairy, and I proceeded to take my O levels in LSD. One couple had these great records that we’d listen to outside on speakers in a valley, and that’s where I heard The Mothers’ Just Another Band From LA and Audience’s The House On The Hill.

There was also more Arthur Brown with the amazing Kingdom Come album Galactic Zoo Dossier, based around war and destruction and Arthur being born during an air raid. Those albums weren’t conducive to having a merry time on drugs – they’re very dark and weird – but I loved them, and Zappa reminded me of a version of Arthur.

One year was quite a drug-addled year, and the soundtrack was Ron Geesin’s Music From The Body. It’s a wonderful, experimental record. It reminds me of the film Futtock’s End, starring Ronnie Barker, which had no dialogue, just farts and burps – very original.

It’s like An Electric Storm by White Noise, which I can hardly describe!My copy is holding up remarkably given the amount of wear and tear it’s had. Here Come the Fleas is so weird; you don’t just hear it, you feel it. I didn’t know at the time that it was the Radiophonic Workshop creating it – which is odd, given my godfather is Ron Grainer, who wrote the Doctor Who theme with them.

I’d learned some basic magic tricks so I did a few children’s parties while I also worked for my uncle, sea-fishing. I earned enough to come back to London in ’73 and stay with a school friend. He was going to the Marquee Club, and Charisma boss Tony Statton-Smith was there. I found myself in limousines with my mates and Strat, going to the most blinding gigs I’d ever seen, like Genesis on the Supper’s Ready tour.

I then realised that Arthur wasn’t the only amazing music visualist – Peter Gabriel was something completely on his own. I know every word of the first five Genesis albums. Selling England by The Pound is the best – it still has that weirdness, but they’ve matured. However, Supper's Ready is their greatest song. I was really privileged and lucky to be there.

I got a job as an office boy at Decca Records. I was going to loads of gigs and the ancients at the label – they must have been at least 30! – would buy me beer and ask me who to sign. I had no doubt; I brought in Galactic Zoo Dossier, played them the track Sunrise and they signed Arthur for a release called The Lost Ears.

I became a junior plugger and before I knew it, I was in a car with Arthur, doing promo. I was touching the hem of greatness! But one day he come to see me in the Hampstead flat I shared with Jerry Floyd, the DJ at the Marquee. I was showing him my dancing cane magic routine and Arthur said, ‘You have to do this for a living!’ He booked me to open for him and Alexis Korner, then for another show at The Speakeasy. It started something new for me, and Lene Lovich did my sound cueing.

From seeing Genesis, I got to know Steve Hackett, who asked me to do visuals for his show after I’d worked with Kate Bush – but it never happened. Please Don’t Touch! is a great album; it was Steve who told me about the automata at Jack Donovan’s in Portobello Road, and that’s where I got the actual ‘please don’t touch’ sign that inspired him.

As well as the day job plugging, and the illusionist show that I was developing, I briefly worked for Lou Reed as a minder for his partner, Rachel Humphreys. It was while he was on tour in Europe; it was really weird hours, and Humphreys was a handful, so I was quite disoriented.

One day the radio alarm went off too early and started playing Wutering Heights. It got into my dream and under my skin like a science-fiction virus. The announcer said, ‘That was Kate Bush.’ I got into work and phoned up a representative, asking to get a message to her. The song was a few weeks from being No.1, but it was so out-there and so me. I knew she was going to be successful and I wanted to be involved.

A week later I was performing in my little leotard and white face combo at a party for Roxy Music at J Arthur’s club in King’s Road. I’d invited Kate to come, and she did, on her own. We met and chatted, then she said that whatever she was doing next, I would be a part of it. For the next six months we met up, with her brothers, and talked through her visuals. I immersed myself in her music. I’ve still got the books of notes and sketches for what became the Tour of life– I was employed to add pepper and salt to an extraordinary groundbreaking and ambitious show.

It opened a lot of doors for me, like contemporary theatre in Japan and headline shows in New Zealand. Andrew Lloyd Webber wanted me to take the lead role in Cats, but I wasn’t interested; I’m very much an outsider performer, and I think that’s down to prog. When I came up with the idea for [90s TV show] The Secret Cabaret – late-night, youthful, rock’n’roll – it was against the norm; it was a prog version of light entertainment.

My favourite Kate Bush track is Sunset, from Aerial. She sings directly to your heart, and her songs are so personal you think they’re written for you. But just like Peter Gabriel, she’s warm, kind and a little disappointingly un-weird. She gave me a copy of Aerial at a little party she had. Knowing it was a gentle, emotional record, I said, ‘I’m probably going to need a box of tissues for this.’ She said, ‘Just make sure you don’t fall asleep while listening!’

Doing what I do today all came from Arthur and Peter, but mainly Arthur. I got to know him well; he gave me his Crazy World helmet and performed Jerusalem at my wedding. Watching Arthur and Peter helped me be myself.”

Article from:https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/interviews/simon-drake-kate-bush-arthur-brown-peter-gabriel