Monday, January 12, 2026
Mat Franco Appears on the Cover of Playgirl January 2026— A Rare Crossover Moment for Magic
This month, magician Mat Franco made headlines outside the magic world by appearing on the cover of Playgirl magazine — a rare crossover moment that places a working magician firmly in mainstream pop culture.
Franco, best known for winning America’s Got Talent and headlining a long-running Las Vegas residency, shared the news with his signature humor, joking that becoming the first magician to land a Playgirl cover “wasn’t on his bingo card.” The lighthearted tone fits perfectly with the approachable, relatable persona that has helped him connect with audiences worldwide.
The feature focuses less on spectacle and more on Franco himself — his journey, creativity, and life as a performer. Rather than magic secrets or flashy illusions, the spotlight is on personality, discipline, and what it takes to build a career in modern entertainment.
For the magic community, moments like this matter. They signal that magicians aren’t just niche performers — they’re entertainers with crossover appeal. Franco’s appearance continues a trend of magicians stepping beyond traditional magic spaces and into broader cultural conversations.
It’s another reminder that presentation, authenticity, and connection matter just as much as technique. Franco didn’t just bring magic to television or Vegas — he brought himself, and that’s what continues to open doors.
Whether you’re a fan of Franco’s work or simply watching how magic shows up in unexpected places, this is one more sign that magic — and magicians — are very much part of today’s mainstream culture.
Steven Frayne (Dynamo) Brings Monumental Magic Home to Bradford with “RISE”
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This week marks one year since RISE, the spectacular opening event that launched Bradford’s year as the UK City of Culture 2025—and at the heart of it all was Steven Frayne, the Bradford-born magician best known to the world as Dynamo.
For two freezing January nights—January 10 and 11—City Park and Centenary Square were transformed into a massive open-air stage, drawing an estimated 10,000 people each night for a sold-out celebration of magic, creativity, and community.
For magicians, RISE wasn’t just a cultural event. It was a powerful reminder of how far magic can reach when it’s scaled, reimagined, and rooted in authenticity.
Magic on a City-Wide Scale
Conceived by director Kirsty Housley and Frayne himself, RISE was far more than a traditional magic show. It was a large-scale theatrical production featuring:
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A 200-strong cast of professional performers and local residents
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Aerialists and acrobats
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Live music, spoken word, and orchestration
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Massive projections filling the surrounding architecture
The result was a multi-sensory magic experience, where illusion blended seamlessly with music, movement, and storytelling—proving once again that magic doesn’t have to live only on a stage or in a close-up pad.
A Magician Returning to His Roots
What made RISE especially meaningful was Frayne’s personal connection to the location. Performing in the very place where he once practiced street magic, he reminded the audience—and aspiring magicians—where it all begins.
He told the crowd:
“All of my random ideas started right here in Bradford.
If I can do what I have done, we can do anything.
This year is going to be amazing.”
That message resonated deeply, especially for magicians who started with nothing more than a deck of cards, a borrowed coin, and a sidewalk audience.
Frayne went on to say:
“Let’s enjoy this moment. I am so proud to be from Bradford.
Everywhere I go I tell everybody about it—and I am never losing this Yorkshire accent.”
It was classic Dynamo: grounded, emotional, and unapologetically himself.
Audience Reaction: Magic That United a City
Visitors from across the region described the event as “reflective of Bradford” and praised its ability to bring people together. Families, children, longtime fans, and first-time magic spectators all shared the same reaction: amazement.
One attendee summed it up perfectly, saying:
“Events like this really do have the power to unite. Everyone’s so happy.”
For magicians, that’s the real takeaway. Magic—when done right—creates shared moments that cut across age, background, and experience.
Why This Matters to Magicians
RISE wasn’t just a success for Bradford. It was a statement about modern magic:
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Magic belongs in large cultural conversations
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Magicians can be creators, not just performers
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Community-driven magic has massive impact
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Your hometown story matters
Frayne didn’t just perform tricks. He told a story—his story—and scaled it to a city-wide audience.
A Legacy Beyond One Night
As the opening event of Bradford’s UK City of Culture year, RISE set the tone for an ambitious program that ultimately drew more than three million attendees across 5,000+ events. Highlights included hosting the Turner Prize and dozens of large-scale cultural commissions.
But for magicians, RISE will be remembered as a moment when magic stood center stage in a global cultural spotlight—led by a magician who never forgot where he came from.
Final Thought
Every magician starts somewhere. Sometimes it’s a living room. Sometimes it’s a street corner. And sometimes, if you keep going, it’s a city park filled with 10,000 people watching magic unfold under the night sky.
RISE was proof of what’s possible.
Article source: Yahoo newsSunday, January 11, 2026
Here & Now 2
Now available at www.magiciansmagicshop.com
It is Dani's live seminar, recorded from his studio and its divided in the following sections:
- Chaos
- Forces
- Miscellanea
- Interviews
- Chaos
- Working at Home
- In Group
You will get four video downloads full with new concepts, techniques and tricks. More than six hours of magic!
Welcome to Dani's world!
NOT.ESP
Now available at www.magiciansmagicshop.com
Deceptive. Deadly. Direct.
This is NOT.ESP, your new favorite everyday mind-melter.
A hand-drawn prediction system masquerading as a harmless notes app.
Designed to mimic real telepathic predictions, NOT.ESP lets you perform impossibly deceptive drawing duplications. Instantly, on the fly, and in full view of your spectators.
Where NOT.ESP accelerates into a league of its own compared to other Drawing Dupe Apps is that neither you or your audience ever say the word or drawing out loud.
This is how clean it is... you draw something and "mentally transmit" that image to your participant's mind... they then draw it, in their notes app. Hands off, they turn your phone over and their images are a perfect match.
Due to the devious method, you can choose how you want to perform this. Either you draw your image first, as a prediction. Or they can draw an image and psychic transmit it to you to draw.
The crazy part is, they don't even need to draw it on their phone. They could literally just draw it in the air using nothing but their finger.
Hands down, NOT.ESP is Jake Keane's (one of the worlds' leading underground mystery artists) everyday, go-to mentalism opener.
It's fast. Fooling. Freakishly flexible. In the right hands, it could create cults.
This is NOT.ESP
Not a trick. Not a gimmick.
A drawing duplication system disguised as an everyday app.
Oh... one more thing.
With every purchase of NOT.ESP you will also receive a brand new, unreleased app completely for free; NOT.ESP+.
NOT.ESP+ takes the incredibly strong foundations from the already powerful entry level NOT.ESP app and superchargers to make it more powerful than we can literally comprehend right now.
Now you can predict and reveal ANYTHING. Seemingly using ANY app in your phone.
Some have even said NOT.ESP+ is strong enough to be a stand-alone $100 release - and honestly, we agree! We tried to talk Jake into it, but as a "man of the people," he insisted on including it as a free bonus app- his way of giving back to the community that supported him from the start.
So, grab NOT.ESP+ before he finally comes to his senses and changes his mind!
FAQ's
- Works on iOS & Android.
- Works in any language.
- Once installed, it needs no network connection.
- Very, very easy to do.
- Perform hands off.
- Can be performed with or without memory work.
- No AI. No ChatGPT subscription required.
- With NOT.ESP+ you can reveal anything.
When you purchase NOT.ESP you will be able to download it instantly. No waiting for the mail to arrive. You will receive an email containing your tutorial and install instructions immediately.
"This is by far my favorite thing to do instantly, on-the-fly...It is just real."
- Lloyd Barnes
"NOT.ESP was the best app available at Blackpool... I love this as much as DFB. And if you know me, there is no higher praise than that."
- Mark Elsdon, featured NOT.ESP in Blackpool Top 10 of 2025.
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