John Gaughan

. There is no direct entrance to his warehouse and instead he offers a heavily gated entrance for appointment only. Gaughan works with a staff of only three unlike most manufacturers today. His style of work is much more classic without a lot of machinery and technology needed, and yet builds the most amazing illusions possible.

Gaughan lives only with two parrots, Luther (obtained from a circus in Buenos Aires) and Max (an oldschool show parrot from Busch Gardens) so his secrets are easily kept. This is the main reason so many great illusionists trust him with their work. Sadly only a small amount of credit is ever given to this genius. David Blaine has dropped his name a few times as "a magical genius" but he is rarely noted in any other places. The unsung hero noted at one point that he truly likes Blaine because he never uses "stooges" or plants in the audience and so forth but could not say anything either way for his other partners.

He has built for people such as Alan Wakeling, Criss Angel, David Copperfield, David Blaine, Doug Henning and The Doors, and is responsible for the construction of dozens of major acts. He has also constructed a replica of the eighteenth century chess-playing machine, The Turk, which often tours chess conferences, spending $120,000 building it.

References

* Tom Standage, "The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine". Walker and Company, New York City, 2002. ISBN 0802713912
* Gerald M. Levitt, "The Turk, Chess Automaton". McFarland and Company Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2000.
* [http://www.zigmont.com/backstage.html Proprietary designs and Intellectual Property imformation for new or used illusions] .
* "Magic Magazine" Web Extra: [http://www.magicmagazine.com/january05/january05extra.html Alan Wakeling] .
* New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/fashion/18magic.html?ref=design]