First magician to win ‘America’s Got Talent’ credits Las Vegas star

But on Wednesday, it was non-Nevadan Mat Franco who became the first magician ever to win NBC’s talent contest and its $1 million prize.

Still, the city is so thick with magicians that it’s no surprise Las Vegas can claim a little piece of the 25-year-old magician’s victory.

“It’s not little at all,” Franco said by telephone from New York today. “Jeff McBride was the biggest magic influence in my life growing up,” he says of the Las Vegas-based veteran who stages the monthly event “Wonderground” in Henderson.

“It was just a complete obsession ever since I saw him on ‘The World’s Greatest Magic 2’ on NBC back in ’95,” Franco says. “He’s just a huge inspiration to me, big time.”

“It’s not like Mat hasn’t been to Vegas before,” McBride said this morning, confirming that Franco was a 12-year-old student of McBride’s Magic and Mystery School. “He was one of our youngest students ever. … His sleight-of-hand was so amazing we couldn’t believe he was that young.”

“It was what I wanted more than anything,” Franco says. “I didn’t go to Disney World when I was a kid … a lot of people tell me that’s sad,” the Rhode Island native adds with a laugh. “But anyway, I wanted to go to Vegas and my parents were great enough to say yes at some point after lots and lots of begging.”

A few years later, Franco was one of five magicians selected to be in the “Stars of Tomorrow” show, part of the Society of American Magicians convention at the Riviera.

When Franco was about to graduate from the University of Rhode Island in 2010, he attended one of McBride’s workshops and asked, “Can I really pursue magic full time?”

“His answer was, ‘You can absolutely do that.’ And he gave me some insight on how to do it. Without that moment, I’m not really sure if I’d be doing what I’m doing today or not.”

Franco comes back to Las Vegas on Sept. 26 and 27 to headline the live “America’s Got Talent” shows with the other five finalists at Planet Hollywood Resort.

Other Las Vegas magicians to compete on “Talent” over the years include Murray Sawchuck, Seth Grabel, Ariann Black and two current stars of the touring show “The Illusionists,” Kevin James and Dan Sperry.

“Magic’s really had a huge resurgence this year on television,” Sawchuck noted this morning. “The guy’s timing was right.”

Sawchuck and McBride were both impressed that Franco won with close-up and sleight-of-hand magic rather than the prop-heavy illusions more common to Las Vegas stage shows.

“It was Mat’s ability to make the sleight-of-hand magic play really big and theatrical,” McBride says, “and also to personalize magic and customize it to fit the judges and the venue he was in.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.