{"id":44187,"date":"2018-01-23T15:47:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T21:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=44187"},"modified":"2018-01-23T15:53:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T21:53:28","slug":"creating-wonder-with-nate-santiforth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/creating-wonder-with-nate-santiforth\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Wonder with Nate Staniforth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nate Staniforth<\/strong> started his career in magic at age 9 and by the time he was 11 had become his hometown’s premier, and only, magician. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I was the only act in town because there were no other magicians in Ames[, Iowa] so I got a lot of time on stage even before I was a teenager,” said Staniforth. “When I was in college I got an opportunity to play at an art gallery above a bar. . .and that marked the end of my career as a student. I very quickly was spending most of time inventing magic that I could do at my shows. The majority of my senior year in college was done through email.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then his life has been a whirlwind of booking as many shows as possible and collecting experiences along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those experiences are also what he was spent the last few years compiling into his newly released memoirs, Here is Real Magic: A Magician’s Search for Wonder in the Modern World.\u00a0<\/em>The book, released January 16, is a focal point for the his Make Magic Real tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Every stop on the tour we’re partnering with a local bookstore to help people find out about the book,” said Santiforth. “It’s a book about wonder and magicians have known for ages that one of the best ways to share that experience with people is through magic so it just seemed like a natural fit.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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The spark of inspiration to write his memoirs came from a trip he made to India<\/strong> where he ran into a 3,000 year-old clan of street magicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When I came home from that trip I felt like I had been struck by lightning,” said Staniforth. “I had discovered something I needed to share and for the first time I didn’t know if I could do it with magic tricks so I started learning a few other ways to communicate.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Staniforth set about learning public speaking as well as writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’ve got a practice routine I do everyday to keep skills up so I can work on stage and I just added 15 minutes a day of writing and then that quickly became 30 minutes of writing then an hour of writing. As a magician you get pretty good at learning new skills so I just treated it like learning a new piece for my show.”<\/span><\/p>\n

While the book has only been out for a week, as of writing, some fans have already read it and had the chance to talk with him about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s amazing talking with them about the book after a show,” said Staniforth. “Normally as a stage performer my relationship last about 90 minutes and the difference with a book is that’s a 10 to 15 hour relationship so they’re coming to the show with a lot more context than audiences in the past have and I am enjoying that tremendously.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Santiforth will be at Proud Larry’s<\/strong> Thursday, January 25. His book will be available for purchase at the event as well as at Square Books<\/strong>. Tickets are available here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n