He’s holding the cards for success.
A Long Island 12th grader is following his dreams to become a world-class card trick magician and will be attending the Top Gun of illusion school in California — Los Angeles’ Magic Castle.
“You can’t go unless you’re someone already. It’s very exclusive … all the best magicians in the world go there,” Syosset High School’s Jacob Goetz told The Post of the Castle’s elite program.
“Even to get into see a show, you have to have a special invite or have some sort of connection.”
Goetz made judges’ doubts disappear during an audition in late 2025, earning acceptance into the performance center’s junior society, which houses the globe’s very best up-and-coming talents.
“I would say it has to be between 100 and 300 worldwide,” he said. “There are people in the junior program from Spain, Costa Rica, and lots of places.”
Stacking the deck
The 18-year-old Goetz didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve to reach this level of success so early in life; instead, he had only years of unrivaled passion.
He fell in love with magic as a 7-year old after finally playing with a set his family got him that had been collecting dust in Goetz’s closet for a few years.
“There was a three or four-year period of time where I would practice for at least an hour every day, mandatory.”
The trickery from sleight of hand — he can fly a card across a room without anyone knowing, and other stunts like changing the logo on a card box in front of the naked eye — “became a crazy obsession.”
Goetz became a regular at Long Island magic camps and sharpened his skills for years, and at age 16, he took his show on the road — literally.
“I door-knocked with a sales-type pitch,” said Goetz, who went around to almost every restaurant in bustling Huntington village.
“I’d tell them, ‘I’d love to do magic here while people are waiting for their food.’ … I’d say I went to about 32 restaurants. I have a list.”
Only one spot he approached ended up giving the talented young man a chance — but it shut down after he performed a handful of times.
There was still some luck in the cards for the teenager, though.
“Right after I booked the gig, I walked out, and I was still wearing my suit. This guy walks past, and he said, ‘Oh, are you a magician?’ And I said yes. And he said, ‘Show me something.’”
“Afterwards, he said, I’m a magician on Long Island, and any sort of gigs that I can’t do, I’ll send them to you. He basically became an agent for me.”
Goetz is now doing shows ranging from corporate events to kids’ parties, about once every two weeks while balancing senior year.
He tests out new material on his girlfriend, Alyssa, as well as his school pals and some teachers as he figures out his college plans for the fall.
Along with attending his Magic Castle program, Goetz plans to study marketing, business, and philosophy at a university because “they all connect to magic.”
The magician is already integrating complexity into his routine.
He auditioned for the Magic Castle with a trick he calls “Shrodinger’s stack of cards,” in which Goetz essentially makes both exist and not exist simultaneously.
Continuing with his regular gigs in the weeks leading up to his upcoming advanced training in LA, Goetz is confident his future career will be magical.
“I’d say, in the past three years, and being around professionals and working with them, it’s very possible to make an okay living doing this,” he said. “Things have been going very well.”