Norm Nielsen

Norm Nielsen February 17 1934 April 21 2020 was an American magician and business owner Born in Kenosha Wisconsin Nielsen was known for his original musical act Nielsens interest in magic started at a young age after watching his barber perform a few cigarette tricks After seeing Neil Foster perform at a magic convention in White Water Wisconsin Nielsen enrolled at the Chavez School of Magic in Los Angeles He graduated in 1953 One of his first ideas for a magic trick was to make a trumpet toot as it floated in thin air He eventually rejected this idea as the audience would not be able to see the keys move This led to the creation of the floating violin whose moving bow was more readily seen The prototype took nearly two years to develop and the illusion itself took several more This illusion was in Nielsens repertoire for decades as his trademark trick Nielsen developed other aspects of his musical act including a flute that disintegrates into silver dust and coins that are dropped melodically onto a vertical xylophone Nielsen has worked in London Helsinki Istanbul Tokyo Caracas Santiago Las Vegas Sydney and Monte Carlo He had a regular engagement at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris where he performed on and off for six years He was the owner of Nielsen Magic founded in 1956 In the early years he learned how to make magic props from Theo Bamberg also known as Okito He was given permission by Okito to manufacture all items of his line including the Okito Checker Cabinet He was the manufacturer of the Nielsen line of products which include among others Vanishing Bottles Rubber Doves and Manipulation Cards Source Article Norm Nielsen from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30