Winter Garden resident blends magic, mentalism and comedy in performances

Winter Garden’s Daniel Giandoni has a knack for pulling audiences into his world.

The magician/comedian/mentalist started off young, performing for four years in restaurants in Venezuela. Audience members always were impressed with his comedic timing in his magic tricks and wanted to book him for private events. Soon, he was performing at birthday parties, graduations and other family celebrations. 

His popularity grew outside of his hometown — as did his performing opportunities. In 2009, he won the Federación Latinoamericana de Sociedades Mágicas — essentially the Latin American world cup of magic. 

“Suddenly, I was getting calls from other countries to be the guest artist at major magic conventions and corporate events,” he said. “That’s when I realized my passion had gone global.”

He was booked and busy — networking and growing his audience week by week. 

Today, he’s a world-class performer whose talents have taken him further than he ever thought possible.

From crushing to career  

When Giandoni was in high school, he had a crush on a girl in his class, but unfortunately for him, he was too shy to ever approach her. 

He thought if he could learn a magic trick and guess her phone number, he would impress her enough to go out with him. 

It didn’t work. He couldn’t guess it correctly. 

What he didn’t know was simply trying to impress a girl through a magic trick would introduce him to a world he’d never want to leave.  

When Giandoni was researching magic to impress his crush, he found himself more and more immersed in the topic. 

He fell in love with illusionism and human psychology — learning to convince audiences of a reality that’s different than their own. 

“There’s the reality that you’re showing to the audience, and there’s the reality that’s happening in the background,” he said. 

At first, it became simply a hobby. 

“I started buying (magic) books, going to the magic store (and) speaking with magicians,” he said. “One year, I was doing some of the five tricks that I knew at a party, and a guy asked me, ‘Hey, would you do this as a job?’ I said, ‘Of course.’” 

Giandoni then was hired to perform magic at the man’s restaurant every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for nearly four years. 

Still, it wasn’t his career. 

He was going to college to study economics. 

“I didn’t choose economics because it was my passion; I chose economics because I’m good with numbers,” Giandoni said. “But I tried to study a lot so I could finish early and do my own thing.” 

His own thing was magic. 

He couldn’t let it go. It became his passion. 

Although he never saw himself working a 9-to-5 job, he utilized the skills he learned in college to better his magician business. 

Moreover, he said the connections he made while in college were essential for his business. Those who met him knew of his skills and passion, and some even booked him for private celebrations. 

He took standard magician courses, improv classes and ensured he was able to incorporate magic, stand-up comedy, improv, mentalism and stage presence in all of his shows. 

Beyond classes, he connected with two major-league Venezuelan magicians who taught him the important aspects of magic, illusion and mentalism, opening the doors for what was to become his lifelong career.

Soon, guests from the restaurant he worked at started booking his services for private parties, family gatherings, company events and corporate meetings. 

It was his dream come true. 

Giandoni constantly challenged himself through magic competitions, competing with some of the best magicians in South America and the world. 

“It was hard, because you have some of the best magicians in the world judging you, and you have to fool them,” he said. 

It was a big challenge but one he was willing to take. He knew he’d learn valuable lessons from these magic conventions — far beyond just tricks. 

The biggest lesson he learned is about managing crowds’ emotions. 

“My favorite part about that is that you can actually change the mood of a person, in a good way,” he said. “You can take a person out of whatever reality they’re in and give them a little bit of a break. I love that I can actually create a better day for a person, and it’s a high responsibility.” 

Giandoni and his teacher created a magic show together, which led him to meeting his future wife. 

She was a fan of his teacher and found the show to be comedic, fun and entertaining. 

Post-show, she and Giandoni met. 

They exchanged contact information and kept in touch and eventually, started dating. 

If it weren’t for magic, he wouldn’t have met the love of his life. 

Continuous growth 

Everything was working out the way they should for Giandoni. He was following his dreams with the girl of his dreams by his side. 

The young couple moved to Colombia, and there, Giandoni met the Latin American CEO of Netflix while performing at a corporate event. 

The man was impressed with his skills and asked him to be a consultant for a TV show, “The Unremarkable Juanquini.”     

Giandoni gladly accepted. He met with the show’s director, read and adjusted the scripted magic portions, and got to work. 

Show executives were so pleased with his work that they invited Giandoni back for more episodes, where he played himself, as a magician. 

Soon, the Giandonis made the decision to move to Florida. 

“Having a country like the United States officially recognize your artistic career and welcome you to move your business here to perform full-time for American audiences is the highest professional honor I could dream of,” he said. “It completely changed my life.” 

Giandoni strives to introduce his comedic magic and mentalism to those who have yet to experience it. 

He enjoys the fact he’s able to have a broader audience, performing both in Spanish and English. 

Giandoni offers a variety of services, varying by occasions. 

For example, he can do walk-around magic at events, going from table to table, group to group performing magic and mentalism. He also can do big-stage performances, engaging with a large audience. 

In everything he does, comedy is involved. It’s how he was raised, and how he felt comfortable expressing himself.

“Comedy is an essential part of my life, so I try to put that part of my life (onto) the stage,” Giandoni said. “It’s always a magic or mentalist show, but the ground of everything will always be comedy.” 

That comedic base has proved successful. Giandoni has performed for CEOs of well-known companies such as Netflix, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Samsung and more. 

Now, he is creating his own magic and mentalist tricks. 

“There’s a specific act in my show dedicated to my late uncle, who helped me sign up for my very first magic course as a kid,” he said. “After he passed away, I created a deeply personal tribute to him. During this act, the entire room goes dead silent. There is no trickery to hide behind; it’s just pure emotion. Seeing people in the audience moved to tears — that’s the moment I know, ‘Yeah, they are completely with me.’”

One of his favorite tricks includes a thumb cuff and a deck of cards. 

Giandoni begins the trick by putting on a thumb cuff, when he tries to have a card travel from inside the box of cards to his pocket. 

“It’s a solid 15-minute routine with a lot of comedy involved,” he said. 

The core of the trick, however, isn’t getting the card to travel from the box of cards to his pocket. Instead, he makes the thumb cuff disappear and makes it reappear somewhere he says is “impossible.” 

He finds joy in seeing the audience’s reaction to the magic trick and putting a smile on their faces. 

Giandoni considers himself an artist. From writing his own jokes and creating entire shows on his own, he shows there’s much more to magic than just cards. 

There has to be time, dedication, passion and energy in order for it to work. 

He embodies all of that and more. 

When he’s performing, he’s constantly working his brain. He’s thinking of what could go right and wrong — and what he needs to do to keep the audience happy and engaged. 

Through years of experience, he’s become more confident in his skills, and now, when a magic trick doesn’t work out, he said the audience would never know, because not only does he have a plan “A,” but also a “B,” “C” and “D.”

At first, it was nerve-wracking when a trick wouldn’t work, but he’s learned to keep his composure. The key is to keep calm and keep going. 

During one of his performances, he chose to perform a magic trick with a spectator’s ring. The goal was to have it vanish and reappear inside a sealed bag the spectator was holding the entire time. 

“Well, the ring vanished, but when we opened the bag, there was absolutely nothing inside,” he said. “Fortunately, the audience thought it was a joke, which gave me a precious five-second window to think on my feet, locate the ring and pivot.” 

Today, he purposefully makes the spectator find an empty bag as a joke and makes the ring appear in an even more unconventional spot. 

“I turned a near-disaster into the highlight of the routine,” he said.