'America's Got Talent' Magician Reveals Her 'AGT' Clique
Female magicians are rare, but this season on America’s Got Talent, Anna DeGuzman is representing with her special brand of magic that involves cardistry, and she has big plans for her performance tonight.
“Cardistry is my specialty, it’s what makes me stand out on the show,” the 24-year-old North Jersey-based magician tells Parade in this exclusive interview. “There’s never been a cardist on the show ever in 18 seasons. So I’m definitely incorporating cardistry in the act again, but this time it will have a much bigger impact. So, even though I’m a very small, petite person, I feel the show that we’re doing is bigger.”
In between her initial audition and tonight’s performance, Anna traveled to Las Vegas to attend a magic convention, where she ran into former AGT winners Shin Lim, Mat Franco and Dustin Tavella, and also semi-finalist Colin Cloud, who all shared their experience with her.
“It’s a very small community and we all have known of each other for a long time,” she explains. “They know I did the show, and I was like, ‘What should I do next? I don’t know what to do. I’m scared but I’m ready for this.’ And they all had good advice; they know the process more than anybody. I feel like I have a lot of people rooting for me, so I won’t let them down. I’m just going to go out there and do my best.”
During her audition, it was obvious that Anna was nervous, but she powered through like a pro and won over the judges and the audience with not just her talent but her personality. She says she's put in a lot of practice since to help cut down on the nerves for this new act that she created just for the semifinals, but there’s an added element that could keep the jitters going.
“My mom has never come to any of my shows,” says Anna, who got into magic in the first place because she was raised by a single mom and needed something to fill her alone time. “It’ll be her first time seeing me perform ever at the semifinals. She’s flying in; she’s in the Philippines. More than anybody, I am most nervous for her to be watching. It’s a big deal. For me, I’m nervous obviously because it’s the semifinals, but more because she’s in the audience."
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During our chat, Anna also talked about why she feels her life is magical, what she'd spend the $1 million prize on and more.
Something you said on stage, I just loved. You said, “Magical things happen all the time,” and I’m assuming you meant in your life. What is an example of that?
Honestly, those are the most unexplainable [moments] for me to describe. I have found myself in situations where everything happens for a reason, nothing happens by accident. I do not believe in coincidences. Everything has always worked out for me. And even with my circumstance with my mom, I think I’m her greatest blessing in that we didn’t have any advantage, and I think God really guided me to become who I am today to help me take care of my mom and our family.
I don’t think this is by accident. I could have been a normal girl and had a traditional path and a normal job, but that was never going to be me. This was what I was meant to do. I was born to be a performer; I was made for this.
What made you audition for AGT in the first place?
AGT is the No. 1 show for a magician. It is one of the only shows to highlight magic—like, where else can you go on and make it as a magician? So, to me, it’s the only show that I could have gone on that I knew could change my life and really bring my career to the next level.
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What was the reaction to your appearance on AGT? Did you book any jobs? Did you hear from anyone interesting? Did your social media grow?
I think my whole life, honestly, has just been growing since. Everything did blow up, social media-wise, I gained a lot of new viewers and started booking a lot more live shows. I mostly do corporate events and private parties.
But socially, I feel like I walk down the street and the best feeling I have is someone comes up to me—this happened multiple times with men, men will come up to me and be like, “I showed my daughter that video of you and now she wants to become a magician.” Or young girls are coming up to me like, “Oh, my gosh, I never heard of a female magician before. I want to do it now because of you.” That fulfills me so much because that’s what I do it for. The whole point of my audition was to inspire people and to show them that there are girls doing it. It’s about representation.
Photo by: Casey Durkin/NBC
Why do you think there aren’t more women doing it?
I think because you don’t see any. I think I’m one of the first and, hopefully, inspiring more people to get into it, especially young girls. Because I didn’t have that kind of role model when I got started.
How you did get into magic? You mentioned during your audition that it was because you were raised by a single mother and you had time on your hands.
That’s exactly how it happened. I was always a curious kid. I spent a lot of time alone, and finding something like cardistry—I started off with cardistry before magic. Cardistry is very much to yourself and it’s something that I was able to practice on my own to entertain myself while being an only child.
And then when I would go to school, people would be like, “Oh, that’s cool how you shuffled it, but when can I pick a card?” Cardistry isn’t magic, so I learned magic to have more human interaction and integrate. A big part of magic is that you can connect with others, versus cardistry is more like juggling. When you watch a juggler, it’s almost more selfish. It’s like, “Look at me, look how cool I am, look what I can do,” versus magic, [which] is more interactive.
So, was it online videos, was it books? How did you learn?
I would watch videos, slow them down, rewatch them. I’d watch shows like America’s Got Talent. I would watch these things and I looked at it, and I said, “I could do that.” I just knew I could. I think a lot of people, whether it’s magic or something like acrobats, I think people are like, “Whoa, I can never do that. That looks impossible,” and I just always knew that I could. I believed in myself enough to try something.
You mentioned doing corporate gigs. Where else have you performed? It looks like you were on an Australian version of Got Talent?
Yes. I did Australia’s Got Talent, but I didn’t make it, and also it was different. It’s similar in the sense that it’s a Got Talent show, but America’s 100 times as big, 100 times bigger in production, 100 times harder competition. So, the fact that I made it in America was even crazier because it’s harder to make it.
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What would you do if you won the $1 million?
I first off want to buy my mom a house. The reason we moved around so much is she didn’t have a job for some of the time when I was growing up. And so that’s why we moved. We always lived with my aunts or other family members. We just never had our own home, so I think the first thing would be just to be able to take care of her, have a house that is ours, so she can be fine.
I am lucky enough that I get to do shows and that’s how I’ve been able to travel, [but] my mom really hasn’t traveled most of her life, so I would love to give her that experience. I would like for us to travel together and have a mother-daughter trip.
Are you hoping to make the Las Vegas show? Is that the dream?
Vegas is the mecca of magicians, so I would love to have a residency in Vegas and be one of the first female magicians ever on the strip to have a Vegas residency. There was one 30 years ago, but there hasn’t been a female magician on the strip in a very long time.
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
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