From Lost Luggage to Standing Ovations: The Journey of Orlando Mentalist Keith Kong
With a degree in psychology and criminal profiling, Orlando’s Keith Kong is a mentalist, using his skills to delve into the human psyche and blur the line between reality and deception. In this interview, Keith shares his love for magic, the challenges he has faced as a performer, and the advice he has for aspiring magicians. He also reflects on his proudest moments as a mentalist, including fooling Penn & Teller on their hit TV series, “Fool Us”, and his recent work with the Florida Lottery’s “Magic of the Holidays” campaign. Read on to learn more about this talented and inspiring performer.
From TV Inspiration to Mentalism Master
Keith Kong, an Orlando-based mentalist, has always had a love for magic. “I first became interested in magic after watching a magician perform on TV,” Keith explains. “My cousin seemed impressed and I just remember thinking, ‘I want to do stuff like that!’” As his eleventh birthday approached, Keith became more and more interested in magic tricks, and eventually found a magic kit in his mom’s closet. “I was snooping in my mom’s closet just in case I could find a gift ahead of time,” Keith admits. “Fortunately, I did find a magic kit and I ended up confessing to her and asking if I could open it, which she agreed to!”.
After opening the kit early and binge-watching the instructional DVD, Keith spent the day before his birthday practicing and learning new tricks. On the day of his birthday party, Keith performed for his guests and received an overwhelmingly positive response. “The responses that I got were addictive!” Keith says. “Adults were genuinely stumped and impressed by some of the effects that I performed and a variation on one of them has recently made its way back into my show after all these years!”.
Despite not having any close mentors in his early years of learning magic, Keith found success through self-teaching, trial and error, and learning from library books and online videos. In his freshman year of high school, Keith even started an “Illusionist Club” where he had the opportunity to collaborate with other aspiring magicians. “That was really the first opportunity that I had to collaborate with other people and bounce ideas around,” Keith remembers. “It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from my fellow club members”.
Exploring the Fascinating World of Mentalism
Keith has always had a particular interest in mentalism, a type of magic that focuses on the human psyche and blurs the line between reality and deception. “I perform mentalism almost exclusively,” Keith says. “I have a degree in Psychology and Criminal Profiling so I’m genuinely interested in the human psyche and believe that others are too.” Keith’s interest in mentalism began in high school when he met a hypnotist who introduced him to the concept. “I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but when I learned about it, it made me reflect on the material that I had been performing,” Keith explains. “All of it was mentalism, but I had no knowledge of that term or sub-genre. From that point forward, I just dialed in on what I apparently knew best.”
Keith’s love for mentalism has continued to grow throughout his career, and he now performs it almost exclusively. When asked about his favorite part of the job, Keith says, “Seeing people’s reactions to something that I created is an incredible feeling. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to perform for people and I think that’s what it’s all about.” As for coming up with new magic tricks and routines, Keith says, “There’s no single answer to this. Sometimes it starts with an idea for a method and other times it begins with an idea for a visual. There are days when I consider how I want a routine to make my audience feel and then there are days when I focus on creating the most impossible outcome. Each of those components is important and inspiration can come from anywhere, but gradually the ideas start to steamroll and form something cohesive.”
Joining Forces with the See Magic Live Team
Keith’s journey to joining Kostya Kimlat’s team of See Magic Live magicians began with a newspaper clipping sent to him by a close family friend. “For this one, I have to give credit to a very close family friend who I called ‘Aunt Mary’,” Keith explains. “From the beginning, Aunt Mary was always supportive of my love for magic and up until she passed away, she used to send me emails or letters anytime she came across something magic related.” One day, Keith received a newspaper clipping in the mail from Aunt Mary about a magician in Orlando named Kostya Kimlat, which was the first time he had ever heard the name.
Several years later, Keith had the chance to meet Kostya in person after performing at a conference with some Orlando magicians. “One of the guys invited a friend of theirs and that friend happened to be Kostya,” Keith says. “I told him about the newspaper clipping and from that point forward, we stayed in touch and became good friends.” Now, Keith has been with See Magic Live for several years and says, “We’ve really come to appreciate each other and the work that we do.”
Since joining the team, Keith has had many new experiences that have helped him grow as a magician. “My relationship with Kostya and the See Magic Live team is part of what led the Florida Lottery to select me as host of their ‘Magic of the Holidays’ scratch-off campaign,” Keith says. “We worked on creating customized presentations and live streams for their statewide audience.”
Keith’s fellow See Magic Live team magicians are unique in that they are all experienced professionals. “The thing that makes this team so special is that it’s comprised of workers,” Keith explains. “We have guys that have done over 40,000 shows on this roster and that’s the kind of experience that you want when hiring an entertainer.” The team’s shared goal is to create a shared and positively memorable experience that will entertain and often even inspire their guests. “We all care so much about how much of an impact our magic makes on an audience,” Keith says.
Overcoming Challenges and Finding Success
Keith is a magician who has always been dedicated to perfecting his craft, and there are a few things that he wishes more people knew about what it takes to be a magician. “I just find it interesting that magic is one of the only art forms where you’ll spend your life working for people to NOT see your technique,” Keith says. Despite the challenges that come with being a magician, Keith is most excited when he knows he’s about to blow minds. “The thing that makes me most excited is knowing that I’m about to distract someone from the mundane, day-to-day activities to pull them aside and show them something that should be impossible,” Keith explains.
One of Keith’s proudest moments as a magician was when he fooled Penn & Teller on their international hit TV series, “Fool Us”. “I grew up watching these guys on TV and now I was the one standing on their stage in Las Vegas while they sat back and watched me!” Keith says. “Collectively they have over a century’s worth of knowledge, so winning on Fool Us is no easy task. So much time and effort went into preparing for that moment, but once the trophy came down, I had no doubt that it was all worth it.”
Overcoming Challenges and Finding Success
Like many professionals, Keith has faced challenges in his career as a magician. The biggest challenge he’s faced has been leaving all part-time jobs to pursue a full-time career. “I managed to overcome it by creating systems that keep business coming in from multiple sources on a continuous basis,” Keith explains. “A lot of this is because of my relationships with past clients that trust and admire me/my work enough to refer me to new clients. Now I’m happy to say that I’ve been full-time for several years and even managed to survive the COVID era without other work.”
Despite the hard work that goes into every magic performance, there are always moments when things can go wrong. Keith Kong, an Orlando mentalist, knows this all too well. He shares a story about a time when his luggage was lost by the airlines just minutes before showtime. “It’s 5 minutes ‘til showtime and 200 people are crowded outside waiting to be let into the theater,” Keith recalls. “The airlines lost my luggage but assured me that it would arrive at the venue by 7 pm...it’s now 7:25 pm and I receive an email... They say that my bags will now be delivered at 9:48 pm.”
Despite the stress of the situation, Keith remained calm and quickly delegated tasks to his team. “I remained eerily calm as I got to work delegating tasks and asking questions like, ‘Do you have any books or magazines?’ or ‘Where can we find pens and scraps of paper?’,” Keith says. “As the saying goes, ‘The show must go on’ and that night was no different. I’m pleased to say that I pulled it off and the end result...a massive standing ovation!”
Without any props, Keith was able to think on his feet and deliver an engaging mentalism performance that left the audience in awe. “I assure you that nobody could have been happier about this than me,” Keith says. “I’ve always been a huge fan of my skill stemming from extensive knowledge. It’s never been about fancy props or glamorous tables but instead, it’s about the personal connection and our ability to adapt.”
Keith’s Goals, Aspirations, and Some Advice
Keith believes that his performance style and experiences set him apart from other magicians. He also has some advice for aspiring magicians. “My advice is to learn as much as possible in the beginning and then find your focus,” Keith says. “Once you have a vast array of knowledge, start focusing on quality over quantity. Also, don’t forget about the business side of ‘showbiz’. We often get into this art wanting to perform and not realizing that we also have to be our own sales/marketing team, accountant, travel agent, tech crew, graphic designer, and more (at least in the very beginning).”
Through his magic, Keith hopes to inspire and influence others. “I want my work to entertain and empower people,” Keith says. “I’d like to use my magic as a vessel for relaying important information in a way that’s palatable.”
To book Keith Kong to perform mentalism at your event, contact See Magic Live at booking@seemagiclive.com, call/text 407-367-4133, or contact the booking team here.
