LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It’s been 15 years since Matt Donnelly traded in the lights of The Great White Way for the neon lights of the Entertainment Capital of the World. Since then, he’s been making his mark on the Las Vegas comedy and magic world.
Donnelly moved to Las Vegas from New York in 2008.
“My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, got hired by Jersey Boys and we moved here,” Donnelly said. “It was a learning curve for sure.”
Donnelly spent years working in the improv comedy scene. He played Christian Grey in “50 Shades the Parody”, hosted “Executive Monkeys” at the Palms, and performed alongside Wayne Brady and Jonathan Mangum in “Making It Up At The Venetian”.
“My comedy career peaked so early. I started off doing sold-out crowds at The Venetian with Wayne and his long-time comedy partner but then he got Let’s Make A Deal and he closed his show,” Donnelly said. “I started doing little shows around town. It was great. I had a lot of fun. There is a great improv comedy scene in town.”
Despite his success as a comedian, Donnelly said it can be hard to move up in the Las Vegas entertainment scene.
“What is successful here is what caters tourists, not locals,” Donnelly said. “In New York, you could put yourself in a fringe festival and grow your show into larger venues. I kind of had that mentality when I first worked here and thought I could move to a casino showroom. That’s not a thing here. There’s no ladder or tree to graduate to. Either you are someone who can put butts in seats or you aren’t.”
While working as a comedian, Donnelly started as an intern for Penn & Teller. That led to working on their show, Fool Us.
“Part of what I did was I worked with the host. I also prepped and talked to different magicians about what to expect with the show,” Donnelly said. “Fool Us gave me an unfair education into magic.”
It was Jillette who ended up talking Donnelly into giving magic a try.
“The magic came on a whim. I always talked to Penn between episodes because we’re tight,” Donnelly said. “I was mouthing off to him saying things like it seems easier to make a living as a magician instead of a comedian. He said it’s harder than you think.”
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Donnelly remembers one day when he and his dad went over to Jillette’s house after taping an episode of Penn’s Sunday School podcast, which Donnelly also co-hosts.
“I remember he said ‘if you’re going to learn magic’ and he started showing me pointers,” Donnelly said. “As we were leaving, my dad looked at me and said you just got basketball advice from Michael Jordan. You better take it. Once Penn and my dad were invested, I couldn’t disappoint those guys.”
Jillette wasn’t the only magician to help Donnelly along the way. He had seven different magicians each teach him one trick, which made up his first show, and he fell in love with the industry. He added that magicians have always been very generous with their time and knowledge and were willing to help.
“I really think my improv comedy had come to its end for me. All of a sudden, I had something to be a student at again. I really enjoyed diving into it,” Donnelly said. “As long as you have your own idea, magicians are keen to help you out to come up with different elements. For me, I try to come up with a comedic premise or comedic idea and then figure out how to work the magic around it. All the good magic has been figured out, in terms of methodology. The idea that I’ll invent something new isn’t going to happen. But comedically, I can create and innovate.”
Donnelly said he remembers his first magic shows and that one thing all entertainers will learn is how to work through failure.
“The very first show I did, Penn & Teller and Piff The Magic Dragon came to see it and almost all of my tricks went wrong. It was just terrible,” Donnelly said. “However, I finished the show and was able to show them this is where I’m at. I think it’s important to enjoy learning from failure. That’s the key to pursuing something new. It’s not nearly as embarrassing to other people as it is to you. It should be hard but you should also enjoy the journey.”
Since that first show, Donnelly has continued to work on honing old tricks and crafting new ones. That includes finding the right balance between magic and comedy.
“When you want a magic trick to pay off, you have to tap the brakes on the comedy so the audience can get a sense that something impossible is about to happen,” Donnelly said. “Any joke that hits that, you can lose the tension.”
He has toured with Piff for years, filled in for magicians, including Mac King, and performed at places like The Magic Castle in Los Angeles, The Chicago Magic Lounge, and Nashville’s House Of Cards.
Donnelly is also one of the magicians and potential foolers on Season 10 of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, which shot the new season at the Rio casino over the last month. Donnelly said it wasn’t easy to keep the secret that he was performing away from the magical duo since he sees them every day. It made it even harder when he was bumped back three days from when he was originally supposed to perform for them.
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“I kept every fooler away from them. I know all the people who are performing and they don’t. I just wanted to get it off my chest. I had to lie to them for so long,” Donnelly said. “When I’m not working on a trick to fool them, they are very generous. I can send them an email or video tape and they will give me pointers. I really wanted to get this out of the way so I could ask what they think on how to improve it.”
Donnelly is about to go on tour with fellow magicians Vinny Grosso, Jessica Jane, and Alex Ramon on The Foolers Tour. He said getting on stage and performing is something special and something he looks forward to every time.
“I love being an entertainer. I’ve been doing comedy shows since I was 15 years old,” Donnelly said. “More than ever, we’re bombarded by news. We see it pop up on our phones, computers, and TV demanding we should be upset and scared all the time. One of the coolest things to do is to be of service, to have people commit an hour of their time to put it aside, and to give people an hour of ridiculousness. It’s such a valuable space in people’s lives and I really just want people to have a ridiculous time at my shows.”
You can see Donnelly’s full list of upcoming shows both here in the valley and on the road on his website or on the Foolers Tour website. Season 10 of Penn & Teller: Fool Us is scheduled to premiere on The CW in October.
