Greg is one of the busiest and most in demand magicians in the world! Since Greg decided to be- come a full time professional magi- cian his career has been in the fast lane. So far his shows have taken him to 106 countries. He has been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WGN, CW, and Global News. He has starred in 5 Seasons of Masters of Illusion on the CW Network and featured on Don’t Blink on the CW Network. His first national appearance was in 1994 on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In 1993 Greg moved to Las Ve- gas and now has over 10,000 shows at major Las Vegas Casino’s under his belt. This includes Masters of Illusion at Bally’s, Gleason Magic- Embrace the Mystery at the Vene- tian and a record breaking 9400 shows at the Wizard’s Secret in a custom built theater at the MGM Grand Casino. Greg has taken his illusion show on the road with 9 national tours with Masters of Illu- sion from NYC to Hollywood.
In 2017 he teamed up with world renowned magician Jeff Mc- Bride and created Las Vegas Magic Stars and staged a sell out Arena tour in China!.
GREG GLEASON THE MAGICIAN
Recognized as a master of magic by the magic fraternity Greg has been awarded some of the top magic awards including the Inter- national Magician Society- Illu- sionist of the Year, Stage Magician of the Year from the World Magic Awards and Illusionist of the Year from Las Vegas Magic Awards.
Greg’s first exposure to magic was Mark Wilson’s “Magic Circus” in 1972 that left him awestruck. Greg’s father quickly realized his son’s new interest in magic and took him to Douglas Magicland in downtown Dallas, where Mark Wilson once worked demonstrating magic. In 1974 Greg put together his first magic show and performed for childrens birthday parties.
The same year Doug Henning opened on Broadway and was profiled by Time Magazine featur- ing amazing illusions. Greg spent hours studying them… the very illusions he himself dreamed of one day performing.
In 1979 Greg attended his first magic convention in Wichita KS. It was at that convention where he saw Fred Kaps, Dai Vernon, and Slydini perform. Their close-up magic and sleight-of-hand was truly astounding. Greg was de- termined to perform this type of magic as well as the larger illusions. 1979 also saw Greg graduate from high school and off to Washburn University in Topeka KS to major in finance and economics.
Fulfilling the college lifestyle social requirements Greg joined the Kap- pa Sigma fraternity where he held positions of Rush Chairman, Social Chairman, Vice President, and President. Throughout his years in college Greg never stopped per- forming shows and his well-honed close-up magic in restaurants.
In 1980 Greg returned to Wich- ita for another magic convention, where he met and hung out with Lance Burton and David Copper- field. Who would have guessed that 14 years later all three of them would be performing in casinos in Las Vegas.
Completing college, Greg went straight to work for the largest nightclub chain in the country. They owned, the Confetti and Studebakers nightclubs. Greg was hired as the entertainment direc- tor and magician at a brand new three-million-dollar night club called Confetti in Kansas City. All of his leadership experience in the fraternity house was just the training needed to move quickly through the ranks. After several promotions, he was transferred to Streamers Nightclub in Columbus Ohio, and then to Confetti Dallas as General Manger. Back in Dallas, Greg realized that owning his own night club would be more profit- able than managing someone else’s. When Confetti in Dallas closed its doors, 26-year old Greg opened his first nightclub, the Basement.
It was here that he could put to use his college studies, fraternity know-how, as well as use his end- less creative ideas to design and build a club that would be irresist- ible to his target crowd. He worked from the ground up, scouting locations and drawing up concept plans. He pitched his idea to several investors, promised them triple their return within one year and raised the necessary capital.
The Basement Dallas opened Sept. 1987. Some 1200 people passed through its doors every Friday and Saturday night and live bands played during the week drawing big crowds. The Basement helped launch the careers of Va- nilla Ice, Pantera, and Edie Brickell. Other acts that played there include the Stray Cats, the Romantics, Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Warrant and many others.
The Basement even had its own TV show called Club Dallas. It was similar to a nation-wide dance show on MTV. The club was a big success and the investors did indeed triple their money the first year. Greg went on to open several other clubs and was even hired to build nightclubs for the original nightclub chain he started with.
Greg loved using his creativity to design and open nightclubs but realized if he was ever going to live his dream as a full time magician/ illusionist he better do it soon. In 1991 he sold his night clubs and in- vested in magic illusions. Greg met and became good friends with ma- gicians, Kerry Pollack, Dan Sum- mers, Chip Romero and Vito Lupo. They were all full time magicians that would occasionally perform at a Magic theater in Houston TX. It was through these connections Greg put together his illusion show.
In a wonderful twist of fate, Dan Summers was offered contract in Japan that he was unable to accept, but recommended Greg for. With illusions he had recently acquired Greg flew to Japan to spend the next 6 months performing in a resort hotel.
Contracts and shows started rolling in when Greg returned to the U.S. and a year later he opened in a specially designed theater in the then brand new MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas.
Greg performed a record breaking 9400 shows at the MGM! In 1996 a Vegas agent producing a show in Shanghai China saw Greg’s show and immediately hired him for a 6 month contact. While in China, the cruise line offers began rolling in. He quickly became one of the top requested acts by Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Silver Seas, Crystal, Regent, and Radisson. Greg has sailed on over 600 cruises circling the planet many times!
Greg adds his own personality and twist on brand new illusions as well as tried and true ones. He has designed many original illusions including an appearing helicopter! He debuted it on a cruise ship and the audience was stunned.
Greg has consulted and designed magic and consulted for some of the top magicians in the world. For example Greg was flown to Turkey to consult with a production com- pany shooting two TV specials and wanted their magician to levitate high into the air in the middle of a park, with people surrounding him. It looked amazing!
Being not just an illusionist but also an expert sleight-of-hand art- ist, Greg is one of the few magicians in the world that can walk into a 1500 seat theater with just a deck and completely entertain them all for an hour.
He has performed 9 national tours in 100’s of theaters across the country, while traveling in tour buses and semi-trucks full of illu- sions. Some of the older theaters on the east coast are the same the- aters Houdini perfromed on over 100 years ago!
During this busy time of set- ting up, teching, performing and striking the show, he is developing new magic and illusions to present on the next season of Masters of Illusion airing every Friday night on the CW Network for the last 5 years.
Greg is still amazed that he is lucky enough to earn his living doing what he loves, magic. He has come a long way since that first trip to that magic shop in Dallas. Without fail, after each perfor- mance some dumbfounded audi- ence member begs how on earth he did that. Greg simply offers a warm smile and replies, “Its my job!”
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