By Kim Hanna
Welcome back to Let's Talk About Brand! Today we talked about personal branding with Katie and Mario Marchese. Mario is better known as Mario the Maker Magician. He has been a magician for over 15 years, and he really breaks the mold!
Mario has been called “the greatest children's magician in the world” by magician David Blaine, who he's also toured the world with. He has taught his own special brand of Maker Magic to Murray the Muppet on Sesame Street. He has also done a whole ton of live programming with Make Magazine. Normally, he’s touring all over the place with his family and his co-adventurer, Katie Marchese.
Katie, in addition to being Mario's wife and keeping their personal life going, is also his manager, his co-adventurer, road trip buddy, and they've got their kids in on the action too!
Mario and Katie had been touring all over the country until March, when the pandemic abruptly canceled all performances. However, they’ve been able to continue their show in a different way. They’ve been broadcasting from their home, where they’ve designed a set in their very own attic!
The traditional image of a children's magician would probably include a tux, top hat, and a black cape with red lining. However, Mario has created his own aesthetic, which has a punk rock, steampunk, Vaudevillian feel. In a cover piece for MUM Magazine, writer Chloe Olewitz summed Mario up perfectly as, “magic’s punk rock Peter Pan philosopher.”
Becoming Mario The Magician
Christine: “I want to go way back to over 15 years ago when you started out being a working magician. Was there a time when you hid the tattoos and put on the tux? Or were you always kind of like, “Here I am, I'm Mario?’”
Mario: “Honestly, I hid my tattoos and wore the stereotypical outfit in the beginning. When something's new, you're gonna look at what everyone else is doing and you play it the safest possible to be accepted.”
As Mario worked as a magician, he hit a plateau where he realized he wanted to set himself apart. “My show naturally became better as I took apart this uniform and discovered where I'm most comfortable where I'm most happy,” says Mario. “I think that's with any business. The more you're brutally honest with who you are, with your strengths and weaknesses are, the more people can relate to you.”
Christine: “In terms of how it changed your act, how you stopped being in that little box of 'here's what people expect from a magician,' how did it start to change your act?”
Mario says he had two obsessions: being a magician and building things. He mixed these two things together to make what his show looks like today.
“They say the audience creates the performer. I would hear some criticism like, ‘Oh, that was Mario, he's just doing this and he's just doing that like everyone else.’ That kind of stuff organically pushed me. And once the robot started mixing in, it was cool.”
Mario goes on to introduce Marcel the Monkey. “He's definitely part of my theater show. He's completely 3D-printed autonomous. He's been in for six years now. He's still the same monkey, just reprogrammed for the new generation of kids.”
Listening To Your Audience
Mario said earlier that “the audience makes the performer.” He tried out new things. Some worked, and some didn’t. But once he found what worked, that was the direction he moved in and tried to see how far he could push it. He realized that he could really push it as far as he wanted - there was no limit!
For example, Mario's audience responded really well to the segment of his live stream where he interviews kids. “All of a sudden, we're getting big feedback. For some reason, me interviewing kids is working. So we shifted everything where a big chunk of that live stream with eCamm was our interviews with children. And so it's constantly changing.”
“What makes them laugh? What makes them interact? The goal of the show really is the goal of my life. It's just to stay curious, to be inspired that kids can know it's accessible, that they can see my props. It looks homemade for a reason, and the more I stay true to that, the more we keep the flow on my end.”
Personal Branding
Katie and Mario have come up with the branding and the feel of Mario’s act together.
Christine: “Mario is a real person, obviously, and Katie too. There’s the Maker Magician who's the person on stage, and then there's the real person. How do you choose which elements to amplify as part of the brand and which elements to maybe not?”
Katie: “Everybody knows we're a family business. We definitely give glimpses into that, especially when we're traveling. But we're not going to show the downside. We're not going to show the kids tantruming. We're not going to disrespect their personal space. You have to be conscious of the fact that they are their own people, too.”
Mario and Katie love to show what they’re working on - whether it’s their recent Airstream purchase, their Little Blue Bus, or Mario’s building processes during the pandemic. These things definitely fit into the whole narrative of being a maker in every aspect. So, they pick things that make sense, and that fills in that persona for their viewers.
Katie: “Mario is the same person on stage and off. But we elevate certain aspects that are going to be more interesting for people to see.”
For Mario and Katie’s personal branding strategy, they really try to highlight the aspects of their life that match up with their brand and show what they’re making.
In our live stream, we got to see Mario and Katie’s awesome homemade set. “We want to demonstrate that all this cardboard, paper masking tape, duct tape, is accessibly created. And it doesn't have to be perfect. Just have fun with it! This is based on just what my strengths are as a person and as a maker. I am not a polished person! But I make things. They are naturally a little off, you know? So we're trying to heighten the strength of what makes us good and what makes us stand out.”
Find Mario and Katie
Mariothemagician.com is their main hub where you can find all of their social links. They put on a fantastic show and when they are out touring again, everyone everywhere should get out and see them. You will not regret it!
Thank you so much to Mario and Katie Marchese for hanging out with us today as well as everyone who has joined us for our live show, Let’s Talk About Brand!