“No one really likes a dickhead, but a dickhead in a dragon outfit is hilarious.”
So says Piff the Magic Dragon, aka John van der Put, a performer whose act has conjured up awards for Best Comedian, Best Magician and Best Headliner in Las Vegas and a nine-year residency at Las Vegas’s Flamingo Hotel and Casino that shows no signs of vanishing. Working alongside his sidekick Mr. Piffles – The World’s Only Magic Performing Chihuahua™ — the deadpan dragon has earned a devoted following of superfans, including Penn and Teller and David Copperfield, who calls him “a true original.”
I caught up with the self-described “loser of America’s Got Talent” via Zoom at an hour that seemed reasonable for this New York-based interviewer but was perhaps a bit earlier than a Vegas performer would prefer. We talked about how he built his empire, his new tour, “It Cost $60,000 To Clone My Dog And Now I Need To Make The Money Back,” and his advice to anyone hoping to pull success out of a hat.
You’re into your ninth year of residency in Las Vegas, and you’ve done 3,000 shows. Did you envision this all when you first started out?
Yes. I had a vision board, and number one was talking to you from my dressing room at the Flamingo at 7 a.m. or whatever horrific time this is. That’s the only reason I got in the game, Dan.
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How did this all start?
When I was a kid, I saw somebody doing close-up magic. That’s magic that happens right underneath your nose, and it’s impossible. No matter how jaded you might be, you’re like, “Wait, how did that happen?” So I loved it. I started practicing, but my parents said I should have a backup career. So I very obediently went to university and got a degree in computer science, which, as you can tell, has not been very useful.
How did you go about making the jump from computer science to magic?
I was doing magic part-time and it was fine, but I wasn’t giving it my full focus. About 30%, you know? But if you want to do anything well, you have to give it at least 100%. And then you have to start forgetting how math works and start ratcheting up those numbers. I actually got very sick when I was in my mid-twenties, and I was out of action for two years. And during the two years, I thought, What am I doing with my life? I’m doing what I want to do as a side hustle, but without any sort of commitment. So, when I got better, I went to drama school to learn how to walk around on a stage. Then I went out and started doing all this.
And were you an instant success?
I was not. I was doing close-up magic for all these rich and famous people at parties, and I got fired everywhere I went because I have this resting bitch face. And I can’t do anything about it, Dan. Imagine you’re getting married to the love of your life, and you book this guy to do close-up magic, and he looks like Eeyore moping around. I started running out of options, and I was down to my last two gigs, and my friend said, “Hey, do you want to come to my party? It’s a costume party.” I didn’t have anything to wear, so I spoke to my sister, and she said, “Yeah, I got a dragon outfit under my bed.” Now, I didn’t ask any further questions, Dan.
So I go to the party in the dragon outfit, right? And no one else is in costume. Nobody. It’s just me. Oh my God. This is a nightmare. Everyone is like, “Why are you a dragon? That’s not Christmassy.” So I was speaking to my friend and he said, “Hey, you could do this in your show. You could be Puff the Magic Dragon.” And I said, “Wait, I could be Piff the Magic Dragon. You might’ve heard of my older brother…Steve.” It took me three or four months to actually do it. Now, here’s the thing: All this time, I had all the techniques and tricks — I just didn’t have a socially acceptable way of doing them. But doing it as Piff, suddenly, instantly, everyone loved it. Because no one really likes a dickhead, but a dickhead in a dragon outfit is hilarious.
You’ve been tricking people for a very long time. What’s the secret of making people do what you want them to do?
Oh, oh yeah, sure. Let me just tell you all of my secrets right now, Dan.
Okay, I will rephrase. How do you get people to actively engage with you?
Someone said that magicians are the most honest people you’ll ever meet because they tell you they’re going to lie to you, and then they lie to you. But you have to get people interested. Let’s say it’s a card trick. They’re going to choose a card, and you’ll find it again. That’s not that interesting, really. Unless they’ve got $100 on it. Now they’re watching every move, and then you make a mistake, and they think they won $100, and then you tear the bill in half, and inside is their playing card — suddenly, they’re hooked. When I see great entrepreneurs, they could be selling laundry detergent, but the great ones have a story that they hook me in with. And suddenly, I’m on Instagram spending $432 plus shipping on some fancy new laundry detergent. It’s going to change my life, Dan. I’m going to be happy!
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You have quite a famous co-star, Mr. Piffles.
Yes, he’s 17 years old. He’s done 3, 000 shows with me. I got him when he was about a year and a half. He’s a rescue dog, which is, um, cheaper.
And I hear you’ve enlisted science to give him some days off.
Yes. Time marches on, and we wanted to give him a little break. So, a couple of years ago, we got a second dog called Twoey, number two. We got Twoey off eBay, another rescue dog. He looks identical, but he has stage fright, and when the lights hit him, he just starts shaking. It was awful, so he just became a buddy for Piffles. Then we went to a breeder and got Threeodore. He was perfect on stage and the same size as Piffles, but then he kept growing. Mr. Piffles is about four-and-a-half pounds; Threeodore is now 15 pounds. So he’s out; he’s too fat to fit in the props. So, it was time to take drastic steps. I’d heard Barbra Streisand cloned her dog, and I was like, “Well, buckle up. This is what we’re doing.” Everyone said it was a terrible idea, but eight weeks later, this puppy arrived, and as he grew up, he was not only identical, but he was so easy to train and started doing the show exactly like Piffles. He’s called Fourtune, cause he’s number four and cost a fortune. He’s also known as Mr. Piffles 2.0.
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Let’s talk about being prepared for big moments. When you were waiting in the wings of America’s Got Talent, what was going through your mind?
The first time I went on America’s Got Talent, I wasn’t that nervous. I watched every magician who’d ever been on the show, wrote down every question the judges asked and had a funny answer for everything. I was prepared. And I knew the trick inside out because I’d done it like 2,000 times or whatever. I scripted whatever I could script, so when I went on, I could kick into that gear. To succeed, the best thing for me is to have good preparation. Then things tend to go okay. Not always, but it tends to go okay. But when I go out there without that preparation? Oh, buddy, it’s brutal.
Successful people often talk about how failure is a good thing. But it feels terrible. Do you subscribe to that philosophy?
It’s easy to say, and it’s hard to do. It is essentially what I did for 15 years. I failed as a magician because I had all these stupid rules and ideas when I started the act. For instance, I wanted all of my props to fit in a bag so it was easy to travel. But then, a couple of years later, I did a gig with somebody who ended the show by producing a live chicken, and they just crushed it. And I realized that I was holding myself back with this self-imposed rule and decided I’d do anything I needed to succeed. I subscribe to that aspect of failure as a teaching tool. But if you’re failing cause you’re bad at things? In that case, you’ve got to get out. I went to drama school and realized in the first week I would never be an actor. Being a lead actor is not in my wheelhouse. But the role of a grumpy dragon? That I could do.
See Piff the Magic Dragon and Mr. Piffles live in Vegas or on their national tour — ticket info here
