Talk about magic: Have you heard the one about how a somewhat cheesy dragon costume turned an admittedly unpleasant young man into a superstar comedy-magician?
That, in a nutshell, is the tale of John van der Put – universally known as Piff the Magic Dragon – who will play a sold-out performance on Friday. Feb. 27, at Rivers Casino Philadelphia.
A career begins
Like most of his fellow prestidigitators, the 45-year-old London native discovered magic at a young age.
“I guess I was 12 or 13 or 14, something like that,” he recalled in a recent Zoom call from his Las Vegas home. “It was outdoors in what is as close to a Renaissance festival as we have in the U.K. (United Kingdom). And there was this jester, and he had some linking rings, and he made them link and unlink. And then he gave them to me, and I made them link and unlink. And I was like, ‘I guess I’m magic!'”
Not that van der Put was immediately enthralled by the ancient art.
“I saw magic performed,” he recounted, “and I was like, ‘Oh my God! How does that even begin to work?’ And when I found out how magic worked, I was kind of very disappointed. But I did like performing it, because I could give that feeling to the person watching it. But I was very disappointed by the ‘backstage’ of magic.”
Nonetheless, the young wizard developed his skills “for the good of humanity, in order to pass on that feeling of joy. I just buried my pain.”
But by his own admission, van der Put wasn’t spreading much joy.
A life-changing moment
“The more important thing was I was being fired everywhere,” he acknowledged, “because I was too grumpy. I just couldn’t hide my inner (feelings). People would be hiring me to do their weddings, and I would just be miserable. So I got fired everywhere I worked.”
Until, that is, van der Put discovered a dragon costume, or, as he told one interviewer, “some sort of lizardy, reptile-ish creature that I prefer to look at as a dragon” owned by his sister. Lacking an outfit for a costume party, he donned it, and everything changed for him.
“Everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, you should do this,'” van der Put remembered. ‘This is it! You should just do this now.’ So, I did.”
The suit was psychologically monumental.
“I became more me, I became more of myself,” he explained. “Whatever I say, people will not take it seriously. It sort of gave me that freedom just to say whatever I wanted. And what I wanted to say was usually quite funny, so people would laugh at it, too.
“And when you’re in a dragon outfit, you cannot punch down.”
But the fundamental difference between the real person and the stage persona is that “John van der Put doesn’t say what he thinks all the time,” the performer pointed out. “I have to be polite to people. Whereas Piff can get away with murder.”
Stardom in the U.S.
While his career took off in the U.K., van der Put’s biggest breaks occurred on American television. In 2011, he appeared on the inaugural season of the long-running “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” the CW network program where magicians perform tricks to stump the megastar comedy-magic duo.
That led to van der Put’s endorsement and mentoring by the team; today he is managed by Glenn Alai, who serves in the same capacity for Penn & Teller.
Van der Put’s fame increased in 2015, when he was a finalist on “America’s Got Talent.” He didn’t win the show’s grand prize, but that same year, the combination of his unique gimmick, technical prowess, laugh-out-loud comedy and influential backstage support led to his residency – now in its 11th year – at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel-casino.
Cloned co-stars
Van der Put’s program is anything but a one-man act. He is joined on stage by Jade Simone, who is his offstage factotum – and his wife. And then there is Mr. Piffles, the name van der Put gave a chihuahua he incorporated into his act in 2009, while still in the U.K. When the canine died in 2024, he had him cloned.
That was not necessarily a hit in his camp. He recalled that Jillette told him, “It’s never gonna work. It’s a disaster. It’s the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
But van der Put had the last laugh.
“It worked flawlessly, flawlessly,” he claimed with obvious satisfaction. “It went so well, we did it again. And we’ve now got two twins.”
The pups appear onstage in their own amphibian-like costumes: One of them will be at Rivers.
Broadway bound?
Although van der Put could easily continue on the same career path for the next few decades, he isn’t content to do so. He has some pretty big plans, among them TV projects, a movie and a Broadway musical. He declined to divulge details on any of them, but succinctly summed up where his career sits at this point.
“It’s an interesting time,” he offered, “to be a dragon.”
