“The Magic Life” chronicles the journey of three magician hopefuls: a 17-year-old from Beijing who travels to the U.S. to attend magic school, a 25-year-old trying to make rent by performing on Hollywood Blvd for tips, and a 32-year-old New York University MBA graduate who moves to Los Angeles to perform at the world famous Magic Castle. The film depicts the challenges of following an unconventional career path. Forget about parents, family, or friends who may not understand or support your choices – there’s almost an invisible societal pressure in terms of what types of jobs are acceptable. “The Magic Life” is about those who are willing to risk everything to take the road not normally taken.
The Team
Nelson Cheng - Director / Producer
nelsoncheng.com
IMDb
Nelson is primarily an actor whose credits include Netflix's "Mascots", HBO's "The Newsroom", Nickelodeon's "Bella and the Bulldogs”, FXX's "You're the Worst", Hulu's "Difficult People", truTV's "Tacoma FD", and TBS' "The Detour", along with a number of digital projects for Disney, Funny or Die, Snap, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim.
Previously, he wrote the digital series "The Consultants". It’s about a fictional management consulting firm and was inspired by his friend's experience as an intern at BCG and was a finalist in a Producers Guild of America competition. More recently, he co-wrote the series "Ching Chong Blues" for Super Deluxe (formerly a division of Turner before they shuttered it). It's a series of bizarre and darkly comedic vignettes around today's Asian-American experience and was named a Vimeo Staff Pick.
He’s a magician member of the Academy of Magical Arts (the Magic Castle). This documentary was his first film.
Prior to this, he was a relatively early employee of Google and Amazon. He was responsible for the launch of Amazon's Wedding Registry and Google AdWords' Reports. He’s originally from New Jersey, went to Princeton and has two wonderful rescue dogs, Jack and Pop Tart from @WagsandWalks.
Erik Dugger - Editor
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Erik’s work has explored topics ranging from innovations in stem-cell research, to the UN’s landmine removal mission in Lebanon. Recent projects include “Blood, Sweat & Gears,” featuring a professional American cycling team, and “Adam Blank Gets a Vasectomy,” a first-person documentary dealing with issues of masculinity.
Erik’s films have screened at a number of film festivals and received honors including "Most Innovative Documentary" at National Geographic's Showreal Asia awards, and a finalist medal at the New York Festivals. His work has also been featured on the Discovery Channel, A&E Biography, the Sundance Channel and PBS’s POV series.
Chun Ming Huang - Cinematographer
IMDb
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chun Ming’s passion for photography – especially nature photography – led him to cinematography. Since then, he’s worked on a wide range of projects covering topics from cooking to skiing. His work has screened at numerous film festivals, and one of his films was featured in “American Cinematographer”. They have also been shown on TLC, CMT, truTV, and the Oprah Winfrey show. He is a graduate of the University of Denver and is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and English.
Andrew Barkan - Composer
website
IMDb
Andrew Barkan is a composer for film and television. His award-winning documentary, short, and feature film scores have played on four continents. He has contributed music and audio to media institutions such as Sony Pictures, ABC, Sesame Workshop, Hulu, and Comedy Central. Andrew regularly writes music for commercials through Antfood Music + Sound Design including Marble Halls, the classical theme for Sprint’s 2008 broadcast advertising campaign. Andrew holds an MA in Composition for Film and Multimedia from NYU and a BA in Orchestral and Jazz Composition from Amherst College.