Don Bursell Magic Story | life as a magician
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, my Grandpa would take my cousins and me to the circus every year, and my dream was to be in the circus when I grew up.
I began my magic career at 8 years old, when my Grandma bought me a magic set for Christmas. I didn’t yet understand what magic was, but was badly fooled by my brother when he performed one of the tricks for me: The Matchbox Monte. Every year, my grandma took me to the magic shop for my birthday, and purchased a new effect or two to add to my show.
I performed my first show for my cousin’s birthday party at the age of 12 years. 11 tricks, and 30 minutes later, I was well on my way to success. At 15 years old, I began performing with a friend as “2-of-a-Kind,” with a mix of juggling and magic. We performed for libraries, school, grand openings and anywhere we could get a gig.
Jump forward 4 years, and Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus came through Minnesota, and I auditioned for their Clown College. I was accepted into the Class of 1984, where I graduated and was offered a job as a skill clown on the road. Sadly, it was less than 6 days and I began having allergy problems. I stuck it out for 4.5 months, having spent 12 overnights in various hospitals around the country.
Leaving the circus was one of the hardest choices I ever made. At 19 years old, I thought my dream had already come to an end. But it was not so. A close friend told me about the place she was working, Circus World just outside of Orlando, Florida. I flew down there, arriving on my birthday, but none of my luggage ever made it. I worked there until I was offered a job working the Circus Fantasy Project at Disneyland in California.
I was one of only 3 performers to work all three years of Circus Fantasy. It was during the second year that I met my wife, who was from California, and had been working at Disney for 6 years. In a nutshell, I married Pluto. But she married a clown, so both of our families had a little hesitation when we decided to get married :)
After working Disney for 3 years, I worked some theatre, performing arts camps, and many shows back in Minnesota. I had a great amount of work over the years, but I also had an addiction: Magic Books. My collection was about 600 various titles.
In October 2019, when I heard that H&R Books was closing their retail location, I made an offer to buy their remaining stock of books, and I won. My wife and I flew down to Texas, loaded 101 boxes of books, and drove back to Minnesota. My addiction was growing, but everything changed when the world experienced the Covid crisis.
I had no shows, so I spent the time building a website where I could sell the “extra books” that I didn’t need from the H&R collection. I was surprised how well I did the first year. Then the second year was even better, and the third even better than that. I am now one of the largest used magic book dealers in the United States, carrying over 4000 titles at any one time.
I regularly purchase collections from retiring magicians, so my stock changes all the time. I love going to magic conventions (something I never had time to do when I was performing full-time) and meeting my customers around the United States. Magicians are some of the nicest people ever, and I try to treat every one of them how I would want to be treated. We carefully package up purchases as if we were the customer on the other end of the receiving line. I now have a customer base of over 2500, and it continues to grow every day (today, as I write this, I have 16 more orders to go out the door).
Don’s Magic & Books is one of my favorite “jobs” in the world. Magic books carry so much knowledge in them, and are such an important part of being a well rounded magician.
I still perform, but only part-time, while the magic book business keeps me busy 40-60 hours each week.
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