Benjamin Déziel (Magic Ben), from Whitehorse, has been making headlines for his magic skills.

Recently, the multi-talented magician starred on Canada’s Got Talent, and shocked the judges with his tricks.

He has passed the audition and will be featured in Tuesday’s semi-finals.

The Star spoke to Déziel in Whitehorse last Wednesday about how he felt about his recent appearances on the show.

“They’ve been fantastic,” he said.

“I’ve been blessed by the universe that I’m able to do what I love. And it’s been just crazy. Just standing in front of the 5,000 people in the audience. It’s a feeling that you can’t explain, right?

“Like, just being there in front of the judges, people that I look up to all my life. And I get to represent the Yukon in this too, which is the best part of it.”

During one of Déziel’s appearances, one of the judges, Kardinal Offishall, became so flustered with one of Déziel’s tricks that he had to walk away for a moment.

Asked about this moment, Magic Ben said, “Well, that was pretty funny. But I mean, it’s not the first time someone’s run away when I do a card trick.

“It was definitely – I knew that Kardinal was not the best. He’s not the biggest fan of magicians. So when he runs away, apparently it’s a good thing. That’s what they told me.”

Déziel was asked about how it felt to get the decisive “Yes” from all of the judges.

“It’s crazy,” he said.

“Like, for me, I was nine years old when I started watching America’s Got Talent, Britain’s Got Talent, all the Got Talent shows and seeing people get yeses, seeing people getting nos, I’ve watched all of them.

“And it was crazy for me to just hear all of them go, ‘It’s a yes for me’, ‘It’s a yes for me.’ It was like, the best feeling in the world.

“It was crazy, especially with my story and how hard I’ve been working my whole life. It was absolutely incredible.”

Déziel is getting a lot of attention as a result of his appearance on the show.

“The audition on YouTube has 1.2 million views now. We’re getting bookings everywhere. In Europe and the United States. It’s absolutely fantastic.

“The publicity has been really good. It had something like six million viewers or something like that.”

People are recognizing him on the streets in Toronto and Vancouver.

“I was in Toronto last weekend (Apr. 29-30) and I was picking up some equipment. And I’m on the street (in) downtown Toronto.

“I’m in front of the Citytv building and a guy on the street goes, ‘Hey, Magic Ben, what’s going on?’ And I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ It’s brand new for me. It’s pretty exciting.”

Déziel grew up very far from the rest of the world, in an isolated little town where there was no cell phone service, very spotty internet and extremely cold temperatures.

“I grew up in a small Inuit community in northern Quebec called Kangiqsujuaq,” he said. “It’s a small fly-in and out community. There’s no roads to go there. And there’s no trees, I come from the land of no trees. And I’m in Canada – can you believe it?

“And that’s where I practised my magic first. All these years, I was getting bullied a lot. But every time I just go back home and I’d be in front of my mirror in my bedroom and I practise card tricks.

“I just practise my magic and read books, and that’s what I love to do. Some people like hockey, some people like to draw, and everybody has different passions, and me, it was magic. I just loved it every day, all the time.”

During his school days, Déziel said, “I had these desks where you can put your hands inside the desks.

“So I put my hands inside the desks and then just played with cards. It was awesome.

“And then sometimes I’d convinced a couple of other classmates to start playing with cards.”

Living in such a small community, Déziel couldn’t get much exposure to a profession like magic. He credits his parents getting married to his finding his passion.

“So I started magic when I was nine years old,” he said. My parents invited a magician to their wedding.

“That was the first time that I saw that and I just fell in love completely. The magician was doing a routine called the linking rings. And when I saw that, I just freaked out.

“I went to my dad and I said, ‘Dad, Dad, Dad, how does he do that?’

“And he said, ‘well, if you want to know, you’re gonna have to become a magician.’ And that’s what I did.”

He was asked about what he has coming up on his schedule.

“I’m working all over the U.S.,” he replied

‘And then, once August comes around, we have bookings, we have more TV shows to film in Europe and then the United States, but that’s all I can say. I can’t say more than that.

“We have some secret stuff coming up, and the Yukon will see me soon. Let me tell you that.”

If you would like to reach Déziel, you can contact him on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at @Magic-withben or email him at 
info@magicwithben.com