How Two Magicians Are Keeping Magic Alive in Greater Lansing

Many parts of growing up are magical and eventually lose luster. 

Mysteries like the strange shadows under the bed, or why frost covers the grass on a crisp fall morning.

As it turns out, the reason is perfectly explainable, and has nothing to do with monsters or Jack Frost.

But in Greater Lansing, the magic never left. The type of magic that’s for everyone: kids, teenagers, college students, parents, and older adults.

In the face of YouTube tutorials and AI-generated entertainment, Lansing still has a vibrant magic scene. Chad Bannister and Jeffery Olds have taken different paths, one balancing a day job while preparing to go full-time, the other making a living performing around the state. 

Both have built careers on face-to-face wonder.

Bit by the Magic Bug

Olds, widely known as Jeff the Magician, remembers it clear as day. Sitting in his family’s living room in Flint, during his younger sister’s birthday party, watching the professional magician his parents hired for entertainment. He called it a “signal from God.”

“I was hooked,” Olds said.

Years later, the same pro magician performed at Olds’s junior high school and pulled out all the stops. Thoroughly impressed and armed with some spending money from his bar mitzvah, Olds bought his first magic supplies at age 13. “That’s when I really started performing,” he said.

Olds put on shows left and right, so much so that a friend offered to design a business card for him. “He called me Jeff the Magician,” he chuckled.  “And from that point on, it stuck. I’ve been Jeff the Magician since ninth grade.”

Olds eventually went on to college and settled in Lansing after graduating with a master’s degree in marketing from Michigan State University in 1993. 

Unable to find a job and with spare time on his hands, Olds went back to his origins: magic. 

After booking dozens of shows over a Halloween weekend, he started performing full-time by the end of the year. 

“I never looked back,” Olds said.

It wasn’t always easy, he said. There were times when he had to pick up stable employment, like as an enrollment advisor or car salesman, but the magic remained. 

Performing in restaurants means Olds can’t bring all of his gear along, but his card tricks never fail to amaze guests. Photo by Lieza Klemm for City Pulse.

“I was still doing magic,” he said. “I used magic to enroll students.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Olds performed shows and taught magic lessons over Zoom, making ends meet despite the shutdown.

For Banister, the itch came from watching The World’s Greatest Magic. He was mesmerized by the performances of Lance Burton and Jeff McBride. By 16, he decided to take his talents to the stage and, battling his nerves, entered his school’s talent show.

“I did a dancing handkerchief effect,” Banister said. “At the time, I didn’t really have much of a background in performing.”

He started getting involved with theater, even studying it in college, and he used that in his performances. “I really wanted to focus on creating moments where people laugh together,” Banister said.

Life after college took a different direction.

Stepping away from the spotlight, Banister went on a 15-year hiatus, working in the food service industry before eventually transitioning into education. He spent time as a paraprofessional and later became a full-time substitute teacher, taking primarily long-term positions. 

Banister took a trip to Las Vegas four years ago and watched the live shows of prominent magicians like Penn & Teller and Mat Franco. The performances he witnessed reignited his past passion, and once again, he took to the stage. 

“I decided that life is short,” Banister said, “and I really wanted to do this.”

With the help of mentors, Banister started putting on shows for schools and local community organizations, all while balancing his jobs as a substitute teacher and building supervisor for the city.

Over the past eight months, the demand for Banister’s performances have shot up. He plans on going full-time, and joining Olds in the ranks of Greater Lansing’s professional magicians.

Charming Audiences

From programs for libraries and summer camps to weddings and corporate events, Banister and Olds each boast a long list of show options. 

Olds is perhaps best known for his tableside performances. 

Adding to the mealtime experience, Olds asks guests if they’re interested in watching magic while they wait for their food. Photo by Lieza Klemm for City Pulse.

His weekly restaurant tour includes Culver’s in Eastwood, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen off of Saginaw Highway, and Gregory’s Soul Food on MLK Boulevard, just to name a few.

It started a long time ago, Olds said. Performing at the (now closed) Old Country Buffet on the west side was his first taste of mealtime entertainment. 

“I think I charged 25 bucks for two hours,” he laughed. “They loved it.”

Olds moved on to other restaurants in town, and using his marketing education, sold himself as a customer magnet.

 “That’s my bread and butter,” he said.

While his rotation of establishments changed over the years, his approach remains a constant. 

“It’s just been very successful,” he said.

The partnership is far from one-sided. Aside from adding entertainment during mealtimes, Olds uses his charm to turn a potential one-star review into a repeat visit. “You have a problem with table four,” Olds told City Pulse. “You tell me to go to table four, put on the max stuff, [and] pacify them while they’re waiting.”

Magicians turn a negative situation into a positive experience

For the past three years, Culver’s has held Olds’ Monday slot. Guests can see flyers advertising the show posted around the restaurant. 

“He’s really incredible when it comes to [his] ability to engage the guests of all ages,” said Jacob Vandeusen, the general manager of the location.

Customers return specifically to see Olds perform, Vandeusen said. “It goes far beyond great food, you know,” he said. “He’s creating those memorable meals for everybody.”

Banister carved out his market for performing magic not by chasing a preexisting niche, but by steadily building one through his community work and relationships in Lansing. 

Years spent as a building supervisor at city community centers and as a long-term substitute teacher put him in local schools, neighborhoods and city programs. When he began offering shows, there was already a base of people who knew and trusted him.

“Being a part of all that has helped shape not just my performance, but my character and who I am now,” he said. 

While Banister does plenty of outreach himself, he said being embedded in the community helped him build a reputation of trust, although some city officials just recently found out.

“There were a few administrators and council people … and they were like ‘We didn’t know you did magic … we had no idea,’” he laughed.

Banister was recently asked back to perform for the residents of Independence Village of East Lansing, a retirement community, after simply introducing himself.

Out for a walk, he stopped into the community on a whim. The impromptu visit turned into an audition. 

“[We] tested him on the spot,” Nila Leonard, the community activities director, said, “and he passed the test.”

Bringing in a magician never occurred to her, Leonard told City Pulse. 

But after Banister’s first show, Leonard said residents immediately wanted him back. “They were still talking about [his performance] the next day.”

Leonard emphasized the biggest reason she invited Banister back wasn’t exclusively his talent, but the respect he showed her residents.

“Because they are independent, they felt respected,” she said. “His communication, his respect and simply his demeanor with the residents…is why I really wanted to reschedule.”

For both Olds and Banister, building a career in magic hasn’t been about landing one big break. Instead, the work is in cultivating relationships in places that don’t traditionally host magicians and creating performances tailored to each audience, whether that’s tableside in a restaurant or in front of a crowd of seniors at a retirement community.

Keeping the Wonder Alive

On the surface, magic shows are a couple of tricks and illusions designed to amaze audiences. 

But for Lansing’s magicians, every sleight of hand has a purpose.

Banister used his magic in the classroom to connect and bond with students. “It makes it so much easier for them to want to talk to you,” he said. “If they’re having an issue or problem, they’ll want to communicate that.”

Olds channels his atypical career choice to tell younger audiences to believe in themselves. “Nobody told me I was going to be a magician for life, but it was my passion,” he said. “Anything is possible if you set your mind to it.”

The common thread of each show is connection. 

“People usually don’t remember the tricks years later,” Banister said. “They remember how they felt.”

While Olds partners with local restaurants for his shows, he enjoys getting families away from screens and into the moment. 

“Hearing that I got a kid to put his phone down for a while,” he said, “that’s my payment.”

Even the employees on Olds’ restaurant tour look forward to seeing him every week.

“He has the ability to just be friends with everybody,” said Vandeusen, the general manager.

At his first performance for Independence Village, Banister stayed an hour after the show, answering questions and teaching residents card tricks.

“My residents adored him,” said Leonard, the activities director who keeps inviting him back. “They find him extremely friendly.”

In an era of endless streaming options and viral videos, magic offers the thrill of witnessing the impossible happen right in front of you.

It’s the shared laughter after a joke lands, the collective gasp when a card disappears and the conversations that continue long after the show ends.

That sense of wonder keeps both magicians coming back to the stage, whether it’s a packed restaurant on a Monday night, or a retirement community on a Thursday afternoon.

As long as there are audiences willing to suspend disbelief for a few moments, Lansing’s magic scene will remain. Maybe not in grand theaters or TV specials, but in the everyday places where strangers become participants and a simple trick becomes a memory.

For Banister and Olds, keeping the magic alive was never about fooling people. It’s about giving them something to believe in, even if only for a moment.