Jeff Sheridan

Who is Jeff Sheridan?

Jeff Sheridan is an American magician who started his career by specializing in street magic. Sheridan began working in New York City around 1967. He studied briefly at the School of the Visual Arts in NYC in the late 1960s. He authored the 1977 book, Street Magic, An Illustrated History of Wandering Magicians and Their Conjuring Arts. The book was coauthored by Edward Claflin.

Sheridan is best known for his card manipulations, and for his silent avant-garde style of performance which he self created in NY's Central Park. He is a pioneer at making a living at magic purely by working the street, and was well known as the Central Park magician performing at the Walter Scott statue in NYC in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

In 1970 Sheridan co-founded the Theatre of the Surreal, a performance troupe that utilized magical technique to create living surreal vignettes. The troupe, that included Fonja DeVrie and Donald Waskover, performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, early SoHo galleries and other venues in the late 1960s and early 1970s.