Ben Seidman is here to teach us a lesson about trust — and just how easily we hand it over.
Through his theatrical magic show, he exposes the art of deception and reveals how simple it is to get fooled. He proved it during an interview with the Florida Jewish Journal, pulling off a quick ball-and-cap trick to drive home his point: “The con is not the sleight of hand,” he says. “The con is believing you can win.”
Now, South Florida audiences can experience that deception firsthand, when he brings “CON MAN: A True Crime Magic Show,” to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts from Nov. 5-8.
Seidman’s resume is full: He was a resident magician at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas; he served as a consultant for the 2025 movie, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t”; and he guest-starred on Netflix’s “Brainchild.”
While he tours the world showing audiences how scams work, Seidman credits his Jewish upbringing and its tradition of discussion, questioning and humor as the real root of his craft.
We spoke with Seidman to learn more about his signature style of magic, his connection to Judaism, and what audiences can expect from the show.
Q: Magic inspired you from a young age. When did you know you could make it into a career?
A: I knew I wanted to make it into a career at age 16. When did I know I could make it into a career? I don’t know, yesterday. I’ve had an insanely amazing career. I feel so incredibly blessed. But I think it took years of success to catch up to me to realize, “Oh, I’m actually doing it, I’m doing the thing.” I had a Netflix show and a lot of cool, exciting things before I ever realized that I’m actually doing it.
Ben Seidman was resident magician at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. (Ben Seidman/Courtesy)
Q: You have been quite successful in the world of magic. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A: I honestly think it’s writing and doing this show. I feel very strongly that this is the best thing I’ve ever created and also the most important thing I’ve ever created. Both for myself as an artist, but also for what I want to say about the world. I think there is something beautiful and important about giving people the feeling of amazement, and that has always been the driving force, and it still is a huge part of this show. But there’s also another layer, which is examining how these same techniques can actually be used for bad instead of good.
Q: You’ve talked about spending years moving away from standard magic tricks to build a completely original act. How did you develop your signature style of mixing comedy and magic?
A: I’ve always been obsessed with inventing my own magic tricks … For me, I cared as much about creating a unique magic trick as I did about wowing the audience, because I wanted to give people an experience that they couldn’t get anywhere else. To me, that just transcends the feeling of “Wow, that was cool and amazing” to “We saw a thing that we’ve never seen before and we’ll never see again and we can’t explain it.”
Q: You spent your early years in Jewish day school. What has your connection to Judaism been like as you’ve gotten older?
A: I think the value structure stuck with me more than I even realized. The premium on learning and discussion and disagreement and reexamination are values that I learned as part of my Jewish upbringing, and I think those come into play in my everyday life. The culture of Judaism cares about learning and free thought and arguing and trying to find the best moral and ethical ideas and trying to express yourself, and those things really stuck with me.
“CON MAN: A True Crime Magic Show” is coming to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale from Nov. 5-8. (David Szymanski/Courtesy)
Q: You’ve described your Jewish background as the root of your work. How did growing up in the culture shape you as a performer?
A: There is so much humor baked into the culture, and humor is valued. I had good examples. There are some amazing comedians and artists who have Jewish backgrounds who I could look to. The magicians who inspired me, a lot of them you could take out the magic and just listen to them talk for an hour and it would still be magical just because of how funny they are. It was never a question of are you going to be funny or are you not going to be funny — it was just whoever was the funniest person is going to rock the room at Shabbat dinner.
Q: What can audiences expect from “CON MAN: A True Crime Magic Show”?
A: It is a show about trust and how we often trust the wrong people and don’t notice until it’s too late. And it’s all framed within the context of magic. There is an intersection between what a con artist does and what a magician does and some of the tools that are used. And so when people come to the show, they should expect to have their minds blown and see a ton of great magic and laugh really hard.
Ben Seidman served as a consultant for the 2025 movie, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” and guest-starred on Netflix’s “Brainchild.” (Ben Seidman/Courtesy)
But there’s also more to it. There’s part of the show where you learn about a few historical con artists. That sort of becomes a thread that we pull on to understand why we can be taken and why we look at trust wrong. Inherently baked in, sometimes the con artists that are influencing us the most and conning us are people we are familiar with; We just don’t think of them as con artists. There are people shaping our narratives that are objectively con artists. We are so certain that we know what is right, and the show is about learning to examine that sometimes, when we are so certain we are right, we are actually wrong.
But it is a magic show and it’s interactive and funny. It’s the only place where you can actually see, understand and become a part of a con without losing your life savings.
Q: What do you hope audiences take away from “CON MAN”?
A: I want to give people that feeling of amazement but also lead them towards this cautionary tale so that they can hopefully keep themselves safer. I’m excited about combining both my love of creating the feeling of wonder and also helping people in my own little way. I want the audience to walk away feeling like their radar is a little more tuned in to what could potentially be a scam or a con around them.
“CON MAN: A True Crime Magic Show” will be at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5-7 and 2 p.m. Nov. 7-8 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets start at $64.90. Visit browardcenter.org/events.