Biography

Son of actress Cheryl Miller.

The exclusive Magic Castle in Hollywood, a club for working magicians, lowered its minimum age from 14 to 12 so he could become a member.

In 1992 he was the youngest magician to become a member of exclusive Magic Castle in Hollywood.

On August 24, 1993 he performed at a White House luncheon that was attended by Vice President Al Gore.

After seeing Harry Blackstone Jr. perform Erik bought magic books and taught himself enough simple tricks to venture into public. He started on a street corner near his house in Corona Del Mar, California.

I was kind of nervous and didn't want to have to say anything to anybody," Erik recalled. "I just set up and tried to show off so someone would come up and ask me what I was doing, but no one paid any attention. So I finally got up the courage to ask one guy, 'Would you like to see a card trick?' And he said 'Sure.' Then he dragged a bunch of other people over, saying, 'You've got to see this!' After that it was really easy for me.

Sometimes I'm thinking about a magic problem, and I can't get it out of my head to concentrate on schoolwork," he said. "If I have a magic competition coming up, school can be boring, but it's OK.

I used to be nervous, where I'd shake a little bit or my heart would start running," Erik said. "But I don't get really nervous anymore. Instead of shaking I get dry-mouth. So before I go on I take one of those plastic lemons or limes full of concentrated juice and take a huge squirt of it. That helps.

I've built five treehouses. Usually they're in a park down the street. The last one was about 35 feet high, built on three levels, and we could get about seven kids on one floor.

"They only last about two weeks, though, because the city comes with tree trimmers and cuts them down. We've always wanted to be there when they were, with all our water balloons and water guns. But it always seems they hit on the one day we're not there."

I got to perform at the White House in a way," he said. "When we went by there, I stuck my foot in the gate and did a card trick.