page_title: Todd Robbins
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Todd Robbins / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Todd Robbins
context_page_description: Todd Robbins is an American magician, lecturer, actor, and author.
context_section_description: Todd Robbins was born in Long Beach, California, the son of a soap executive and a schoolteacher.  At the age of 10, Robbins was introduced to magic, enrolling in magic lessons at the B&H School of Magic every Saturday afternoon. His regular interaction with these seasoned magicians and "carnies" led to an interest learning the secrets of Sideshow Arts. He became the first Junior Member of the Famous Magic Castle school of magic. Soon after, Todd joined the Long Beach Mystics, a troupe run by the students and hosting professional magicians and variety acts, including an up-and-coming young juggler/magician named Steve Martin.
  With a new interest in performance, Robbins attended the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco where he earned his degree in Theatre Arts. It is here that Todd met scene partner and friend Annette Bening, and in 1980 he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatre.
  He went on a myriad of auditions and landed some small, low-paying roles.  "I found it all very dubious. I did a few readings, a couple of small shows in basement spaces, which was all kind of fun but it wasn’t paying the rent."  It was around this time that the new vaudeville movement made a comeback with the likes of Penn and Teller and Bill Irwin gaining in popularity. This gave Robbins the incentive he needed to make a change, thus resurrecting his interest in magic and carnivals.  He began working at Coney Island in an amusement park sideshow swallowing swords, eating fire, hammering nails in his nose, doing all those great, classic old-timer acts.
  Robbins inherited the sideshow tradition almost literally, from Melvin Burkhart, one of the pioneers in the field. Born in 1907, Burkhart worked venues from Ringling Brothers to Ripley's Believe It or Not, making a name for himself as the father of the Human Blockhead act—hammering a nail into one's nostril. Burkhart's last performance took place on October 8, 2001 at Robbins's wedding to Krista Brown. About a month after the performance, Burkhart died, leaving his props to Robbins; his costume and signature enormous nail arrived in the mail. His cremated remains were also left to Robbins, who subsequently sprinkled the ashes at Coney Island.
caption: from "Monday Night Magic"
exif: {}