One of the first videos Leach shot was of
Murray doing what’s often called the Vanishing
Champagne Bottle, in which a bottle is put
into a paper bag, the bag is crushed and rolled
into a ball with the bottle appearing to have
vanished, and then smoothed out again to
make the bottle reappear. A standard trick, and
one that Murray excels at in his act. But, what
Leach added was a guerilla prankish element
by staging the trick in an alley where Murray is
caught drinking by a security guard intent on
arresting him.
“I already had videos online and they had a few
hundred views. I wanted Seth to really prove he
could come through on his promise so I set the
bar at 100,000 views. I simply couldn’t imagine
more traffic than that. Go look at it today and,
I swear to God, that video has got over 20
million views! Twenty million! And, if you add
in all the other sites the video is on, the total is
more like 110 million!”
Today, Murray and Seth are 50-50 partners in
the videos, of which there are now multiple
playlists. And, it’s not unusual to see viewer
tallies of 1 million, 3 million or 6 million or
more.
From a social media perspective, Murray is the
world’s first influencer to have a residency on
the Las Vegas Strip. His YouTube channel boasts
over 1.65 million subscribers -- more than the
entire city of Philadelphia -- and they have
racked up more than 1 billion views.
And, his presence on other social media
platforms is nothing to shrug at, either.
His Facebook page, MagicWithMurray, has
well over a half-million followers and an
engagement that Coca Cola would kill for.
Twitter sees him with a healthy 21,000-plus
number of followers, just eclipsed by his
Instagram account and its nearly 24,000
followers. Through them, fans can get a real
view into his life, with posts about his girlfriend,
Dani Elizabeth, an honest-to-goodness Las
Vegas showgirl who performed in the classic
show Jubilee, and is now dancing and the host
in the famous Crazy Girls, and others about
his mother, his famous showbiz friends, and of
course, his rescued long-haired chihuahuas.
And, as mentioned, he’s back on the Strip and back at
the Tropicana, regularly selling out his shows. Even with
the stop-over in Jackpot, Murray has achieved the rare
feat of being a regular presence on what is probably
the most fought-over piece of pavement in the world
of magic, Las Vegas Boulevard, for getting close to 20
years. And, when he’s not performing at the Tropicana’s
Laugh Factory Showroom, he’s on the road, doing his act in major
cities around the country, volunteering to entertain troops at military
bases, and spending time working with various charities, such as the
USO, Wounded Warriors, humane societies, food banks and others. Part
of the secret to THAT trick of popularity and longevity is thanks to his
embrace of social media, and especially YouTube and Seth Leach.
“There is no question that all of my viral videos have introduced me
to a wider audience and to new generations,” Murray said. “I do
meet-and-greets after every show, signing autographs for fans,
and I’ll ask them how they first heard of me. It’s almost always
YouTube. I’d say it’s 80 to 90 percent of my audience. Social
media is everything today. You can see it in entertainment --
even in politics. If it’s good enough for the people in Washington,
D.C., it’s probably good enough for me.”
18 JUNE | 2020
JUNE | 2020 19