Q&A: Piff the Magic Dragon on magic, comedy and 'America's Got Talent'

Prior Lake American

He’s a grumpy man in a dragon suit doing card tricks — but, after appearing on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” in 2011 and “America’s Got Talent,” in 2015 Piff the Magic Dragon has become a sensation.

Piff the Magic Dragon, real name John van der Put, is a magician and comedian from the United Kingdom. Piff the Magic Dragon will perform with “America’s Got Talent” Season 10 winner Paul Zerdin at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel at 8 p.m. March 31.

Piff the Magic Dragon, who also performed on season 10 of “America’s Got Talent,” does magic tricks with a small chihuahua named Mr. Piffles, a showgirl named Jade Simone and a fellow Englishman dubbed “Francis the Squire,” all while cracking jokes.

The Prior Lake American interviewed van der Put ahead of his Prior Lake performance next month.

Q: What got you into magic?

A: When I was a kid, I did it as a hobby. Like, 13 or 14 and I would do card tricks for my friends at school and eventually, I was wanting to do this and work for a living. I ended up, when I was in university, doing card tricks (to) pay for my university and that’s how I got into it.

Q: How did you come up with your Piff the Magic Dragon persona?

A: What happened was, I’ve always looked grumpy when I was doing magic because everyone was like, “Why are you so grumpy?” I kept getting fired because people didn’t really want this grumpy guy doing card tricks at their wedding. Eventually, I went to a costume party and I didn’t have a costume to wear and my sister had a dragon outfit under her bed so I went to this costume party as a dragon and when I turned up, no one else was in costume, it was just me. I said to my friend, “What are you doing?” And she said “Well, no one turned up.” I was being very grumpy in the corner as this dragon and this girl came up to me and she said, “You should do this in your act, you could be Puff the Magic Dragon.” I said, “Wait, I could be Piff the Magic Dragon.” And then I tried it and everyone who fired me for being grumpy was suddenly like, “Oh this is hilarious.” Apparently, a grumpy guy is unemployable, but a grumpy guy in a dragon outfit is hilarious. I went from having zero work to being booked solid.

Q: Was that how the comedy came into it or was that always a part of what you were doing?

A: The comedy was always a part, but it was certainly how it became more palatable because before then, the comedy had been a little bit … people got offended by me being sarcastic. When I was sarcastic in a dragon outfit, then people stopped getting offended and it was just funny.

Q: If someone had never heard of you, how would you describe your act to them?

A: Grumpy dragon doing magic tricks with a tiny dog.

Q: How did Mr. Piffles get involved in the act?

A: Piffles has been in my act for eight-and-a-half years now and every year, I would do the Edinburgh Festival and the first year I did it — you do like an hour long show — I thought, “Oh, this needs a little gimmick because the dragon outfit wasn’t enough.” The girl who was running the venue, she had a chihuahua and I put the chihuahua in my act and it was so funny. Then, the next day I went out and got Mr. Piffles, he’s a rescue dog. He went into the act in August 2009. We’ve been together ever since.

Q: What is it about magic and comedy that you’re drawn to?

A: I always liked magic tricks because it’s surprising. It’s one of those things where you ask the audience to believe something is going to happen, no one does and then the next thing they know, the thing they find is in an impossible location or you’ve somehow guessed the word that they’re thinking of. I always loved it growing up and I like being able to give that feeling of “How did you do that?” I’ve always been sarcastic, I’ve always made jokes and so those two have gone hand in hand for me.

Q: Have you been to Minnesota before?

A: I have, actually — years ago, though. We did a show probably in November 2015, and we did a show — maybe December actually — at the House of Comedy in the Mall of America. We did like six or seven sold out shows over a week there so this is our first time back since then.

Q: What was your favorite part of Minnesota?

A: I had to stay indoors it was so cold. I had to stay inside the mall. I’m excited about this time, it’s not going to be as cold I think and getting out and seeing Minnesota.