MagicIsMedicine.org

Hi! I’m Daniel Rosenthal.

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People ask why I started MagicIsMedicine.org – magicians, physicians and medical staff sharing the healing power of magic with patients.

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When I was eight, I gave my first shows for cancer patients in Kaiser Hospital’s Infusion Clinic in Santa Rosa, California. I’d never seen so many sick, fearful children. Many were bald and needed wheelchairs. I was shocked, but managed to hold it in.

 

Each time I performed, I saw worries disappear and laughter appear. Magic takes patients on adventures – and they don’t even have to leave their hospital beds or wheelchairs. 

 

After one of my hospital shows, a chemotherapy patient told me:  “This was the first time I’ve heard laughter here.” That day in 2007, MagicIsMedicine.org was born.

 

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As requests from hospitals grew, I recruited physicians and magicians to advise me.

 

That’s when I met Dr. Robert Albo, a respected surgeon and magician. Dr. Albo became my role model. He encouraged me to become a medical doctor who can perform magic for patients. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a physician.

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I perform magic in hospitals for hundreds of patients - from wounded vets in the San Francisco VA to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, and at UCSF Family House and Stanford’s Ronald McDonald House.

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Dr. Albo suggested I meet David Copperfield. This renowned illusionist taught me special therapeutic tricks he’d designed to help patients’ neuromuscular dexterity, cognition and memory.

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I now also train physicians and their partnering physical therapists to use therapeutic magic to help stroke, Parkinson’s to muscular dystrophy and ALS patients regain coordination and cognition.

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MagicIsMedicine.org sends volunteer professional magicians to perform in hospitals from California to Florida to New York. Each show is different depending on the patients’ needs.