User:Ortiz.gfx/sandbox

Birthplace
Michael Stroud was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, in 1967 to Richard Stroud and Linda Lee Dyer.

His first professional magic show was at age 11 at the Knoxville Public Library in Iowa.

Written Publications
In 1989 he published the Klutz Book of Magic with John Cassidy and the book became the number-one selling magic book in print. He contributed to many titles with Klutz Press including Card Trickery, Coin Magic, The Rubber Chicken Book, and the Encyclopedia of Immaturity.

KOFY TV 20 1980s - 1990s
The mid-1980s to the early 1990s KOFY TV 20, San Francisco, featured an in-studio, live kids cartoon show called "Cartoon Classics" with host "Maestro Dick Bright". The show also featured local magician Michael Stroud in his on-stage persona "Magic Mike" performing live, for the home viewers and studio children, as a regular guest for two years.

Other Stage Shows
In 1997 Magic Mike Stroud created "Magic Mike's Funhouse!", a pilot for television and a cd of original songs and comedy skits.

In 1998 Michael Stroud founded The Magique Bazaar with partner Fontain Riddle. They perform a live stage show of magical illusions from around the world, fused with original, World Music up and down the California coast.

Bian Lian
In 2005, while on a lecture tour to magic clubs throughout China and Indonesia, he saw a performance of Bian Lian or "change of face". Originating from the Sichuan Opera over 300 years ago, this art form fascinated him so much he put 4 years of practice and research into it in the tradition of the old masters. Seen on NBC (America's Got Talent), the Science Channel (Oddities- San Francisco), and at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, he is the first caucasian to perform this art and combine it with his own style of magic illusion.