The Body Shop. Photo: Edwardx, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Body_Shop,_Oxford_Street,_London,_March_2016_01.jpg)
Gallery of Val Valentino
TV Globo. Photo: Doll91939, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TV_Globo_hq_2.jpg)
The Body Shop. Photo: Edwardx, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Body_Shop,_Oxford_Street,_London,_March_2016_01.jpg)
Val Valentino is an American magician and actor best known as the Masked Magician on Fox's Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. His career developed through school performances, Las Vegas casino shows, international television, and public efforts to expand interest in magic.
Background
Valentino was born Leonard Montano on June 14, 1956, in East Los Angeles, California. His first experience with magic came in childhood when his father gave him a ball-and-vase trick. He later used small magic performances to entertain people and to deal with bullying in his neighborhood.
As a teenager, Valentino performed through the International Cultural Awareness Program for large audiences in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The program combined cultural presentation with educational performances, and Valentino used magic demonstrations and explanations of illusions to encourage students to take an interest in the craft. He also studied drama in high school, an experience that helped him develop his stage presentation.
Education
Valentino took drama classes in high school and developed his performance skills through the International Cultural Awareness Program. His early training was practical and performance-centered rather than associated with a documented university degree.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, through which the cultural-awareness program reached students, was one of the largest public-school systems in the United States. Valentino's school performances placed magic within an educational setting, where demonstrations were used not only for entertainment but also to encourage students to explore the art themselves.
Career
Valentino began performing professionally in Los Angeles, including a seven-month engagement at The Body Shop, a burlesque club. Producer Dennis Levinson subsequently brought him into Playboy's Girls of Rock and Roll, first at the Maxim Hotel in Las Vegas and later in Lake Tahoe. These engagements introduced him to the showroom and casino-entertainment environment that shaped his early professional career.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Valentino was established in Las Vegas, where he performed in casino productions including Viva Las Vegas and Splash. Viva Las Vegas was a showroom production at the Sands Hotel, part of the casino-resort entertainment system for which Las Vegas became internationally known. Valentino also appeared on The Merv Griffin Show and in a music video for Herb Alpert, extending his work beyond live magic venues.
Fox approached Valentino while he was performing in Las Vegas and cast him as the Masked Magician in Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. In four specials broadcast during 1997 and 1998, he performed illusions and disclosed their methods while maintaining a masked television identity. The programs drew substantial audiences and created controversy among professional magicians, while Valentino argued that explaining older methods could encourage new performers and place greater emphasis on presentation and artistic skill.
After the Fox specials, Valentino continued performing internationally. In Brazil, he became known as Mister M and appeared in Rede Globo's Sunday newsmagazine Fantástico from 1999 to 2000; the program was one of Brazil's major national television productions. He also performed in Japan and later returned to the Masked Magician format in a syndicated television run of Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed broadcast in 2008–2009. His later projects included plans for the Masked Magician's Academy of Mystical Arts in Las Vegas and consultation on a fictional graphic-novel and screen project based on the character.
Valentino starred as the Masked Magician in four Fox television specials that revealed the methods behind selected stage illusions and made the character internationally recognizable.
He performed for large student audiences through the International Cultural Awareness Program, using magic demonstrations to encourage young people to study and perform the art.
He developed an international television and live-performance career after the Fox specials, becoming widely known in Brazil under the name Mister M and performing for audiences in Japan.
Works
graphic novel
Masked Magician
(Valentino served as a consultant on a Virgin Comics graph...)
2007
TV series
Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed
(Valentino returned as the Masked Magician in a syndicated...)
2008
TV special
Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
(Valentino performed as the Masked Magician and revealed t...)
1997
Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed 2
(Valentino continued his role as the Masked Magician in th...)
1998
Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed 3
(Valentino performed and explained additional illusions in...)
1998
Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed 4: Unmasking the Magician
(In the fourth special, Valentino revealed that he was the...)
1998
Views
Valentino has argued that the significance of magic lies in the performer's artistry and presentation rather than solely in the secrecy of a method. He maintained that revealing older illusions could stimulate public interest, encourage young people to study magic, and challenge professional magicians to create new effects and approaches.
Personality
Valentino described himself as shy during his youth and used drama and performance to become more comfortable before audiences. In interviews, he presented magic as an art whose impact depended on the performer's artistry, storytelling, and showmanship as well as on the mechanics of an illusion.
Interests
Magic education, illusion history, and the training of birds and other animals used in stage performances.
Connections
Valentino married Jacquiline L. Janssen on December 24, 1990; the marriage ended in divorce in May 2005. They had two children, including a son named Dominic. Valentino also helped raise a stepdaughter, Joyce.
Wife:
Jacquiline L. Janssen
Valentino's spouse from December 24, 1990, until their divorce in May 2005.
Son:
Dominic Valentino
Valentino's son.
Daughter:
Joyce
Valentino's stepdaughter.
References
Valentino: Magic in the Sands
A contemporary profile describing Valentino's early career, performances at the Sands Hotel, school-assembly work, stage methods, and family life.
1992
The Masked Magician: Secrets of illusionists, unmasked
A Las Vegas Sun profile discussing Valentino's Fox specials, international performances, views on revealing magic methods, and plans for a magic academy and graphic novel.
2009
Val Valentino - Biography
A biographical reference documenting Valentino's birth name, early involvement with magic, television career, international work, and family information.
