Born in West Palm Beach, Mat LaVore grew up in a time of great mystery and illusion. He began experiencing magic at a young age, sitting in front of the television watching David Copperfield levitate over the Grand Canyon. LaVore was mesmerized by Copperfield’s feats and soon began seeking out any knowledge he could consume on the hidden world of magic.

As a boy, LaVore and his father would often visit Key West to marvel at the different street performers. On one such trip, LaVore noticed an older man standing in the middle of a large group of people. Being the curious type, he wiggled through the crowd to get a better look. In the old man’s hand were two wedding bands linked together, one inside the other. A man and a woman stood in the center with their mouth’s wide open. Noticing the wide-eyed boy, the old man placed the two rings in LaVore’s hands and said, “What the eyes can see, and what the ears can hear, the mind believes.”

That quote stuck with LaVore, and it changed the way he thought about magic, as well as the world. He later found out that it was actually Houdini who coined the phrase, but LaVore still gives credit to the old man with the linked wedding bands who changed his life.

After graduating, LaVore bought a one-way ticket overseas to work one-on-one with some of the best mentalists and hypnotists alive. After months of training and equipped with new knowledge, LaVore came back to the US and immediately began working on building a unique show that would blend magic, mentalism, and hypnosis.