Jim Steinmeyer

In 2014 Steinmeyer served as a magic trick consultant/ghostwriter on Neil Patrick Harris's book Choose Your Own Autobiography.

Steinmeyer lectures on magic and creating other theatrical effects at a variety of places including The Magic Castle, The Magic Circle in London, FISM, and TED (1998) Conference in Monterey, California.

In 1996 Steinmeyer received the Milbourne Christopher award in recognition of contribution to magic design and in 2002, he received his second Fellowship award from the Academy of Magical Arts, this time collecting the Literary Fellowship Award.

In 1991 the Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle) awarded Steinmeyer The Creative Fellowship, recognizing his continuing inventions. The Fellowship awards were created in 1968, and are the magic industry's equivalent of the "Oscars". At that time Steinmeyer was 32 and was the youngest person to ever win a fellowship.

In 1986 Steinmeyer served as technical advisor for the NBC crime drama series Blacke's Magic, starring Hal Linden as magician Alexander Blacke.

For Copperfield, Steinmeyer created the illusion of the Vanishing Statue of Liberty, which was featured on a live television special in 1983. Musician Alice Cooper used a Steinmeyer-designed effect in his 2009 tour, where at one point he is confined inside a polished metal torture device, then impaled with a rack of sharp spikes.

Jim Steinmeyer (born November 1, 1958) is an American author, inventor, and designer of magical illusions and theatrical special effects. He holds four US patents in the field of illusion apparatus, including a modern version of the Pepper's Ghost illusion. Steinmeyer has consulted for many famous magicians, including David Copperfield, Doug Henning, Siegfried and Roy, and Lance Burton.