Magicians

Real Names of Magicians:

• Harry Houdini - Eric Weiss
• David Copperfield - David Kotkin
• The Masked Magician - Valentino

Television star Harry Anderson ("Night Court") first started in show business as a magician in comedy clubs. Harry is still active in magic inventing new illusions.

Puppetry

• Jim Henson, creator of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets, lived in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland at College Park.  He began his television career performing on a local Washington, D.C. Saturday morning program on WTOP-TV in 1954. A statue of Henson sitting with Kermit the Frog was commisioned and erected at College Park in 2004.
• Kevin Clash, the voice of Sesame Street's Elmo, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and as a child often performed puppet shows for his neighborhood. I've been told his early televison work included a local kid show on WMAR-TV channel 2 in Baltimore in the 1970's called "Professor Kool's Fun School" (of which Dan the Magic Man is a proud alumni). This show was hosted by long-time Baltimore television personality Stu Kerr as "Professor Kool".