Whit Haydn

Whit Haydn

Whit "Pop" Haydn (born July 19, 1949 as Whitney Wesley Hadden in Clarksville, Tennessee) is an American magician, the winner of six "Magician of the Year" performing awards from the Magic Castle, the Hollywood clubhouse of the Academy of Magical Arts. In February 2006, he also became Vice-President of that organization, and served for four years in that capacity.

He has opened for Jerry Seinfeld, the Smothers Brothers, Loretta Lynn and others, and performed on cruise ships of many different lines, including Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Diamond Princess. Haydn has worked hotels and casinos including Caesars Tahoe, and was one of the first acts chosen in 1996 to open Caesar's Magical Empire in Las Vegas.

He was the chief magic consultant on Norman Jewison's Bogus starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Depardieu and Haley Joel Osment as well as a consultant on multiple television documentaries including the Discovery Channel's "Houdini, People Came to See Him Die" and David Copperfield's television special, "Orient Express."

He is known as an "original performer," meaning that he is one of the members of the magic fraternity who actually creates new methods and routines for classic magic effects, that are then performed by other magicians around the world. In recent years, his folksy, home-grown persona of a "refugee from the 19th century" have made him increasingly popular in the Steampunk community, and he has headlined such venues as the World Steam Expo. In September 2012 he sat on a panel, hosted by Veronique Chevalier, at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo on the subject of the steampunk subculture and its relation to other subcultures.