Why Myrtle Beach?

This coming July marks 7 years of no longer being tourists but locals here in Myrtle Beach. This was a decision that Brandon wanted to make for a long time but it just took the right opportunity.
But we didn't just pick this town, this town chose us.

Photo by Katie Shuler

Brandon was inspired at the age of 16 by Terry Evanswood. Terry talks about how he grew up vacationing in Pigeon Forge and there never being a magic show there and how eventually he set out to change that. Brandon immediately connected with that and chose Myrtle Beach.
We both grew up vacationing here, granted I wasn't into magic at the time so I wouldn't have looked for a show, but Brandon did and never really got to see one.

Vacationing together in Myrtle Beach in 2010

Sure people have come and gone for short stints over the years but not an established show.
There hasn't been a big year-round theatrical illusion show that was always here when you came back. A friendly face you could get to know and watch the show grow and change everytime you vacationed again.
With that goal in mind we had been planning what is now Pure Magic a LONG time coming.
For years we started thinking through what material would work for the clientele that comes through this area. The great news about being around here is we were already on the right track, having grown up being tourists ourselves.
We knew we had to keep growing the show so we worked hard to earn and make our illusions. You can't do a big illusion show without the big boxes.
We took every opportunity we could to help get our names out there and in front of the right people around the state. Surely it would happen one day, but to be fair we were still only 17 and 20.
Then the fall of 2011 rolled around. Yet again another magic show that was suppose to open in Myrtle Beach was having problems and they were now without a magician. A magic friend who knew this was our dream called to inform us and off to the races we went.

The theater that never made it past marketing

We did an audition in that friend's warehouse for the whole theatre staff of The Pat Boone Family Theater and their families. It was nerve wracking to say the least but somehow we made it through. They loved us, they hired us. This was it. We made all our plans to go, told everyone we were finally moving. It was time to go to Myrtle Beach.
And then... nothing. It fell through. We were devastated.
But back to the old grind, find another way to get there.
Oddly enough some of the people from that theatre were joining a church that wanted to run a theatre on the side (yes this was just as bad of an idea as it sounds)
But who cares? They wanted a magic show. They wanted us. Leap of faith. Myrtle Beach here we come!

July 17th, 2012 we moved into our first little apartment and July 21st we opened the show. It was hands down the fastest, craziest transition of my life. I graduated highschool and moved right out within a couple of weeks. We moved 3 hours away from all our family and walked into unfamiliar territory but hey we had a dream.

Our very first billboard of just us here in Myrtle Beach

Grand Illusions featuring The Magic of Brandon Wagster & Hannah Lynne at the Grand Theatre on the Grand Strand.
And what is one word I wouldn't use to describe this experience? Grand.
Lord, it was far from it. Starting out the show was great, I mean hello at 18 and 21 we were starring in our very own illusion show in the town we wanted to be in! We were head over heels happy.
We had at a young age already accomplished something that people way older than us were still dreaming about. This was our chance and we were making it happen.
But oh how quickly the mighty can fall. A church is not a theatre. They are two very different things that run very different ways. We weren't the only show playing there but ours definitely caused the most problems. We were a magic show in a church theatre. I mean what could possibly go wrong? Well obviously a lot of the congregation left with our dark sorcery in their building and it just went on from there.

The run of Grand Illusions lasted for the summer, we only did 19 shows and sold less than 200 tickets. All together. Yep, you read that right. All together. Like I said a church is not a theatre. They had no idea how to market, Brandon did as much as he could in person going to hotel presentations and meeting with lots of small business owners in the area.
But that wasn't the worst part, as shows were going worse due to bad business decisions the shows obviously started trailing off with smaller and smaller audiences. The management made a decision that if we didn't sell a certain amount of tickets by 3:00 they would just cancel the show.
AND NOT TELL ANYONE.
Do you know what that meant? Brandon and I would stand in the parking lot and wait for people to show up so we could personally apologize to them that our theatre canceled the show and didn't bother to call them. It was the most humiliating thing we have ever done.

Standing in that infamous parking lot years later

We had reached an all time low. Our confidence is still bruised from this fiasco. When it was finally time to just part ways with the theatre it was bittersweet.
Our show was over but so was our torture.
Now one thing people don't really tell you when you move out is how careful you should be with your money incase you take a big risk like us and it flops horribly. We had a little bit to float but not much considering we made next to nothing at the theatre. But we made a little splash in the big pond that is Myrtle Beach so we accomplished something.
With it being the end of summer and no way to jump straight back into another theatre we started gigging around town and back in Columbia again. Because you do what you have to do to get by. We got engaged in November and were married by January. We didn't see a point in waiting when we knew we were soulmates.

Brandon proposed to me on the beach in front of the Sky Wheel

Honestly the next couple of years are a blur. Somehow we made it by but barely. We were fortunate enough to pick up a big summer gig at a resort to keep us floating atleast. But there comes a time when you just feel defeated and are ready to give up.
That came at the end of summer 2014. We were done. We found a new town in the upstate of SC and were ready to get the heck out of Myrtle Beach because obviously it didn't want us as much as we wanted it.
We were a month to the day of moving, everything was getting packed. We were living out of boxes and the phone rang. I will never forget that day, I will never forget that phone call. The president of the one and only Carolina Opry theatre, the golden gem, the tip top of Myrtle Beach called us. They wanted magic to be featured in a new show called Thunder and Light.

I. WAS. SO. MAD!!!

It was time to go, we had decided that, the deed was done, the apartment was packed. But close friends from church agreed with Brandon. It was worth atleast seeing what they had to offer.
We auditioned and started that new show within a week and in September off we went on our journey with Gilmore Entertainment. This was just getting our foot in the door. This gorgeous theatre that Brandon always wanted to be in more than anything was giving us a chance.
Myrtle Beach did want us to stay.
We kept our little apartment and started trucking on again. We were just a part of the smaller matinee show doing one spot to start with and it grew from there. But that wasn't enough money to keep us going so we continued doing outside shows.

Over a year later we joined the Christmas show at The Carolina Opry. Another year later we still did the Christmas show and then we were approached about doing our own show as a one night thing in January.
THIS was it. The moment we'd really been waiting for. Our opportunity to impress the bosses and show them we could handle it, we could pull off a full illusion show. It was a challenge, we hadn't done one since Grand Illusions but we poured our heart and soul into that show. An Evening of Magic was our chance. We knew we probably wouldn't get it again. Entertainment doesn't work like that so we didn't take this lightly.

With a non holiday weekend in the off season, a huge crowd, and a near flawless show we made our mark. The emotions and thrills from that night will stay with me forever.
While out at dinner celebrating with our sweet best friends in magic who came out to support us, we received an email from the most important person to impress, Mr. Calvin Gilmore himself. It was short and sweet and worth a million dollars in our minds
"Great job tonight, Brandon and Hannah - couldn't stop watching - pace - music - illusions . We will do more shows"
That was it. We sealed the deal. We worked hard with the marketing team to come up with a magic show title that would appeal to, that's right you guessed it, exactly Myrtle Beach crowds. We all agreed on Pure Magic and started working on an even better show to work with them in mind.
We have clawed, fought, and worked up every ring on this ladder to get where we are today. And everytime we've tried to leave, Myrtle Beach has kept us here. We actually thought about it again a couple of years ago but it further proved to us this is where we're meant to be.

The first show of our 3rd season of Pure Magic

It's so incredible now to have the fan base we do, to have people come back year after year and tell us how much they enjoy the new pieces and how they love seeing us again. And that's what it's about, we don't want them to just like our show, we want them to like us. We do this for them and we hope they realize that. It's so cool to have people come up to us and say they saw us back in Grand Illusions all those crazy years ago and how they are so happy to see us in a new better place and thriving.

Meeting with fans after Pure Magic

We don't have a Vegas show, a Branson show, or any other place's show you can imagine and we will never have that. Our show is for Myrtle Beach. This town has us and we hope it will stay that way for a very long time. I'm glad we dug our roots in here, it has been worth every second.

This is our home. We've worked so hard to build something here.

So why Myrtle Beach?

Because our blood, sweat, and tears have been poured into this foundation... That's why.