Andrew Mayne is a novelist, inventor, magician, original prompt engineer and science communicator for
OpenAI
OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...
and contributor to
GPT-4
Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) is a multimodal large language model trained and created by OpenAI and the fourth in its series of GPT foundation models. It was launched on March 14, 2023, and made publicly available via the p ...
for novel capability discovery. He is a three-time Thriller Award finalist and an Edgar finalist for his novel Black Fall. In 2019, he swam alongside great white sharks using an underwater stealth suit in the Discovery Channel Shark Week special ''Andrew Mayne: Ghost Diver''. Having written and produced over fifty books, DVDs, and manuscripts on
magic
Magic or magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic
* Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...
, he was described in 2010 as one of the most prolific magic creators of the 2000s. He is also the publisher of iTricks.com and the host of the Weird Things podcast. In 2021, Mayne became the Science Communicator for OpenAI.
Fiction Author
Andrew Mayne has published over twenty novels. His novel ''The Naturalist'' spent eight weeks at the top of the Amazon best sellers list.
*''The Grendel's Shadow'' (2011)
*''Public Enemy Zero'' (2011)
*''Hollywood Pharaohs'' (2012)
*''Knight School'' (2013)
*''Game Knight'' (2015)
*''How to write a Novella in 24 Hours'' (2015)
''The Chronological Man'' series
*''The Monster in the Mist'' (2011)
*''The Martian Emperor'' (2012)
''Station Breaker'' series
*''Station Breaker'' (2017)
*''Orbital'' (2018)
''Jessica Blackwood'' series
*''Angel Killer'' (2014)
*''Fire in the Sky'' (2015)
*''Name of the Devil'' (2016)
*''Black Fall'' (2017)
''Theo Cray'' series
*''The Naturalist'' (2017)
*''Looking Glass'' (2018)
*''Murder Theory'' (2019)
*''Dark Pattern'' (2019)
''Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood'' series
*''Mastermind'' (2021)
*''The Final Equinox'' (2022)
''Underwater Investigation Unit series''
*''The Girl Beneath the Sea'' (2020)
*''Black Coral'' (2021)
*''Sea Storm'' (2022)
*''Sea Castle'' (2023)
*''Dark Dive'' (2024)
''Trasker series''
*''Night Owl'' (2023)
*''Death Stake'' (2024)
''Specialists series''
*''Mr. Whisper'' (2025)
Performer
Andrew Mayne started his professional performing career as a teenager working a summer in a circus. By the time he was nineteen he was performing in resorts and cruise ships including Norwegian Cruise Line, Majesty Cruise Lines, and Carnival Cruise Lines. At the time he was the youngest magician performing internationally with an illusion show.
Podcasting
*"Weird Things - The Podcast" Co-hosted with
Brian Brushwood
Brian Allen Brushwood (born January 17, 1975) is an American Magician (illusion), magician, podcaster, author, lecturer, YouTuber and comedian. Brushwood is known for the series ''Scam Nation'' (previously ''Scam School''), a show where he teach ...
and
Justin Robert Young
*"The Grendel's Shadow" Writer
*"The Amazing Show starring
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author, and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.#Rodrigues, Rodrig ...
Executive-producer
*"The Official Criss Angel Podcast" Executive-producer
*"Current Geek 06: Flapping the Bird" with
Scott Johnson,
Justin Robert Young, and
Tom Merritt
Thomas Andrew Merritt (born June 28, 1970) is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several podcasts. He is a former co-host of ''Tech News Today'' on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an ex ...
Guest Co-Host
Magic books
Andrew has published over 50 magic books and videos for the magic fraternity.
*''Solo-X'' (1996)
*''Illusion FX'' (1997)
*''Shock Magic'' (1998)
*''Mad Mojo'' (1999)
*''illusionbook'' (2001)
*''illusiontech'' (2007)
Mayne's first books ''Solo-X'' and ''Illusion FX'' featured novel stage illusions. ''Solo-X'' included Mayne's method for walking through a mirror which has since seen numerous variations by other performers on stage and television. ''Illusion FX'' featured Mayne's reworking of the Indian Sword Basket illusion using balloon swords.
After publishing several works on illusions, Mayne began releasing several "shock magic" effects to the magic fraternity. Some of Mayne's "shock magic" style effects include the production of a bowling ball from a paper bag (''Freefall''), an impromptu pencil through face penetration and a psychic prediction using a cockroach.
Videos
*"Shock FX"
*"Wizard School"
*"Illusion EFX"
*"Freefall"
*"Tear Down"
*"Ghost Vision"
Television
*"MSNBC"
*"Dateline NBC"
*"Wizard School" Public Television
*"G4 Underground" for the
G4 TV Executive-producer and co-creator
*''
Don't Trust Andrew Mayne'' premiered on
A&E on January 13, 2014.
*"Andrew Mayne: Ghost Diver" Discovery Channel Shark Week August 8, 2019
Other work
In addition to writing, he has directed two independent features, several instructional videos and the underground magic video ''Shock FX''. Mayne has lectured in classrooms on ''Teaching Critical Thinking'' and skepticism toward paranormal claims.
For five years he was the principal investigator for
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author, and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.#Rodrigues, Rodrig ...
's
One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge was an offer by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to pay out one million U.S. dollars to any famous person who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scient ...
. Andrew Mayne also invented a very paranormal effect called ghost vision in which the image of a ghost's shadow appears on a picture or video of a borrowed cell phone. He also has a TV show dubbed ''Do not trust Andrew Mayne''
He's the publisher of iTricks.com, a daily magic news site that focuses on the entertainment side of magic. iTricks came second in The Magic Woods Awards 2007, for best website. Through iTricks Andrew produces five magic themed podcasts covering magic and magic celebrity news.
References
External links
Personal web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayne, Andrew
American podcasters
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
American magicians