Bio

Shreeyash Palshikar is the nephew of Indian magician Shantikumar Palshikar, who performed from the 1950s-1970s.  Born in India, Shreeyash grew up in Oregon where he learned magic from his father and juggling at the Reed College juggling club.  He attended Amherst College where he continued to study magic and spent a year living on the bank of the Ganga ('Ganges') in Varanasi studying magic, Sanskrit and yoga.  After college, he moved to Boston, performing in Harvard Square and producing a show entitled “The Indian Juggler” at Beau Jest Moving Theatre.  He met Las Vegas magic duo Penn and Teller at MIT and they became his mentors. 

After college, Shreeyash moved to Chicago, where he studied with Jay Marshall, the Dean of American magicians and attended lectures at Magic, Inc., the oldest family run magic shop in America.  During this time, he produced “Jadoo, an Evening of Indian Magic” at the University of Chicago while performing at private and public events all around the Chicago area at including: McCormick Place, Navy Pier, the Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Children’s Museum and the Indo-American Center.  He also began to research the history of Indian magic in the South Asian Languages & Civilizations doctoral program at The University of Chicago, for which he wrote his qualifying paper on jadoo, or Indian magic.  He spent a year on the (AIIS) American Institute of Indian Studies program while performing magic at Sanskruti, a popular cultural restaurant.  He was the first Indian-American to perform at an Indian magic convention, the Jaipur magic convention organized by Jadugar Anand in 2000.  He was invited by India’s magical Shankar family, to perform at Gilli Gili International convention in Udupi in 2001.  He conducted research in India in 2004 on a Fulbright fellowship, and began to learn the dying art of India’s traditional street magicians, or madaari's.

Moving to London in 2005, he attended the centenary celebrations of the prestigious Magic Circle where he met the famous Indo-British magician Ali Bongo.  He also performed frequently at private and public events and integrated British magic into his Indo-American performing style to create a global style.  He returned to the US to do a post-doctoral fellowship in South Asian Studies at Yale University in 2008 and was a featured performer at the South Asian studies conference at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.  He combines the best of Indian jadoo magic and American and British magic in a unique fusion show that is a hit with audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds.  In addition to performing, Shreeyash acts in television shows, movies and theatrical productions and is a popular speaker. He just returned from his 10th year lecturing on the Holland America grand world cruise.