Mat Franco

Mat Franco is a magician act from Season 9 of America's Got Talent.

Background
As a child, learning magic was always Mat Franco's top priority. Growing up in Rhode Island, Mat's way of learning magic was by watching magicians on TV. He would videotape the shows and then study them for countless hours in great detail. At just 12 years old, after saving money from local shows, Mat traveled to Las Vegas to study and learn from some of magic's biggest names.

Just a few years later, Mat was invited back to Las Vegas as a teenager, being hired to perform at the Riviera Hotel and Casino as part of the Society of American Magicians National Convention. During his teen years, Mat won several awards from the magic community, by competing in statewide and national magic contests.

As a high school student, Mat's only marketing tool was a business card. Mat was always amazed with the power and effectiveness of "word-of-mouth" advertising, but to bring his passion to the next level, he knew there was much more to be learned.

Before approaching magic as a full time endeavor, Franco was a student of Business (Marketing) at the University of Rhode Island. Mat also minored in Communication Studies. Using his education as a tool, he was able to morph his hobby into a career. Since graduating from College in 2010, Franco has become a campus favorite across the country. In addition to Mat's work as a live performer, he is also the founder of "Franco Talent" - a specialty talent agency featuring only the best college performers the world has to offer. The roster includes Eric Dittelman (America's Got Talent, Fox Business News, The Ellen DeGeneres Show) and Jacob Williams (MTV's Wild' N Out, America's Got Talent). In 2013, Franco won the coveted Male Performer of The Year award from Campus Activities Magazine. 1

Audition
Mat Franco's audition in Episode 904 consisted of performing a card trick in which he told a story about his magic career and the America's Got Talent judges while pulling out cards that fit the story. He also created the illusion of morphing cards into pictures of the judges.. Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, and Howie Mandel all voted "Yes," sending Mat to Judgment Week.



Judgment Week
Mat Franco was sorted into the "Magicians" category in Judgment Week. His performance in Episode 907 consisted of having Mel B pick a random card and laying cards on a table so that their backs created an image of Howie Mandel holding the card Mel B picked. Mat's performance was strong enough for the judges to send him to the Quarterfinals in Episode 908.





Quarterfinals
Mat Franco's Week 2 Quarterfinals performance in Episode 911 consisted of spraying with paint a playing card image on the back of a wall, having Heidi Klum pick a random card from a deck of cards, revealing the painted wall to portray a different card than the one Heidi picked, and then lighting the wall paper on fire to reveal Heidi's card imprinted on the wall. He then revealed the card he had painted had been slipped into Howie Mandel's back pocket. Howard Stern, Heidi, and Howie gave Mat standing ovations.