The magic touch: Piff the Magic Dragon brings Cirque du Soleil, ‘America’s Got Talent’ to Buffalo Thunder

Piff the Magic Dragon is flying into Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder on Friday, Jan. 16, bringing his canine helper, Mr. Piffles 2, with him.

“We’ve been to Albuquerque a few times, but we’ve never been to Santa Fe,” John van der Put, who performs under the stage name Piff the Magic Dragon, said. “So we wanted to bring this ‘All-Star Vegas’ show to Santa Fe.”

“Piff the Magic Dragon’s All-Star Vegas” gathers van der Put and friends from Cirque du Soleil and “America’s Got Talent” for one big spectacular show, he said.

Van der Put said he was an amateur magician for years before donning his Piff persona and kept getting fired for having a resting b---- face. One day, he put on a dragon outfit his sister had and Piff was born.

“I tried it, and suddenly it made everything work,” van der Put said. “Everybody liked my resting b---- face and dragon outfit.”

Van der Put brought the character to “America’s Got Talent” in 2015 with his magician’s helper, Mr. Piffles, a chihuahua. While he did not win, it did not stop him and for the last decade, he has had a residency in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“I thought that maybe it will be a five-minute thing, but I just keep finding new things to do with the act and with the character,” van der Put said. “So it just keeps growing and growing and growing.”

He first got interested in magic when he saw a card trick as a kid, he said, and he has not deviated from the magician’s path.

“There wasn’t anything else I wanted to do,” van der Put said. “So I just kept doing it until it was too late, so there was no way back. It was just like, ‘This is it, gotta keep going.’”

He said it was crazy to watch his act become a big-stage production.

He said if he were to give any advice to his younger self, it would be to do as many shows as possible because he never regrets them.

“I love that I get to make people laugh and make people happy,” van der Put said. “So, that’s been the main thing that’s been most fun to me.”

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.