Whit "Pop" Haydn (born July 19, 1949 as Whitney Wesley Hadden in Clarksville, Tennessee) is an American magician, and the winner of seven performing awards (for performances in showrooms at the Magic Castle) from the Academy of Magical Arts. He has been nominated by his fellow members for "Magician of the Year" in Close-Up, Parlor and Stage, Bar and Lecturer more than thirty times. In February 2006, he also became Vice-President of that organization, and served for four years in that capacity. He has opened for Jerry Seinfeld, the Smothers Brothers, Loretta Lynn and others, and performed on cruise ships of many different lines, including Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Diamond Princess. Haydn has worked hotels and casinos including Caesars Tahoe, and was one of the first acts chosen in 1996 to open Caesar's Magical Empire in Las Vegas. He was the chief magic consultant on Norman Jewison's Bogus starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu and Haley Joel Osment as well as a consultant on multiple television documentaries including the Discovery Channel's "Houdini, People Came to See Him Die" and David Copperfield's television special, "Orient Express." He has recently designed magic for television episodes of "Bunheads" and "Franklin and Bash." He appeared on "Haunted Collector" as a consultant on gambling history. In recent years, he has adopted the persona of an "expatriate con man and medicine show huckster from the early 20th century," and he has headlined such venues as the World Steam Expo. In September 2012 he sat on a panel, at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo on the subject of the steampunk subculture and its relation to other subcultures. Life Whit Haydn was born to minister (Disciples of Christ) William J. Hadden, Jr. and Margaret Shumate (daughter of Whitney Shumate and Jessamine Shumate), an elementary school librarian. At a summer camp at the age of 10, Haydn witnessed a magic show by a Methodist minister who was an amateur magician, and Haydn reportedly stayed up all night trying to figure out what he had seen. This became the beginning of a lifelong fascination. Three local North Carolina magicians—Dick Snavely of Raleigh, Bill Tadlock of Rocky Mount, and Wallace Lee of Durham—became mentors for the young magician. At fourteen, he borrowed money for a bus ticket to one of the major American magic conventions, Abbott's Get Together in Colon, Michigan, having convinced his parents to let him take the