For 40 years, Mike has worked in sculpture, mold fabrication, prosthetic make-up artistry, animatronic design, and on-screen puppeteering/performance. He founded Spectral Motion in 1994 with his wife, Mary, and the studio has created creatures for numerous productions, including Hellboy and Stranger Things, as well as theme park attractions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. His comments are from a conversation with Vanessa Armstrong.
Catching the magic bug: When I was a kid, I would watch a lot of TV, and one of the first commercials that I ever remember watching was Marshall Brodien and his TV magic cards and his TV magic kit. I think that’s really what turned me into a fan of magic, because I really loved those little effects that I was watching on TV, and I didn’t really have a lot of exposure to magic before that.
But also, when I was in second or third grade, there was a kid at school named Rex Geisinger, and Rex had magic tricks that he brought to school. Sometimes he had a Finger Chopper and a couple of other little things, and those really intrigued me. I think seeing it in person and having a tactile access to it may be the thing that really tipped it as far as having a real fascination. So it was the two things combined.