AFE has a long history of making magic for our troops overseas. Rather than list every single performer in our 70-year history, here’s a list of the magicians and illusionists who have performed with AFE just since 2019. And, go: Rob Lake, Mike Super, Jason Michaels, Jonathan Burns, Garry Carson, Ben Young, Christian & Katalina, Chris Rose, Chris Tracy, Jim Leach, Justin Rivera, Joe Comet, Diego Chavez, Lioz, Scott Cantrell. Whew.

Considering there was more than a year when AFE was unable to send any in-person entertainment to U.S. troops on installations around the world, that’s quite a list.

As part of our current Home for the Holidays programming, we’re pleased to welcome master illusionist Rob Lake back to AFE for the second time in 2021. Rob hosted the two-part AFE Variety Show in May of 2021, which is still available for your anytime enjoyment on our YouTube channel. In that show, Rob introduced magician Diego Chavez. As a boy living in Germany during an accompanied tour, Diego was inspired to pursue magic after seeing Rob perform for AFE. He honed his craft and is now a professional magician, and shared one of his card tricks with our audience.

Diego’s not alone. The military connection is strong with magicians who have toured with AFE. Before Joe Comet began his career as a comedy mentalist and hypnotist, he served in the Air Force, doing two tours in Germany, one in Wyoming and finishing in Oklahoma. See Joe in action again on the AFE Variety Show.

The mind-tripping duo of Christian & Katalina credit the military for their meeting. Both were stationed at Fort Bragg, where Christian was a training NCO. After a time, Katalina transferred in as his new boss. Fast forward to when she was no longer Christian’s boss, the two began dating, married and eventually both left the Army to build their very successful magic business. The duo toured live for AFE in 2019.

After touring with AFE, mentalist/magician Chris Rose was inspired by his own active duty family members to create Magicians On a Mission, which connects magicians with overseas military audiences, and organizes hand-delivered care packages to troops. His 2019 live AFE tour had audiences in the palm of his hand.

Magic, illusion and fun are a huge part of AFE’s commitment to bringing entertainment to R&R around the world. For more online magic, check out The Magic of AFE, a compilation of several of the most recent performances.