There is a moment in Mat Franco’s origin story that tells you everything you need to know about him. He was four years old, sitting in front of a television in Johnston, Rhode Island, watching a magician on TV. He did not just watch. He begged his parents for a magic set, taught himself the tricks, and started performing for his kindergarten class.
That kid from Johnston is now one of the most successful entertainers in Las Vegas history.
Franco, born May 10, 1988, grew up in Johnston and graduated from Johnston High School before earning a degree in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island in 2010. Almost entirely self-taught, he spent his childhood taping magic shows off the television and watching them back in slow motion, frame by frame, figuring out how the tricks worked. One of his earliest collaborators was his grandmother, Eleanor Campellone, who used to read magic instructions aloud to him before he was old enough to read them himself.
By 12, he had saved enough money from local performances to fly to Las Vegas and study under some of the craft’s most respected names. By 15, he was back in Las Vegas performing at the Riviera Hotel and Casino as part of the Society of American Magicians National Convention. He was still in high school.
After graduating from URI, Franco spent four years touring college campuses across the country, performing his one-man show and building a following entirely through word of mouth. In 2013, Campus Activities Magazine named him Best College Performer in the country.
Then came 2014.
Franco auditioned for NBC’s America’s Got Talent and did something no magician had ever done in the show’s history. He won. His Season 9 victory earned him a $1 million prize and a headlining show in Las Vegas. The judges, the audience, and the voters at home had all chosen a quiet, warm, self-taught kid from Johnston, Rhode Island over every other act in the competition.
He has not looked back since.
In August 2015, Franco debuted “Magic Reinvented Nightly” at The LINQ Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The show, built around sleight-of-hand, crowd interaction, and improvisation, is different every night by design. There is no script that runs the same way twice. In 2017, the venue was renamed the Mat Franco Theater, a distinction reserved for a small number of entertainers on the Strip.
And then, in March 2026, came the news that put the whole arc in perspective.
Franco signed a five-year contract extension with Caesars Entertainment, keeping him at The LINQ through 2030. By the time that contract ends, he will have performed on the Las Vegas Strip for 15 consecutive years, all in his own theater, all under his own name.
“This show started as a dream,” Franco said in a statement announcing the extension. “Ten years later, it’s become my life’s work. Las Vegas has given me the chance to build something truly special, and I’m incredibly grateful to Caesars for believing in me then and now.”
The extension made national entertainment news. In Rhode Island, it probably did not get nearly enough attention.
Third Row at Mat Franco Theatre
During CrimeCon 2026 at Caesars Palace last weekend, two other Rhode Islanders found themselves in the third row at the Mat Franco Theater. One of them was Derrick Levasseur, the Central Falls native and Big Brother winner who was in Las Vegas for CrimeCon with his podcast Crime Weekly. The other was Joe Russo, a Johnston native and founder of J&R Marketing, who handles Crime Weekly’s branding and had come to Vegas to support Levasseur and the show.
Franco brought the three-way Rhode Island connection to the stage, pointing into the audience and calling out the Panthers, Johnston, and the people back home. He then gave a shoutout to What’s Going On In Rhode Island from the theater.
Three guys from a small state, all making things happen in very different rooms, ending up in the same one in Las Vegas.
Mat Franco’s story is the kind that Rhode Island tells about itself when it’s at its best. A kid with a magic set, a grandmother who read him the instructions, and a work ethic that carried him from Johnston High School to his own theater on the Las Vegas Strip. If you have not seen the show, tickets are available at matfranco.com. He performs Friday through Tuesday at The LINQ Hotel and Experience. (Click here for tickets)
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