Sterling Dietz

Richard Sterling Dietz (born February 15, 1991) is an American magician and illusionist. Born and raised in Whatcom County, Washington, he became nationally ranked in junior chess. After attending a magic performance by Jeff McBride in 2004, he was inspired to become a magician. Using the prize earnings from a chess tournament, Dietz funded a two-week magic course taught by a Las Vegas–based magician. He began using the stage name Sterling the Majestic and had performed 400 shows by 2007.

Dietz won several magician awards in the mid-2000s including the top prize and people's choice at the 2006 World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas. At an International Brotherhood of Magicians contest in 2007, he won the people's choice award in the adult division and the top award in the youth division. After graduating from Lynden High School in 2009, Dietz decided to become a full-time entertainer. He moved in 2010 to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico, to perform in his production The Magic of Sterling at a San José del Cabo theater. By 2022, he had become the magician in residence at the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts property Las Ventanas al Paraíso in San José del Cabo. Dietz's acts rely on storytelling and he mixes acting, dance, music, drama, and comedy.

Biography Early life and chess career Sterling Dietz was born on February 15, 1991, to Rich and Rochelle Dietz in Whatcom County, Washington, United States, where he grew up. He is of Hawaiian heritage. In his youth, his hobbies were chess, dance, and theater. In elementary school, he attended the private school St. Paul's Primary School in Bellingham, Washington. When he competed in the Bellis Fair Kids' Chess Club tournament in 2002, he received the Mark C. Anderson Coaches' Award For Positional Play — Chess All Star. Before entering eighth grade, Dietz attended the private school Evergreen Christian School, in Lynden, Washington. Competing on behalf of the school, he placed first in the Whatcom County Scholastic Chess Championship in 2002.

Early magic career Dietz attended Jeff McBride's magic performance at Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham, Washington, in December 2004. Prior to McBride's show, Dietz had watched a magic performance and was impressed, though was convinced it was beyond his abilities. The same evening, Dietz spent $100 to purchase a set of magic tricks from McBride. Dietz paid for the program's tuition through the $1,200 in prize earnings he had won at the Theresa Tromp Chess Tournament. He received the top award and people's choice award in the young people's division at the Dallas gathering of the Texas Association of Magicians in 2006. During the youth event at the 2007 World Magic Seminar, he placed second.

While in high school, Dietz established the Sterling Passion Scholarship, which was awarded to two graduates of Lynden Christian Schools or Lynden High School, selected for their dedication to pursuing theater education. In a Northwest Ballet rendition of Aladdin in 2009, Dietz performed as the malevolent genie. He created numerous illusions for the show. Dietz said that he had had prior training in numerous dance styles including breakdancing, Latin, and waltz but not in ballet. His role was centered on dramatic pantomime instead of dancing. Following his high school graduation, Dietz put on private magic performances around the Lynden region and committed to becoming a full-time entertainer. Dietz sought a long-term setting for entertaining so that he could deeply concentrate on performing. Dietz married Kaylee Hicks, who is also from Lynden, Washington, and with whom he had partnered on performances since around 2019. She brings to his show professional dancing and is an aesthetician and make-up artist.

In tribute to his Hawaiian roots, he started his performance in 2006 twirling an illuminated poi, a ball attached to a string. He also did sleight-of-hand card magic and stage illusions involving big props. In 2009 and 2010, Dietz performed Restoring the World, a magic trick he used to end his performance. In the act, he tears a newspaper to shreds while he recounts a son longing to be with his dad. He restores the torn pages, producing an image of a world on one side and a family on the other. Dietz tells his audience that when the family is united, the world will fall in step. A 2007 version of the act involved a girl asking her father to join her outdoors for fun activities.

Siegfried & Roy stated, "Sterling is the future of magic." According to The Bellingham Heralds Zoe Fraley, Dietz puts people at ease when he is performing. His welcoming demeanor melts away the stage fright of people he calls on to join him on stage, she said. He is able to do this when coaching a child in how to pose like a magician and causing eggs to disappear and return, according to Fraley. The Statesman Journal journalist Carlee Wright praised Dietz for having "energetic, fast-paced skill and presentation" and including "a dash of the bizarre". Jep Hostetler, who previously served as the International Brotherhood of Magicians president, said of Dietz "This kid is good" and described Dietz's magic as "not old-fashioned" but "new and fresh".