Actor and magician Steve Crawford was raised in Ponca City and will be starring in a lead role in Eli Roth’s The Legion of Exorcists that will debut on June 1 on HBO Max, and air on Thursday nights on Discovery Plus and Travel.

Crawford recalls his first experience that led me to wanting to become a magician was when he was sixyears old and attending McKinley School in Ponca City. He saw the 1953 film “Houdini” starring Tony Curtis.

“I watched this movie, and it sort of grabbed me,” said Crawford. “I wanted to be a magician.”

Crawford also had a desire to break into acting, while he doesn’t recall anything specifically that inspired him to act, he would watch westerns and Star Trek on television and then play and act out what he saw on television with other neighborhood kids.

In the fifth grade, Crawford recalls a teacher, Perry Pederson, that inspired him to focus on his acting and magic, with Crawford performing his first big magic show in his fifth grade classroom. That year, he performed for his classroom, birthday parties and even the following supper at the library.

Crawford would perform and practice his magic at the Ponca City Library, operating under the stage name: “Houzini”, through middle school and high school.

“I learned all my first magic tricks in the Ponca City Library. The librarians let me practice my tricks on them, and they let me do a magic show as a kid,” said Crawford. “I would not have had a magic career had it not been for that library. Ponca city is all about who I am…they made me.”

It was during his high school years that the acting bug bit Crawford, although he still performed magic throughout. Two teachers that had an impact upon him during this time were Sally Richardson and Gwen Holmes.

Crawford had entered college on acting scholarships, and even expressed a desire to move to Los Angeles, but eventually magic took over and he spent decades working shows.

He earned a BA in speech, theater and acting and then embarked on a career as an escape artist, illusionist, hypnotist, and magician.

For 10 months a year, Crawford would travel to various venues including amusement parks, festivals, as well as state and county fairs. He would share the stage with figures like Henry Winkler, and open for rock concerts such as Alice Cooper.

About 10 years ago, Crawford stopped traveling and performed at the Kay County Fair and the Ponca City Library. He became an Oklahoma magician while acting on the side and soon found himself booked up.

In 2020, Crawford described his acting career as struggling. By March of that year, he had a residence in Los Angeles and in Oklahoma, and then the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“All the work I had, and projects, everybody cancelled,” said Crawford. “And it pushed me into being an LA actor full-time. I cut my strings with magic and came to act full-time.”

Crawford came to be involved with The Legion of Exorcists after several rounds of auditions. The last round of the auditions involved writing an exorcism scene and acting it out. To do this, Crawford heavily research the life of the man he would be portraying.

“[I] got a phone call from the casting director who was upset because of the similarities between the script and what I wrote,” said Crawford. “What I did was intensely research my character.”

Crawford got a call back and was first in line for the role. The series will feature stories of demonologists and ministry leaders recounting experiences battling malevolent entities with cinematic recreations of the events.

Crawford encourages everyone to take a chance to try their hand at acting.

“Education is important, stay in-tuned, you really have to work at it,” said Crawford. “It is important to have an agent. There is a business side that is boring, but you don’t have to move to LA to become an actor. There is a lot of commercials and opportunities. I found it important to be in an area where there is a lot of opportunity. A lot of these you’ll never hear about, but they all pay and you can actually work regularly.”

He further encouraged aspiring actors to hone their skills in Oklahoma through education and any roles they can land.

“Try to do it in Oklahoma, if you can master that, then you go to a populated area and there are a hundred times more opportunities. Get educated, become a good actor,” said Crawford. “[It is a] lot of education, a lot of practice, get use to getting auditions turned down. Never give up. You go through a lot of those before you get it. Once you get it, the more you hear back.”

From the stage to the screen, Crawford’s journey has been one born out of a love for the craft, but he has never forgot the humble beginnings that set him on his journey.

“I love Ponca City, I really do. I make a trip to Ponca whenever I come back to Oklahoma,” said Crawford Those that wish to follow Crawford’s journey in Los Angeles can do so at “I am Actor Steve Crawford” on Facebook, or at entertainerSteveCrawford on Instagram.