Hackett is a magician who has showcased his talents at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center and at Rudy’s Chalet Whiteface in Wilmington.

When he arrived at AGT, he found himself surrounded by “tons and tons of acts,” he said. Hackett asked his family and friends who joined him on the journey, “How am I supposed to differentiate myself from all these guys?”

He decided to stand in the middle of the room, surrounded by thousands of acts and yell out, “Who wants to see a magic trick?” He got a great reaction from the others and then performed what he said was “one of [his] best tricks.”

This impressed one of the producers, and they told Hackett that they wanted to film a scene with him. According to Hackett, there are only “10 to 20 people to be filmed.”

He was able to see the producers and do his magic tricks for them individually, and all this was before he even had an audition.

Hackett was expecting to hear the results of his audition by the end of March. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a delay.

As a senior in high school during this worldwide crisis, Hackett has had to spend the past few weeks learning online. This is a new experience for him, but he finds it easier than he expected.

“The key element to trying to deal with this is to really reach out to your teachers because they are going to be understanding,” Hackett said. “Communication is key.”

Hackett explained how emotions are key for his magic tricks. Due to social distancing, he is unable to practice his magic in front of any of his friends.

However, Hackett said it has helped him as a magician, and he is thankful to still have his family to entertain.

“It’s allowed me time to really take a look at my stuff and kind of improve it more so I can come out of the gate strong,” he said.

Although the extra practice has helped his magic, Hackett still misses being able to practice other things. For example, he was involved in karate and was looking forward to getting back into track this year.

“It really stinks because I did track from seventh to ninth grade, and I really wanted to go back senior year and get back to states,” he said.

Hackett plans to simply, “come out of the gates strong” after all is said is done.

“Just because this whole thing happened, I didn’t lose anything, and I came back stronger.”