Last year, during college commencement season, bestselling author Brad Meltzer stood at the podium at the University of Michigan football stadium, ready to give the commencement address. There were 70,000 people in the stadium, mostly family and friends of the graduating class of 2024. One of those graduates was Brad’s son, Jonas, named for the Weezer song “My Name Is Jonas.”
To say that Brad’s speech was magical is an understatement. A video of it went viral online, and it’s now out in book form under the title “Make Magic: The Book of Inspiration You Didn’t Know You Needed.” The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Welcome Brad. So who was more nervous that day, you or Jonas?
Brad Meltzer: I think Jonas, personally, I really do. When your son is sitting in the audience, you have 70,000 people there, I was focused on one. He was focused on whether I was going to embarrass him.
Santoro: How does a commencement speech become a book?
Meltzer: Here’s what happened: when the speech was done, I just thought, okay, I hope my son liked it. That’s all I cared about. Then we started getting all these requests, people tracking me down through my social media, on my website — can I get the text of that speech? [People] asking my wife for the text to the speech. Someone tracked my sister down in New York City and said, “I think I saw your brother in a stadium today. Can I get the text of that speech for my son, my grandson?”
Henry, I’ve been doing this for over 25 years. No one’s ever asked me for the text of anything I’ve ever said. Then the publishers started calling. And when it went viral, we said, maybe we should turn this into a book — that would be the ultimate magic trick.
Santoro: A kind of famous former New England Patriots quarterback gets a mention in the book. Rather than have you tell the story, why don’t you just read from the book for us?
Brad Meltzer: Here is page two of “Make Magic:”
“What you hold in your hands is the commencement address I delivered when my son graduated from the University of Michigan in 2024. To be clear, I also went to Michigan. So when I told my son, Jonas, that I would be the graduation speaker, his reaction was probably the same as many in the audience. And this is a direct quote of what my son said. 'You? Not Tom Brady? There are so many people they can pick. It’s like a 13th seed winning March Madness.’ And so of course I need to thank everyone who believes in the 13th Seed.”
Santoro: That’s so great. Oh, he’s such a Boston sports fan, your son.
Brad Meltzer: You can’t make that stuff up. I opened the speech, of course, with that joke. And the reason why he got to react is I asked him. I wanted to make sure, before I gave the speech at his graduation, that I wasn’t stealing the spotlight from him. And he said exactly that. Why me? Why not Tom Brady? 30 seconds later, he said, “This is going to be awesome.” That’s when I knew I should deliver the speech.
Santoro: Do you have a favorite line or passage from that speech?
Meltzer: I do have a favorite passage, and let’s just set it up by saying the book is all about magic. There are some things that are unexplained. And when you talk to magicians, if you put aside illusions and escapes, they’ll tell you there are only four types of magic tricks. One is you make something appear. Two, you make something disappear. Three, you make two things switch places. And four, you take one thing and you turn it into something else —which is the hardest trick of all, transformation. And without question, my favorite passage of the book is when I talk about magic trick number three.
Santoro: Brad Meltzer’s book is “Make Magic.” It’s available everywhere.
