A mathemagician is a mathematician who is also a magician. The name "mathemagician" was probably first applied to Martin Gardner, but has since been used to describe many mathematician/magicians, including Arthur T. Benjamin, Persi Diaconis, Colm Mulcahy, and Shona Jean McKay. Diaconis has suggested that the reason so many mathematicians are magicians is that "inventing a magic trick and inventing a theorem are very similar activities." A great number of self-working mentalism tricks rely on mathematical principles. Max Maven often utilizes this type of magic in his performance.