I wonder what he came up with 15 years ago? His website is still up so he must be at least enjoying moderate success.

In my head I can hear my friend and magic mentor, Dick Oslund, telling his story of how he got started in magic. He tried to be "suave" and "deboner" at his show, and afterwards he was asked, "can you make them laugh?"
He found he could, and did, and a long career was born.
So the key is "You" as Dick would say in quotes, not the trick.

If you are funny, you'll find a way, it will either come naturally or it won't. You'll either use asides or your physical humor or the basic premise/mechanics of the trick (as mentioned above) or you might be practicing your lines, or performing, and a line or story idea will just come and find it's way into the act. Or any combination of the above.

Oftentimes the ideas come when you least expect it because you're NOT thinking about it. Your taking a shower maybe, or laying down to go to sleep and an idea will suddenly come, completely formed.

Hope he found something that worked for him! And that includes NOT performing it funny if he couldn't be funny for that trick. People get turned off by fake and cheesy so if he naturally wasn't a laugh a minute doing the matrix better off just performing it how he naturally was.

God bless you Dick!
"Down the road!"

No, they all don’t have to be funny

I remember a performer, (not the name), who had that as his opening line;

"They say a comic says funny things, a comedian says things funny," (holds up a hatchet) "that makes ME... a juggler!"

He then had a joke that I now realize was "The Ship of Thesus" paradox; "This is the actual hatchet George Washington used to cut down the cherry tree. I have only replaced the handle... and the head... but it occupies the same space."

I guess the real question isn't "can" any magic trick be funny but rather "should" every magic trick be funny?

Also, does the "funny" come from the trick or the performer/performance? I contend the latter.

If you are relying on the trick for the funny you are not a performer.

That is the great juggler, Michael Davis...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKRrfAzdpW8

The line is 20 seconds in...