Author Archives: jculpepper

At the end of my trip to France in November, I had the pleasure of dining with Philippe Beau, Raphaël Navarro, and Valentine Losseau (pictured above from left to right). I first heard about Navarro and Losseau’s magie nouvelle movement — a circus infused new wave of magic in France — sometime in 2012. At that time, I was […]

  Wayne Houchin and I grew up going to the same magic shop — Grand Illusions in Sacramento, California. We aren’t officially kids anymore, but we still go to the Johnson family’s store. In early November, I had the privilege of creating a full evening of magic in which Wayne, his wife Frania, and Steve Johnson (who continues to nurture […]

  I’m excited to announce that my interview with French magician and shadowgrapher Philippe Beau is now available in Genii magazine‘s December issue. I grew up reading Genii in my hometown’s magic shop in Sacramento, California. Years later, I lived with the Domergue family in Nimes, France, to learn their beautiful language. Nowadays, I work in Montreal (French-speaking Canada). […]

This will come in handy for teaching magic history to French speaking students in Montréal. I found it in the boutique of le Musée de la Magie in Paris. The publishing house — Editions Georges Proust — have translated quite a few foundational texts from the magic canon.

This is the first intersection I crossed while looking for my friend’s place in Paris today. I’ll be staying with her and her boyfriend who happen to live near the core of the November attacks. It’s surreal to be talking about the geopolitical implications of all of this with Robin, while also catching up with […]

These are the things I love: The cab ride to a previously undisclosed address, Careful conversation about origins, How much was paid, Who made the deal, Who loves the books, Who actually reads them, What condition they’re in, Signing past security, The vault opening, Touching the collection, Ruminations on the way out, Imagining the future.

When McGill’s writing centre asked me to propose a new workshop for current PhD students, I took a look at the subjects usually covered. The classic topics were all there: outlining, reverse-outlining, conference abstracts, etc. These are the same useful yet purely intellectual workshops that I took during grad school at the University of Toronto. A few […]

On Friday, I directed the largest magic and variety event of my career. Approximately 1,000 people attended the spectacle created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the advertising firm Duncan/Channon. The evening was designed to provide guests with the greatest variety of magic possible (close-up, parlor, and stage). These acts were carefully crafted to fit our performance environment: the historic Adam Grant […]