Author Archives: jculpepper

The first busy weeks of September have begun, but I’m often still thinking about the wonderful research trip I had in France from August 21st to September 4th. It was so inspiring that I’ll be making a few posts this month to share what I learned in Cerisy-la-Salle, Châlons-en-Champagne, and Paris. First, I’d like to thank Jean-Marc Larrue, Giusy […]

Here is the minimalist and portable magic table that I’ve been working on for months as a side project. After considering dozens of different retail tables and construction plans, I decided to build my own using strong, light and elegant material. The stand is designed to hold the weight of a keyboard and can be adjusted to various […]

  I’ll be giving a public presentation based on my most recent research and magic consultation project next week. This praxis performance will include supernatural magic effects inspired by my childhood experiences at a spiritual summer camp, Harry Houdini’s 1926 anti-spiritualist exposé at McGill University, and my collaboration on the new media webseries Houdini and Doyle: World of […]

A McGill colleague recently sent me these wonderfully quirky posters depicting fin-de-siecle hypnotism shows. I’m not sure who penned this post at The Public Domain Review, but it looks to me like these are probably stock posters for entertainment hypnotists who couldn’t afford to have original, custom posters designed. The blank space at the top […]

At least three miraculous things happened when I went to see Noah Levine’s Magic After Hours show on Thursday night. A friend-of-a-friend who didn’t like magic now loves it. We were given an intimate, after-hours tour of New York’s oldest magic shop in existence — Tannen’s. Finally, we watched Noah perform impossible feats right under […]