scholar    •    magician    •    consultant

This American Life has been my favorite radio show for a long time. Their latest episode is on magic. I think this is the universe’s way of wishing me an extra special 4th of July:

Aura is phenomenal. This is a must-see, immersive light and sound show at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. The venue is an already-exquisite, 19th-century church. The spectacle of state-of-the art projection mapping created by The Moment Factory to animate the basilica’s interior propels its spectators into a special state of ecstasy. The show is a fascinating example of what can be accomplished with an enormous initial investment in technology and creative design. Though there are no live performers or spectator interaction components, two of my favorite things, the ticket price is absolutely worth the experience of witnessing this virtuosic manipulation of light, sound and architecture.

I’d been waiting for ten years to see a real magic lantern performance. Last night, thanks to the organizers of Montreal’s Cinema in the Eye of the Collector conference, I got my wish. Here is Deborah Borton with the British, double-projecting magic lantern from the 1890s that they used to entertain us for 90-minutes:

The two lenses allow for transition effects from one image to the next. They used roughly 150 different slides during the performance, some of which incorporated masks and even tiny shadow puppets to produce animation effects. The show was accompanied by pianist Nancy Stewart, Terry Borton’s theatrical narration and featured lots of audience participation. I love that they all performed the show in period costumes and enchanted a roomful of smart-phone-saturated adults and children with turn-of-the-century technology. Book The American Magic-Lantern Theater troupe or find out where they’re performing next. These shows are hard to see, but worth every penny. After, I had a drink with fellow early cinema colleagues and friends Frank Kessler, Sabine Lenk and Frédéric Tabet. What good company to have been in for this memorable show:

I’ve learned and continue to learn from Dr. Edwin Dawes. Today in the McCord Museum, he gave an inspiring talk on the three Cs of magic history: Collect, Collate and Communicate. Also, cite and share your source information widely. I was honoured to have my name mentioned among others who have written doctoral dissertations on conjuring: Charles Pecor, Susan McCosker, Sarah Crasson, Michael Claxon, Philip Butterworth and Will Houstoun (to name just a few). The academic recognition of magic history is changing thanks to the hard work and generosity of Dr. Dawes and many other magic historians who are here this weekend. It’s a magical feeling to be in their presence.

This is a call for papers for special issue 16.3 (August 2018) of Early Popular Visual Culture that I’ll be editing with Matthew Solomon (University of Michigan). Please circulate it widely:

The Golden Age of Stage Conjuring, 1880-1930

The Golden Age of Stage Conjuring (1880-1930) in North America and Western Europe encompasses a period of rapid technological advances in the performing arts, cinema, photography, lithography, transportation and more. It also marks a fifty-year period of social and cultural transformations across the globe: power shifts in Europe and North America’s colonial empires, a new wave of Orientalism, disillusionment during WWI, the zenith of spiritualism, victories in women’s suffrage, and the stock market crash of 1929. What were the social functions of stage illusions and their performers during this tumultuous period? What pre-1880 conditions led to this Golden Age of magical entertainment? Finally, how does the legacy of this period influence the role that stage illusions play in society today?

This special issue of Early Popular Visual Culture seeks articles investigating these and other questions that engage primary source materials from 1880-1930, that think about such documentation in relation to public or private collections, and that apply those lines of thought to specific areas that have been overlooked or understudied in today’s scholarship dedicated to the performing art of magic. Investigators are encouraged to visit the McCord Museum’s online catalogue, which features a wealth of newly digitized material related to Harry Houdini and many others (search for Chung Ling Soo, Thurston, etc. as keywords). These scans are a glimpse into the exquisite 3-million-dollar collection of lithographs and Houdiniana gifted to the McCord by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso to honour her husband Allan Slaight. The arrival and digital documentation of this material create new possibilities for the kind of research that other institutions, such as the U.S. Library of Congress, the Harry Ransom Center and the National Library of France make possible.

Proposals of articles (5,000-7,000 words) and an archive piece (300-400 words and 5-10 images) are invited. For consideration, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words for proposed articles and 150 words (and one image) for archive pieces. Abstracts should be attached as individual Microsoft Word documents along with a brief CV (degree, work experience, and recent publications) and sent to: goldenageofstageconjuring@gmail.com. The deadline for article proposals is July 4, 2017. Proposals will receive a response in two to three weeks from special issue co-editors Joseph Culpepper (Concordia University) and Matthew Solomon (University of Michigan).

It’s strange, but there are actually people out there who collect dissertations on magic.

I’m excited to present a talk tomorrow afternoon called “Doctoring Magic” for the attendees of the 44th annual Magic Collectors Weekend (MCW). As you can see above, I’ll have 52 signed and numbered copies for purchase by those who want them after my presentation. I would like to thank Magicana and the McCord Museum for bringing so many magic historians, performers and collectors to Montréal this weekend. We are all here to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the Allan Slaight collection of Golden Age lithographs that are part of the McCord’s Illusions exhibition. Thanks to the generosity of La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso, Montreal has a new world class magic collection that will increase and nurture magic scholarship in this city for many years to come.

The 52 copies of my dissertation that I’ve printed for this event will be sold for $45 USD ($60 CAD). Those who purchase one and add their names to my email list will receive a text-searchable PDF version of the dissertation for free. If you requested a copy years ago and will be present tomorrow, please email me a reminder and I’ll ensure that one is set aside for you.

Now, back to the magic history research!

We’re driving to beautiful Santa Cruz, California. This photo of its Del Mar theater captures some of the deep magic that I feel there. I took it while wandering downtown in the early 2000s, another wide-eyed UCSC college kid dreaming about the future. Fifteen years and many countries later, it fills me with joy to be returning to Santa Cruz. Artist Sarah Louis Bianco has invited me to be Apricity Gallery’s first magician in residence. We’ve been talking about and planning art, magic, and music based on the theme of Enchantment for years. This week we get to build, create, and, finally, perform this show with artists from many disciplines. Here we go . . . back to the Del Mar . . . back to the beaches and the redwood trails . . . back to that dreamplace: Santa Cruz.