Author Archives: jculpepper

I’ve arrived in Toronto for rehearsals of “The Magic Table” with Marcin Kedzior. We’ll be performing this for the FADO performance art center at 401 Richmond Street West (4th floor) at 7PM on Saturday, September 24th. Tickets for this On the Table / Off the Table performance series are free, but you must register for […]

Do you love optical illusions? Are you a maker, artist, hobbyist or performer? I’m excited to be teaching an in-person magic design workshop in Sebastopol, California, on August 13, 2022 at Chimera makerspace: I’ll be sharing tips, tricks and resources that I’ve used to make magic prototypes for Cirque du Soleil, an illusion installation for […]

FISM 2022 is in full swing in Quebec City right now. It’s exciting to be attending the Olympics of magic for the first time. The FISM World Championship of Magic has been held every three years since 1952. This week over 2,000 magicians from all over the world are here to perform, teach, or share […]

Earlier this year, teacher Colin Throness invited me to judge a magic-themed poetry and fiction contest for students from eight different alternative high schools in Montreal. This is such a wonderful initiative created by him and other members of the Montreal English School Board community to encourage and reward young writers. We announced the award-winning […]

The university and live performance are finally coming back to life again. Yesterday, it felt amazing to give a research talk “in-person” at Concordia University rather than from my home office laptop. There were three humans in the room for the “Balancing Art-Making and Scientific Analysis” session of Dr. Leroux’s fourth annual summer seminar dedicated […]

2020 is a year of rapid adaptation for everyone. Like many, Zoom is now the default mode for my teaching activities. Right now I’m teaching at Concordia University and the National Circus School of Montreal (with some workshops and consulting thrown in). The first few online sessions were a challenge. A lot of technological juggling […]

In just a couple weeks, I get to begin teaching what would have been a dream course for me when I was an undergraduate. “Engl 398 — Magic Languages: Written, Oral and Visual Traditions of Conjuring” is open for registration at Concordia University’s department of English. This special topics course examines how individuals express and […]

Today’s magic history find is evidence that Signior Falconi (1780-1816) gave some of the earliest stage conjuring performances as well as a phantasmagoria show in Canada when he visited Quebec City in October, 1808. Ads, reviews and letters from the Courier de Quebec newspaper indicate that he performed from October 15 to October 25 that […]