Abstract
This paper advances the case for how performance magic can be used as a larger medium for communicating fundamental ideas and addressing enduring questions. The paper begins with a stylized definition of performance magic as having a role for ‘disruption’ and ‘subversion’ in terms of audience perception of reality as well as an audience’s set of beliefs, predispositions, and ‘lifeworlds’. The section also engages with performance magicians as well as luminaries from the occult and Western esoteric traditions to illustrate the disruptive function of magicians broadly understood. The second part provides an overview of mentalism and mystery entertainment as a sub-genre within performance magic that is highly amenable to a more academic frame and mode of delivery. The third part outlines how key principles and effects from this sub-genre of performance magic can be applied to two broad areas of academic concern: (1) epistemology and the human condition, and (2) larger political and philosophical questions of morality, justice, rights, agency, and the power of the state. The paper concludes with a short summary and implications for the future of performance magic that moves beyond mere entertainment.
Highlights
For centuries, magicians have primarily occupied an outsider position within society. Whether these are real magicians engaged in magical practices and rituals or performance magicians seeking to entertain public audiences, the subject position of a magician is one of an outsider who ‘knows things’ and who can ‘do things’, which invite curiosity from audiences, general onlookers, acquaintances, family and friends
History is replete with examples of ‘scholar magicians’ who are those individuals engaged in deep philosophical research, reasoning, and writing along with a metaphysical and epistemological continuum that stretches from the purely rational to the deeply esoteric
The article first discusses the role of magic as a disruptive and subversive force for modern audiences, and the role of the magician as outsider. It provides a brief overview of mentalism and mystery entertainment as a sub-genre within performance magic that is highly amenable to a more academic frame and mode of delivery. It outlines how key principles and effects from this sub-genre of performance magic can be applied to two broad areas of academic concern: (1) epistemology and the human condition, and (2) larger political and philosophical questions of morality, justice, rights, agency, and the power of the state
Summary
Magicians have primarily occupied an outsider position within society. Just as performance magic became less formal and stagebased to include the kind of ‘street magic’ made famous by US magician David Blaine, mentalism has evolved to include more informal performance styles using ordinary objects, stationery, and casual encounters in public spaces in which participants experience mind reading, demonstrations of body language, and personality or character readings This kind of ‘situational mentalism’ is hugely popular, where acts like Looch present themselves informally in small groups and carry out inexplicable demonstrations of influence, coincidence, and prediction.. Houdini, 1924; Kalush and Sloman, 2007) His live and televised shows, showed me that this kind of performance provided the avenue for me to combine my academic interests with magical skills, drawing on my authentic training and career as a professor of political science and using mentalism to communicate ideas, concepts, and arguments that should have resonance with and give meaning to the general public.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
