The global COVID-19 pandemic has compelled magicians to reconsider how they
engage audiences. The pivot to online delivery platforms has served as another
occasion in the history of this art form to consider long running questions about its
aims and means. This article elaborates the reasoning behind one effort to produce
an online, ...
The global COVID-19 pandemic has compelled magicians to reconsider how they
engage audiences. The pivot to online delivery platforms has served as another
occasion in the history of this art form to consider long running questions about its
aims and means. This article elaborates the reasoning behind one effort to produce
an online, Zoom-based resource prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic; namely a
series of interactive recorded performances titled The Magic of Social Life. It does so
in two parts: (i) outlining the rationale for a form of academic magic that seeks to turn
commonplace social conventions into topics for discussion, and (ii) elaborating how
this form of magic was further developed to promote reflection on technologically
mediated performances. Through examining the choices and commitments
associated with both parts, this article furthers efforts to theorise magic as a form of
social interaction.
