A Friends of the Library event — Join the Friends!
Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 7 p.m. in List Auditorium.
Reception and book signing at the John Hay Library following the lecture.
The innovative magicians of the past took mistakes of perception, optical illusions and psychological assumptions, turning them into wonders for their audiences. The history of magic offers examples of magicians who understood this formula–from Professor Pepper’s creations of ghosts on a London stage to the sleight-of-hand specialists in American vaudeville. Magicians are famous for keeping secrets, but Jim Steinmeyer offers a unique backstage look at magic, discussing not “how” it works but “why” it works. Drawing upon his research and experience in the field, and demonstrating several classic effects in magic, Jim Steinmeyer points out that the great magicians were able to allow audiences to deceive themselves.
The author of the bestselling “Hiding the Elephant,” “The Glorious Deception,” “Art and Artifice,” and many books written for magicians on the history and techniques of magic, Jim Steinmeyer is well known for his creations and innovations. He’s created the illusions for many leading Broadway shows, from “Beauty and the Beast” to “Mary Poppins,” and has developed wonders for the performances of Doug Henning, Siegfried and Roy, Orson Welles, Ricky Jay and David Copperfield. He is one of the organizers of the highly-regarded Los Angeles Conference on Magic History, where he has recreated many of otherwise lost or forgotten stage illusions. His latest book, published this fall by Carroll and Graf, is not about magic but still about “wonders,” a biography of Charles Fort, the American author who invented the supernatural. He lives in Los Angeles. For more information see www.jimsteinmeyer.com