The History of Magic:
From Reginald Scot to Penn & Teller
The Reformation,
Counter-Reformation, and religious wars in Europe
The Witch Trials of the 1500s
Or how Reginald Scot inadvertently published the first book of magic
The Discovery of Witchcraft
James the VI and I: Author of Daemonologie and creator of the King James Bible
The Art of Iuggling and Hocus Pocus Junior
We're going to skip ahead two centuries to the 1800s, and Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin
From Houdin we get to the Golden Age of Traveling Magicians
(Not a real term - just one I made up for this presentation)
Harry Kellar
Alexander Herrmann
Howard Thurston
Chung Ling Soo
John Nevil Maskelyne
and George Cooke
The Bullet Catch
Houdini
Great Magicians of Vaudeville and post-Vaudeville
Dai Vernon
Max Malini
Spiritualism
and
Magicians as Skeptics
A long line of skeptics sprout up around the magic community
The Amazing Randi
Uri Gellar
Side Jaunt to
Harry Anderson
and
The Amazing Johnathan
Just had to plug two of my favorites.
The State of Magic Today
David Blaine
Dynamo
Penn & Teller: Fool Us
Q&A / Discussion
The History of Magic: 1500s to Today
By Cameron Mount
The History of Magic: 1500s to Today
Title: The History of Magic - 1500s to Present In this brief presentation, Cameron Mount will discuss the entertainment form of magic and its popularization starting in the late 1500s, with Reginald Scot’s 1584 publication of The Discovery of Witchcraft. We’ll talk a bit about the time period the book came out, James the VI and I’s response Daemonologie, and then press forward into the 1800s when Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, now known as the father of modern magic, brought magic from the street busking into the respectable venue of theater. After that, an excursion through North America and Europe finds us meeting some highly popular stage magicians, many now no longer holding the esteem they once did, and then into the 20th Century with Harry Houdini, Max Malini, Dai Vernon, and other greats from the post-vaudeville era. After brief side-jaunt into Houdini’s skepticism about spiritualism (which is true of many magicians!) and an aside to The Amazing Randi and Uri Gellar, we’ll move into modern day magic and talk about the big names in modern magic – Juan Tamariz, Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, the revolutionary street magic of David Blaine and Dynamo, and finish with the current tv series that showcase the best of contemporary magic.
