Conan Doyle, Houdini, and the Davenport Brothers: Huddersfield Connections.
As part of Cultures of Place, I’ve been busy rehearsing and preparing for Conan Doyle, Houdini, and the Davenport Brothers:…
Making Dark Magicks at Doomsday
After three years of pandemic related cancellations and delays, the highlight of the UK Bizarre Magick calendar, Doomsday, returned to…
Mashing up Magick: Bizarre Magick and the Fuzzy Gothic
Gothic Mash-Ups: Hybridity, Appropriation, and Intertextuality in Gothic Storytelling edited by Natalie Neill is now available from Lexington books. The book…
Diane – The Seductive Sorceress
Before the COVIDs really got going, I put out a request on social media for information regarding performer Diane Matthews….
The Magician – enquiring about practice #1
A key element of enquiry for me when working practically in bizarre magick was my role in the creation of…
Séance, Magicians, and the Arms Race of Things
Historically, the apparent ability to contact spirits has provided a wealth of opportunities for deception by performers. Magicians have had…
Séance: A View through the Veil
*The film is now available to watch on the Media of Mediumship YouTube channel* An aptitude for deception is all…
More on Magic Objects
“Objects have histories. Some have souls” (Chelman, 1993, p. 65) In many ways, performance magic is about the props, the…
Abandoned Magic #1
I read something this week that got me thinking again about the photographs I took last summer. The series entitled…
The Magic Object
I’m very interested in the notion of the (performance) magic(al) object. Aileen Robinson (2014) in ‘“All Transparent”: Pepper’s Ghost, Plate…
Séance Technologies – The Pendulum
I find it useful to think of performance magic props as a technology. In theatre we often talk about theatre…
Insider or Outsider?
The challenge I have as an academic is that I am both inside and outside of my research. I cannot…
Hiding the Elephant in the Room – Performance Magic and Practice Research
A transcription of a research seminar delivered 31/03/21 The seminar itself is now live: Thank you for inviting me to…
Projects
I’ve just finished* a big project, and now I have three others to work on. Today is about starting one…
Bizarre Magick: An Experiment in Paranormal Entertainment – Early doors
For the next few months I’ll shall be mostly blogging about a research/teaching project that begins in earnest this September. …
Trickerion: Legends of Illusion
So, I was strolling into work the other day, daydreaming as I went. I designed a game, from the shapes…
Pokémon Go Play and Response
So this is the inevitable blog post about Pokémon Go. First off, I play – there you go I said…
Mr Punch goes to Horror Con
Last weekend we brought Mr Punch’s Cabinet of Curiosities to Horror Con. It was our second visit and safe to…
Doomsday VII
I attended Doomsday VII last weekend it still remains the highlight of my year. It’s an extraordinary couple of days,…
Betwixt Jest and Earnest
Michael Mangan in Performing Dark Arts: A cultural history of conjuring (2007) talks of the paraxial and the notion that…
‘Most of it is crap.’
Max Maven in his introduction to the collected New Invocation (Volume 2) states ‘In this compilation of the first thirty-six…
Mr Punch’s Cabinet of Curiosities
After an awesome weekend at Horror Con 2015, we are proud to officially launch our (well Mr Punch’s) Cabinet of…
Research Ramble
I’ve had a bit of a holiday, a few weeks away from most things. Just to regroup really and start…
Doomsday VI
Each year a motley band of dark initiates gather in Whitby for Doomsday. Just in case you don’t know, Doomsday…
How to Make Magic – one of my favourite books
How to Make Magic – Sharon Finmark and David Wickers Listening The Mystic Menagerie Podcast with Dan Baines and Freddie…