The Conjurors’ Club members already defy stereotypical images of magicians. Now, the group will challenge how magic is traditionally presented.
Magicians Jeanette Andrews, Ran’D Shine and other members of the club will pull back the curtain and take their tricks online with a series of virtual performances — the American Repertory Theater presents the Conjurors’ Club from Friday through April 4.
“When I am performing live, I can give out a deck of cards and someone can shuffle them,” Shine said. “Virtually, if I am doing a card trick, I can ask the audience on screen, ‘Do you have a deck of cards at home?’ Now I’m doing a trick with their cards, their cards that have been sitting there in a kitchen drawer for six months.”
Turns out virtual magic can be more shocking than upclose sleight of hand. (How does Shine do card tricks via the internet while he’s 500 miles away from the audience? A magician never tells, but you can tune in and try to guess).
Reinventing their acts for online fans is hard, but Shine and Andrews have been reinventing their art for years. Shine bonds with his audiences through storytelling, revealing magic’s connection to history while making history of his own — he pioneered the “Heart & Soul of Magic” tour featuring the first ever collective of Black magicians. Andrews has been honing her craft since she saw a Siegfried and Roy special at age 4, but cares more about how science connects with magic than costumes and wands. She is in love with an audience traveling alongside her as she explores gravity, optics and other wonders of the everyday world.
“Magic is not exclusively 70-year-old white men,” Andrews said with a laugh. “Some of my best friends are 70-year-old white men who are magicians who are amazing, but that’s not only who we are. Not only is there not just one identity for magicians, but there are so many different styles.”
Andrews has received commissions for public art from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and delivered science lectures at universities. Shine has appeared on Penn & Teller’s TV show “Fool Us” and performed his one-man show in South Africa. Neither of them are David Copperfield, and that’s a wonderful thing.
“Magic is broader than a clown at a kids birthday party doing tricks,” Shine said. “The Conjurors’ Club is presenting this other world of magic, this world without the stereotypical top hat.”
Of course, the club will deliver the same kind of joy and astonishment a 6-year-old gets watching a clown turn a balloon into a kitty cat.
“I think magic can work even better online because I’m not even there in the room with you physically,” Andrews said. “You have complete control of the situation. But, well, I have a lot of surprises up my sleeve and I don’t want to give too much away.”
The Conjurors’ Club, Friday through April 4, tickets and details at americanrepertorytheater.org.
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