How Magic Clubs Can Evolve

By Andi Gladwin - 04-Oct-2020

If there's one thing I've missed more than anything in 2020, it's lecturing for magicians. I had the busiest year of my career booked with lectures in close to a dozen countries, with requests to focus on various different topics and deep-dives. The primary reason I love to lecture is that it gives me the opportunity to meet and interact with magicians from all over the world, hear their viewpoints, and see their magic.

Andi lecturing

I'm one of those frustratingly positive people who believe that the world will mostly return to normal after the pandemic. But I also have to ask myself, how will things change for magic clubs around the world? Here are some thoughts:

More focus on communication between club nights
This year, I have received regular requests to lecture online, share short videos with groups, and interact with magicians in new ways (such as on Facebook groups, Zoom hangouts, and so on). And while I don't think those will be the primary ways magic clubs will meet ongoing, I do think we'll see more magic clubs have more regular hangouts and interactions between club nights. This way, magic clubs become more than a monthly outing, but instead a group of people all wanting to share and improve their magic.

Beginners outreach and support
I have noticed more people than ever before starting up magic. Local magic clubs can become the go-to place to help these new people progress and improve their skills. It's a win/win as clubs will grow, and magic will get better.

Less visiting lecturers
At least initially, I sense that we'll see less lectures passing through magic club's each month. But perhaps that's OK for a while, because when your club has a visiting lecture, it will be a much more special experience.

More agility
I am often surprised at how far in advance magic clubs (especially British magic clubs) arrange their club nights. Even before the pandemic, I was receiving requests to lecture two years in the future. But we've now seen that the world can change in a heartbeat and so I hope that magic clubs start planning just a few months ahead so that they can respond to things that happen around them.

Better support for local events
The world needs entertainment more than ever before. Magic clubs could easily become a source of that entertainment with local performances and shows.

Whatever happens, I'm excited to get back to touring and visiting magic clubs!

Reader comments

Matthew Swanson

06-Oct-2020

I almost feel like The Arts as a whole really need a complete overhaul post-Covid. Professional and Community Theatre Comedy Clubs General Music Venues both Large and Small Magic Clubs Gaming Centers/Shops Restaurants, even... the list goes on.... From my personal experience in these general communities, there's often a separation that I am not sure really has to exist -- ARTISTS by-and-large have similar thought processes and similar ways of seeing things differently from everyday laymen, just completely different ways of expressing themselves. You get all these different artists -- Musicians, Comedians, Painters, Magicians, etc, who all say they can only be friends with other people who do their craft cause "Regular" people are boring (I fully agree with that btw) But it's not too often you find groups of people where every couple of people in the group have a different craft -- I see this only at one particular bar in Trenton, New Jersey. It's a bar that dedicates itself to every type of Creative in/around the city while also actively bringing in anyone with any sort of strange or unique passion. This is a bar that houses actors, musicians (of many unique instruments and vocal types), comedians and painters. I think for the sake of Magic and all things Art, it's time to start recognizing other art forms and get out of our comfort zones. Everyone. Artists get clingy and cliquey once they finally find somewhere they fit -- Rightfully so! I just think for the best of the performance, visual and written arts, (Magic, being pretty high in all 3 categories) the best thing we can do is find each other and know that our typical theatres, bars, venues and overall hangouts are going to have to change and take the form of something else, or open up to other artistic communities for survival. My Artistic Utopia would be a Universal Artistic Center (akin to the religious ideology of Unitarian Universalism -- a meeting place for all religions) with a restaurant and bar -- take all the dying movie theatres post-Covid and make communal arts centers/theatre spaces with Black Boxes, Prosceniums, Rounds, Thrusts, Parlors, Dance Floors, Galleries, etc. I'm just writing fantasy at this point, but y'all catch m' drift.

10-Oct-2020

You are touching on something I have been working on with an artist friend of mine, in Myrtle beach. He is opening a art gallery. It will have a small Theatre/cafe for screening independent films as well as a stage for performance arts. Trying to make a space to display multiple art forms and bring creative minds together

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