How Magicians Think

The final episode of this podcast is filled with special guests and plot twists, all in the service of answering this simple question: how do magicians create their illusions? And beyond this question, another arises: are there tips and tricks magicians can share with us to help us in our own creative pursuits. Jay speaks with Freakanomics co-founder Steven Levitt who shares how magic expands the mind to enhance your work. Andy J. Pizza, artist, illustrator and podcast host, talks magic and editing as part of the creative process.

Staged suicides. Beheadings. Shootings. This episode is all about magic that goes wrong. You’ll learn about a magician who was burned alive, another who was shot onstage, and still another who was blown to bits. And as Joshua recounts these strange tales from magic’s history, we approach a deeper philosophical question: why do we as audience members like to watch people risk their lives for us?

Magic historians have consistently overlooked the significant contributions Black magicians have made to the craft. Perhaps no magician in history has a more fascinating backstory than Henry “Box” Brown. Born into slavery, Brown mailed himself to freedom in a box, and then became an accomplished touring magician. To help us recount Brown’s fascinating life, Jay enlists Henry’s biographer, Rory Rennick.

There have been many movies made about magic--The Prestige, The Illusionist, Hugo, Now You See Me, Scoop--and in this episode Joshua makes a compelling argument for the very best one. Magic scholar Jamy Ian Swiss disagrees, and makes a different case. Cinematographer Larry Fong (Lost, 300, Watchmen, Kong: Skull Island) takes us behind the curtain and shares the parallels between magic and filmmaking. Then Mike Elizalde, Hollywood’s preeminent special-effects designer, shares how being an amateur magician has helped him create some of cinema’s scariest monsters.

Houdini was a marketing genius, but how great a magician he was is a source of contention among magic’s greatest scholars. Joshua creates a grudge match between Houdini’s most fervent supporters and detractors. We’ll hear from illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer, Houdini biographer Joe Posnanski, and magic historians Jamy Ian Swiss and Mike Caveney, as they give their take on the enigmatic Houdini.