Mystify Magic Festival
On March 10-12, I attended the inaugural 2025 Mystify Magic Festival at the Santa Fe Station Hotel and Casino out in Las Vegas. It was the first-ever magic conference “spotlighting women in magic,” and for an inaugural conference, it went very smoothly, and I think was a huge success for everyone involved. It was also my first-ever magic convention, and while I’m not a magician, as someone who has done show production since the 1980s, I’ve long been fascinated by the art and technique (and one of the things on my early-retirement to do list is to get involved with the development of magic tricks).
I had a bit of time on Monday before the conference started, so took a hike up in Red Rock Canyon (photos here), and then on Monday night was the opening show, featuring conference organizer Leah Orleans, Rachel Wax (who I have seen at my friend’s Speakeasy Magick here in NYC), Juliana Chen, Cate Great, and Joan DuKore. It was a great show, and while no pictures were allowed during the show I snapped one during the curtain call:
There were multiple tracks of the conference presentations, and I missed some panels I wanted to go to due to jet lag and burn out from a full week at the USITT conference in Ohio the week before. But on Tuesday I went to the Mysticism & Magic Panel with Krystyn Lambert, Rebecca Spectre and Chloe Olewitz, which was fascinating, and the discussion reminded me of the early days of the skeptics’ Amazing Meeting (and it’s hard to believe that I attended the first one of those way back in 2003).
Next up was a “Muse Group” meetup for backstage tech people, which was really fun.
After that I went to No Tricks, Just Truth: Tackling Racism and Cultural Harm Panel, which was very enlightening.
Next I went to Alexandra Duvivier’s Magic From the Heart lecture. This was my first-ever magic lecture, and the format of these is that the presenter does a routine and then explains it. I have a general awareness of magic methods, but seeing the details here gave me even more respect for magicians who effortlessly move through these complicated procedures so successfully, while simultaneously being entertaining.
Next up was Biohacking & My Dead Husband with Anastasia Synn. This was an incredibly moving and brave presentation, with Anastasia talking about how she has implanted all kinds of crazy devices (some of which enable pretty crazy tricks) in her body (hence the picture below), and also told some stories of taking care of her late husband, the great Amazing Johnathan, who I saw live in one of his final performances in 2017.
I registered too late to get a ticket for the close up magic shows featured in the convention for Tuesday night, so with some free time I took a run down to check up on Freemont Street, which one of my mentors George Kindler had helped design. That night was a 10pm “Something Different” variety show, which was great. For some reason these performers were not in the show program, but from my notes the performers were Benjamin and Tom, Tumbleweed, Stacy Stardust, Brie Crabtree, Anastasia Synn, Martika, and Felice.
Wednesday morning I had to catch up on some work and missed the morning presentations, but I saw Continuous Improvement of our Magic with Alyx Hilshey, which was not only informative but incredibly moving, with Alyx telling her personal story for the first ever time on stage.
Next was the Generational Panel Hosted by Connie Boyd, which was an inspiring and informative panel featuring Raven Luck, Gabriella Lester, Joan DuKore, and Rachel Wax, with the participants discussing the challenges of their careers.
After that was Creativity and Inventing Magic: How Not to be a Cover Band Magician with Abby Segal, which was a really fun presentation demonstrating a bunch of magic tricks hand crafted from everyday objects.
Wednesday night was the Academy of Magical Arts Closing Gala Showcase featuring Carisa Hendrix as Lucy Darling, Meadow Perry, Mistie and Kyele Knight, Nicole Cardoza, and Scarlett Business. This was a fantastic show, and the great Mac King even gave an award to Rachel Wax. Again no photos were allowed but (Broadway style) I snapped one of the curtain call.
For a first-ever conference, I thought the whole thing was very well run (although as an AV guy I of course always have notes). And in the end, it was a fun, inspiring and at times profound experience. And I’m saying that acknowledging my privilege as a cis white dude; I could tell that many around me were having really extraordinary experiences of connection in a very safe space, which was in such contrast to the outside world. I literally can’t imagine how amazing that must have been for so many.
Congratulations to Leah Orleans and the team for pulling this off; the festival is coming back in 2027, and if my schedule allows I’m planning to be there, and maybe even propose a technical production panel.