Women?

Jun 18, 2019
540
293
20
West Bengal, India
*Raises a hand*

Inspirations from the magic community:- Harry Houdini, Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Eugene Burger, Garrett Thomas, Paul Daniels, Dynamo, Penn and Teller, Marcus Eddie, Asi Wind, DMC, Blake Vogt, Richard Turner, Derren Brown, David Roth, Juan Tamariz and I could go on and on forever. :)
 
Sep 18, 2020
29
2
Thanks for your reply Mohana,

It is cool to see women in magic, I only wish there were more.

From your inspirations it becomes clear that there are very few influential women in this art form... therefore I thought it would be interesting to know if you approach the art and craft of magic like the men who inspire you, or do you add your own unique feminine perspective to magic?
 
Jun 18, 2019
540
293
20
West Bengal, India
It is cool to see women in magic, I only wish there were more.
There are actually several of them.


From your inspirations it becomes clear that there are very few influential women in this art form..
Not really. You'll see that though David Blaine and David Copperfield are two of the most influential magicians in modern magic, I haven't listed them.

My list of inspirations are just a result of who I saw first and who changed my perspective on magic completely. David Blaine came before Dynamo and revolutionised close up magic (in fact, Dynamo calls David Blaine his inspiration!) and how it was shown on television. But I saw Dynamo first. Garrett Thomas was the first magician I saw bring in true emotion to a magic effect. I had seen plenty of magicians (who were often inspired by David Copperfield) do magic with sugary sweet love-related themes, so by the time I saw a David Copperfield performance, I wasn't as inspired as others, because I personally wasn't seeing it being done the first time. The surprise factor was just not there, not because Copperfield isn't great, but because I had seen enough knock-off's by then. Harry Houdini and Dai Vernon became inspirations as soon as I heard of them because really, I still don't see a magician who took the entire world by storm like Houdini or dedicated his entire life tirelessly (to the point of sacrificing his other personal responsibilities!) to magic as Vernon.

Meanwhile some female magicians who I not only find brilliant but also recommend watching are Kayla Drescher, Katherine Mills, Angela Funovits, Babe Ning, Adelaide Hermann, Luna Shimada, Gay Blackstone and so on and so forth (again, no specific order). I didn't list them in my list of inspirations because of the same reason I didn't list David Blaine or David Copperfield as inspirations.


The demographics of the magic community has definitely changed a lot in the last decade alone (look up some 'women in magic' threads on Magic Cafe if you want to find out how exactly society has changed). It will keep changing for the better and that's excellent. Kudos to the entire magic community for that!

What I wish to clarify is that whether I am listing them as my inspiration or not doesn't make it "clear that there are very few influential women in this art form", because my inspirations have nothing to do with the fact that they happen to be all males, primarily based in North America. Just like it doesn't matter if any other magician has female or male magicians as inspirations.

:)

therefore I thought it would be interesting to know if you approach the art and craft of magic like the men who inspire you, or do you add your own unique feminine perspective to magic?

Yes and no. I do know that I (consciously) add my own unique 'human' perspective to magic. What I'm indicating is that my perspective to magic differs because I'm a unique human being (like all of us), not because I'm a female. Also, different magicians (male or female) approach magic differently. The feminine perspective/approach by itself, might just be a myth.

For the record meanwhile, I do not find this thread (or your previous one titled 'Women are Magic') offensive in the slightest. I just find them a bit icky. It's a bit like finding magicians discuss about "What's the Black perspective on magic?". While it's interesting, as you correctly put it, I also have my fingers and toes secretly crossed, because I wish discussions like these to become obsolete. As they kind of have, to be honest.

:)
 
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Sep 18, 2020
29
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A wonderful response, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Discussing different perspectives on magic is perfectly valid and I am learning a great deal by investigating the feminine aspects of life. As a result I was curious to know if there are any female magicians here on the forum who had taken a different approach to their magic. We are indeed all unique as you rightly pointed out, and it is this point which intrigues me the most. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I will be sure to peruse the Magic Cafe in order to learn more about the influential women of magic.
 

KathyK1

Elite Member
Jul 4, 2015
5
6
Cordova, TN
My name is Kathy. I perform magic with Jeffrey Day. He introduced me to magic when we first started dating. He is one of my biggest inspirations because I see all the hard work he puts into his magic on a daily basis.

I always enjoy watching and following other female magicians because they are all very inspirational to me. Adelaide Hermann, Dell O'Dell, Celeste Evans, Luna Shimada, Gay Blackstone, Agnes Zancig, Bess Houdini...just to name a few.

Eugene Burger was a very inspirational teacher. I was lucky enough to get to spend time with him when he was in town for the weekend to do a lecture and seminar. This was before I did my initiation routine to get into my local magic club, so it was such an honor to be able to talk to him about magic during my lunch with him before I took him to the airport. Teller is one of my favorite magicians. I think in addition to his wonderful personality, his love and knowledge of magic has put him at the top of my list. I also highly respect Lawrence Hass and Ben Blau.
 
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