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For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Box of Tricks: A Critical Analysis of Twenty- First Century Televised Performance Magic by Elizabeth Clair Turner A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre and Performance Studies University of Warwick, School of Theatre & Performance Studies and Cultural & Media Policy Studies March 2018 Contents List of illustrations ........................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 5 Declaration ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction: performance magic on television ........................................................................ 8 1.1 Some considerations on researching performance magic: literature and methodology ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Assumptions about mediation in magic .................................................................................. 20 1.3 Magic as technologically mediated .......................................................................................... 24 1.4 Structure of thesis .................................................................................................................... 34 2. Now you see it, now you don’t: magic and media culture ...................................................... 43 2.1 Televised magic as a remediated practice ............................................................................... 44 2.2 Fictions of the real and true ..................................................................................................... 55 2.3 Everyday enchantments, the enchanted everyday ................................................................. 61 3. ‘Real or magic?’: entertainment, enchantment, and the everyday in the works of David Blaine ................................................................................................................................... 74 3.1 Real people as media content.................................................................................................. 77 3.2 Real places: ‘everyday’ and ‘elsewhere’ .................................................................................. 82 3.3 Reality and fiction in Above the Below .................................................................................... 88 3.4 Dive of Death and the recuperation of Blaine’s body .............................................................. 97 4. ‘Right now, I’m going to take you on a journey into my world’: crisis, authenticity, and transformation in Magician Impossible ..................................................................................... 106 4.1 ‘With great power comes great responsibility’: a narrative of crisis ..................................... 109 4.2 ‘Reality is what you make it’: anticipating savvy critiques .................................................... 116 4.3 ‘Keeping it real’: Dynamo’s performance of authenticity ...................................................... 124 2 4.4 Imagining ‘home’ and ‘abroad’: transformed places ............................................................. 130 5. Beyond magic?: knowledge, intertextuality, and participation in the work of Derren Brown .......................................................................................................................................... 140 5.1 Reenactment in The Heist ...................................................................................................... 143 5.2 Debunking performances in Séance ...................................................................................... 152 5.3 Remediation and intertextuality: stories from the Apocalypse ............................................. 158 5.4 Participation and productivity in Pushed to the Edge............................................................ 165 6. Conclusion: seeing and believing ............................................................................................ 175 Works cited .................................................................................................................................. 187 Appendix. The Luke Jermay Lecture. .......................................................................................... 205 3 List of illustrations Figure 1. Lithograph depicting the workings of Pepper’s Ghost. From the Richard Balzer collection, with permission. ........................................................................................................... 25 Figure 2. David Blaine suspended above London, in front of City Hall. Taken by Mark Morton. .......................................................................................................................................... 90 Figure 3. Donald Trump at a press conference with David Blaine announcing Blaine's latest feat. Taken by David Shankbone.................................................................................................... 98 Figure 4. Screenshot of Dynamo as he begins to walk on water. From the perspective of Westminster Bridge, with spectators on the south bank visible. All screenshots in this chapter shared with the permission of Phil McIntyre Entertainments . ..................................... 119 Figure 5. Close-up of Dynamo walking on the Thames from the perspective of the south bank. ............................................................................................................................................ 119 Figure 6. Screenshot of Dynamo rising above the Shard building. .............................................. 122 Figure 7. Screenshot of Danny as he considers whether to continue with the ‘experiment’. All screenshots in this chapter shared with the permission of Objective Media Group. ............ 144 Figure 8. Screenshot of an extreme close-up of Danny wincing at the learner’s screams.......... 144 Figure 9. Screenshot from Part One of Apocalypse. Steven as he awakes in in a medical facility, wearing hospital pyjamas. ............................................................................................... 161 Figure 10. Screenshot from Part One of Apocalypse. Steven at the military base with other ‘survivors’, wearing camouflage. ................................................................................................. 161 Figure 11. The Victoria Square audience waiting for selfies with Dynamo. Taken by the author. ......................................................................................................................................... 176 4 Acknowledgements My first thanks go to my supervisor, Dr Tim White. Tim’s unfailingly generous and astute support, direction, and critique kept this work on track and made it immeasurably better. The Arts and Humanities Research Council and University of Warwick supported this project by providing full funding for 3.5 years of doctoral study, for which I am very thankful. I am grateful to Professor Jeremy Ahearne, Professor Jim Davis, Dr Susan Haedicke, and Dr Yvette Hutchison for their thoughtful feedback on chapters during upgrade panels and Graduate Progress Committees. In her role as Director of Graduate Studies, Dr Hutchison also tirelessly advocated for me and my peers, making our time at Warwick more rewarding. Kate Brennan and Sarah Shute provided much-appreciated administrative support throughout my enrolment at Warwick. Thanks also to the Popular Entertainment and Popular Performance working groups of the International Federation for Theatre Research and the Theatre and Performance Research Association respectively, and to all who participated in the annual postgraduate symposia of the School of Theatre and Performance at Warwick. I presented ideas from this thesis at the meetings of these groups several times and received helpful suggestions on all occasions. The practitioners whom I met during my studies helped me situate and understand my work, as well as providing clarifications and offering their thoughts. Thanks in particular to Dr Will Houstoun, Myles and Linda Pollock, Mariano Tomatis, and all at the Leamington and Warwick Magic Society for welcoming me to your annual gala in 2014. My personal thanks go to the postgraduate community at Warwick, who have been valuable interlocutors, supportive colleagues, and dearly cherished friends. Outside the academy, I have drawn deeply on the love of many family members and friends who held space for me to complete this thesis. In particular,