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How's Tricks? Magic in the Golden Age

How's Tricks? Magic in the Golden Age

Stage magicians have baffled and amazed people for millennia, creating tricks and illusions which continue to confound onlookers today. During Magic’s Golden Age, from 1880 to 1920, many of the world’s greatest conjurers and illusionists made their way to Australia.

PAST EXHIBITIONExhibition
Saturday 26 June 2021 to Sunday 27 March 2022
Admission: Free

Location

How's Tricks? Magic in the Golden Age

Stage magicians have baffled and amazed people for millennia, creating tricks and illusions which continue to confound onlookers today. During Magic’s Golden Age, from 1880 to 1920, many of the world’s greatest conjurers and illusionists made their way to Australia. Soon, Sydney was producing its own magical celebrities, several of whom would achieve great fame and stellar international careers. 

Spectacular illusions, bamboozling tricks, and death-defying escapes — step behind the velvet curtain and be amazed as Australia’s stage magic history is revealed.

 

Meet the Curator

Margot Riley

Margot has curated numerous exhibitions and displays for the Library and contributes expertise across a variety of collection functions including research, acquisition and interpretation. She is a cultural historian with a special interest in popular culture, photography and dress and has written and lectured extensively about the Library's collections.

Tricks in the mirror

Generations of magicians visited Australia or began their careers here at a time when ‘wonder workers’ were a dominant force in the entertainment industry.

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