Poison Lecture
F.A.R. (Future Arts Research) @ ASU commissioned a new work by French artist Christine Rebet as part of the 2009 PHX: fringe festival, in support of the festival’s activities in downtown Phoenix.
French artist Christine Rebet, based in New York, will restage the first "lecture about magic," given by influential magician John Mulholland in 1927. The re-created text will carry hidden references to Mulholland's later career, teaching secrets of the trade to the CIA. The lecture will entwine the secretive worlds of magic and the CIA, with the lecture holding hidden, political meanings. A young magician "assistant" will perform and illustrate the lecture. A slippage occurs between text and trick, exposing the darker side of magic used during the Cold War.
John Mulholland (1898-1970), was one of the most noted magicians of the 20th century. He made his debut as a performer at age 15, in 1913. Over the years, Mulholland developed an enormous range of methods to talk about and perform magic. These included close-up magic, entertaining at society dinners and working the mammoth stage at Radio City Hall. With the first known lecture about magic that Mulholland delivered in Boston in 1927, he talked about magic from around the world, illustrated by tricks from each of the countries discussed. In 1953 Mulholland suspended the activities of the prestigious magic magazine The Sphinx, which he edited, produced and published, and began working for the CIA in counter-intelligence. He developed a manual with existing and new tricks to deliver pills, loose solids and liquids, by a man or a woman, alone or in pairs, using simple gestures and disguises. Mulholland helped crack codes, worked with inventors and investigated claims of telepathy and clairvoyance in support of American during the Cold War.
Artist: Christine Rebet
Script: based on writings of John Mulholland
Script consultant: Larin Sullivan
Lecturer: Zach Rockhill
Assistant Jonathan: Josh Rand