On the East Coast, all eyes are on Donald Trump and his criminal trial on charges of secret payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and others.
On the West Coast, another experiment is underway. However, it also includes a beautiful blonde woman and a charismatic showman with a penchant for fooling people’s eyes.
But this trial unfolds within the secluded walls of the Magic Castle – a legendary private club for magicians housed within a foreboding Victorian mansion, once a private residence, located atop a hill in Hollywood and established in 1963.
The defendant is Murray the Magician, also known as Murray Sawchuk, a veteran theater artist and comedian who resided for years at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. (The Tropicana closed on April 2 and is expected to be demolished later this year — but Murray will be touring the world with his work until he establishes himself in a new home on the Strip.)
Sawchuk, a 50-year-old with a platinum blond hairdo and a thick Canadian accent — hails from Burnaby, British Columbia — offers no outside evidence that he could ever be accused of being a dark arts criminal.
But Murray also has PT Barnum’s talent for propaganda.
He quickly noticed the power of reality television and found ways to harness it — first in an episode of the show Blind date Where he dazzled his date with tricks; Then as resident magic historian Pawn stars After that, it advances to the semi-finals America’s Got Talent In 2010.
He quickly adapted amid the rise of YouTube and social media, producing hundreds of sticky videos in which he tricked cops and security guards with magic, or gifted a homeless person a dollar that turned into $100.
“We’ve had billions of views on this topic,” says Sawchuk, who has amassed an audience of 1.8 million subscribers on the platform.
The troubles started in late January, when he and his showgirl wife, Dani, prepared a new video, inspired by Lucy and Desi Arnaz’s bickering, in which he performed a series of tricks on camera — most of them basic illusions one can buy off Amazon. She plays the unaffected wife and reveals how it’s done.
For example, a bouquet of flowers appears to have been sucked into the base of the trick table you are standing on. The act of swallowing a sword becomes less impressive when you flick the blade – it twists like a measuring tape. The whole thing took 10 minutes. Then they posted it on YouTube.
“About five hours later, my video producer called me and said, ‘We’ve hit 2 million views.’ He says, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ ‘We were shocked.’” The videos have 65 million views, and are their most popular videos. Which was posted on his channel at all.
The comments started piling in as well – 20,000 in total. Most of them were positive. But a minority of a faction of angry wizards from around the world, they certainly weren’t. They criticized Sawchuk for breaking the cardinal rule of magic: never reveal the secret of a trick.
Then on March 5, a letter came printed on Academy of Magical Arts stationery, as if it came from the office of the Dean of Admissions at Hogwart himself:
The letter read: “Dear Mr. Sawchuk.” “You have been suspended pending an investigation by the Member Conduct Committee in relation to complaints that our rules have been violated by exposing magic online.”
She informed him that a “meeting” would be held regarding the matter later. “Meanwhile,” he closed, “you are not allowed to enter the magic castle.”
Academy of Magical Arts Message
Courtesy of Murray Sawchuk
Court was held at 7:30 pm on Wednesday. It was held around a round table inside the castle’s Houdini Séance Room.
“Everything in there is Houdini artifacts,” Sawchuk explains. “His transformed torso. His handcuffs. His jacket. It’s a really cool room. You’ve had dinner and then someone comes in to do a seance. And as it happens, the walls move, the paintings change. Things appear, things disappear. It’s a very wonderful experience.”
But that night, nothing was moving except for the pens of six Magic Castle board members — five men and one woman — diligently taking notes as Sawchuk argued his case.
What was his defense? Sawchuk read from a document containing 11 points explaining why he did what he did. among them:
- “Revealing magic should not be ‘black and white’ as written in bylaws many years before the invention of the Internet. If revealing magic is intended to enhance the performance and make it more enjoyable and is not vindictive or directed as mean or personal, it should be considered acceptable as a performance piece.” .
- “If you know magic, you reveal magic.”
- “Now, more than ever, there is no secrecy to magic… It also forces magicians to be more entertaining and engaging. The day the Internet was given to us to use, we lost the ‘code of secrecy’. We lost a lot of things, not Only in magic but in life, brick and mortar buildings and middlemen in distribution all either gained or suffered from the Internet.
- “Penn & Teller revealed tricks and made a name in its first 20 years, and has now helped more magicians get on TV than anyone else has Fool us. Houdini wrote a book about him, Robert Houdini revealed, along with going to live masked shows and exposing mind readers and spiritual healers and was president of the Society of American Magicians from 1917 to 1926. The amazing Jonathan showcases the dark arts every night on his show. The four Magic Castle artists are being honored. Houdini also has his own Séance Room, which the Magic Castle makes a fortune booking every night for the experience.
The session lasted 90 minutes in total. Sawchuk left the panel with a copy of his notes and a thumb drive containing video of famous magicians revealing tricks — some of whose pictures adorn the walls of the magic castle, Penn & Teller among them.
He says he didn’t notice any dirty looks as he entered or left the magic castle.
But there was one notable interaction. He showed up an hour early and had a glass of wine at The Owl Bar, also known as the Dean Martin Bar, because he was part of the group at Dean Martin Show. “It was Milt Larsen’s favorite place to hang out,” he explains. “He was the one who created the magic castle with his brother Bill.”
While sipping his cabernet, a member since 1983 sat next to him.
“I said, ‘Hi, I’m Murray,’” Sawchuk recalls. “And he said, ‘I know who you are. I’ve got to be honest with you: I’ve seen your videos online. And I think they’re hilarious. They’re really fun. I know you’re feeling a little hot about it, but I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.’
“Well, that’s what it’s about,” I said. “It’s just fun,” Sawchuk says.
The Magic Castle board is currently considering Murray’s case but has not yet issued a decision.
