Today I took the day off from performing magic, to see an exhibit on it instead.

The Wellcome Collection has posters up all over town about this exhibit, The Psychology of Magic, and on Thursday evenings, that includes a live magic show, and it's all free. What a fabulous town, London. I really do like this place.

The exhibit was pretty cool, especially the section on Spiritualism, which had a lot of items of interest that I very much enjoyed being able to see, from a Victorian rapping hand trick to a Poltergeist Investigation Kit belonging to a member of the Psychical Society in the early 1900s. Super keen.

The magician was a lady card sharp, and she did a fine job. I was particularly impressed with the audience impact she got from making unnecessary mistakes to both communicate her humanity for more likeability, but to demonstrate that what she was doing was hard. Food for thought, there. Maybe I am being too competent in my mind reading act. Perhaps a few errors would make me seem more real.

This exhibit is up through Sept 15th, and if you're visiting London, I highly recommend it.