Reference Question of the Week – 7/15/07
July 21st, 2007 Brian Herzog
This question isn't all that unusual, but I thought the timing was kind of interesting:
A patron calls in and asks if there are any magic shows in the Boston area this weekend. I told her I didn't have a listing right in front of me, but that I'd look around and see what I could find and call her back.
The first thing I did was to go to the Boston Globe's online Events Calendar and searched for "magic" and "magician." This found a bunch of events, most of which were Harry Potter-related, in honor of the release today of the final book in the series. When I saw this, I thought the patron must be looking for somewhere to take her children to celebrate, so I noted a couple and called her back.
To my surprise, she said she was not looking for Harry Potter events. She wanted just to go see a normal magic show, as if one would go to a comedy club or movie. So, I said I'd keep looking, and this time she gave me her email address to just send her the links I found.
I went back to the Globe's calendar, and after sifting through the Potter pollution, found a listing for Franc Karpo, holding a magic show at a nearby arts center.
But, since that was the only event I found, I tried searching the internet in general for magic shows in Boston. I didn't find a central listing of shows, but I did find a listing of magicians in Boston. From that list, I linked to a few of the magicians' websites, and found their performance schedules.
I compiled these into an email and sent it, and got a nice thank-you message back.
One funny thing I did see on one of the websites was an online card trick I think I first saw around 1997. If you'd like to try it (and I highly suggest it), please do, and I'll help you figure it out if you're stumped. For more tricks, click on the rabbit above (or here).
