Magic continues to make the rounds in trendy, New York City-centric publications. The latest is an article in The Cut titled, “The Magic Touch: You can’t go out in New York right now without someone asking you to pick a card.” Indeed, magic appears to be everywhere in the Big Apple: The piece reports there was an illusionist at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s election night party, and one at a get-together for A24, the company behind films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Uncut Gems, and Marty Supreme.
The conceit of the article, however, is that it follows writer Aliza Abarbanel as she goes out one week in December and sees how many parties she goes to have a magician there performing. “More importantly,” she added, “would I see anything truly beyond explanation?”
I won’t go into the play-by-play of her week, though I will say that she saw Hebah Sahibzada, who she described as looking “Bushwick Matrix in a black suit vest, trench, and lip piercing,” as well as Rachel Wax.
Abarbanel’s eloquent description of a party held by Mad Realities, a “social-content studio,” sounds like a hot mess. Wax was scheduled to perform, but another magician showed up unbooked and started performing (badly, based on Abarbanel’s description), among other things. “At first, I was scared, but then I saw that she’s a white girl who looks good in a red lip and realized everything would be OK,” said one of Wax’s spectators. “It’s American Horror Story: Coven in here, and we love that season.”
Erik Blackwell was also at another party in an all-black, goth-themed townhouse. He’s described as wearing “leather pants, a Hellstar T-shirt, and gray socks—the party was shoes-off.” Nadav Roet and Jacob Greenwald also get mentions at other events.
And as to why magic is so hot right now? Abarbanel had a thesis: “In good times and especially bad, we love to be dazzled.”
Photos courtesy of Erik Blackwell