The premise of Tom Cassani’s Iterations is hinted at in the show’s title. In it, Cassani performs the same coin trick over and over but under different conditions and circumstances. As a review in The Guardian frames it, “Who hasn’t, after watching such a trick, been convinced they could catch out the magician if they could just watch again? No dice. Cassani toys with us, replaying his mystifying act with variations, even standing right among the audience.”
Every time, however, he continues to fool those watching while inviting them to ponder, as The Guardian describes it, “What makes the routine different when he does it with flashy music and a grandiose air, or if he were to perform it on the street instead of a stage, or in the manner of a contemporary dancer…?”
Iterations, which Cassani toured across Europe this spring, also emphasizes how much hard work it takes to make something impossible appear so effortless. The show is just one of his many performances; others include A Show of Hands, which he developed while obtaining his Masters by Research with a focus on Examining Body-Based Performance Magic as a Live Art Practice, and The Perpetuation Series, which—along with Iterations—he developed through his Expanded Magic research project at the Berlin-based platform, Forecast. He is currently a PhD student, with a scholarship for practice-based research in performance magic. Given his focus, it’s likely that we might see more shows from him in the future that support his academic aims.
Photos courtesy of Pavlos Vrionides
