Explore everyday life through magic at unique Exeter event

Magic fans can help a University of Exeter expert with his ongoing research into social behaviour during a unique city event.

Professor Brian Rappert, a criminologist, took up entertainment magic five years ago and is now a member of the Magic Circle.

During shows this winter at the Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre Professor Rappert will offer displays of magic as a way to get audiences to consider the place of deception and secrecy in everyday life. Attendees will be able to try out some magic for themselves.

Professor Rappert said: “We can use magic to understand ourselves and other people. It can help us learn about how we get along with each other. When people watch a magic performance for entertainment they take part in mutually recognised deception. I think this can tell us something about the other parts of our lives – we enjoy being deceived, sometimes!

“To learn magic involves honing our perceptions about reasoning and memory. But it also gives us a better appreciation of the fallibility of our senses – we don’t experience the world we think we experience it.”

Professor Rappert is working with psychologists on how magic can enhance education and communication. His recent book examines how magicians talk about their work and how someone goes from experience of knowing no magic to performing.

The events, for all ages from older teenagers onwards, will feature discussion and magic. They will take place on Sunday 5th February, Sunday 5th March and Sunday 2nd April, all at 6pm.

Professor Rappert said: “The shows will encourage people to think about how we live together – the role of trust and fictions in our relations, the unity of dualities like order and chaos, and the vexed status of our abiding notions of what’s really real.”

All profit from ticket sales for these events will be split between Refugee Support Devon & Exeter Foodbank.

For tickets go to https://exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/the-magic-of-this-and-that/