Turning Tricks: Harvard's Magic Society

Try talking over the sound of 10 stacks of cards being expertly shuffled around a cozy Sever conference room: This is the frequent struggle of the Harvard Magic Society during their weekly meetings. The small club is composed of about 10 members who fit comfortably at a round table, where they discuss, learn, and perform the ancient art of magic.

Assuming the role of what former president Yi-Jun Tan ’13 would call “a layperson,” I attend one of these meetings to learn more about the club and its members. Although he graduated in 2013, Tan appears at every gathering; sitting to my left, he shows off his dexterity by cutting a deck once, twice, and a third time with one hand.

Other members who still attend the college spend a considerable amount of time in society meetings and on their own to perfect their art, especially the art of card tricks. Harry T. Newman-Plotnick ’18 and Larson C. Ishii ’15, both in their first year with the society, like to make sure that magic is a part of their life on a regular basis. Ishii contemplated declaring a special concentration in magic, combining VES and Mind, Brain, and Behavior to look at the nature of illusions.

Unsurprisingly, the group’s meeting location and pathway to membership are just as elusive as the magic that they perform. Many Harvard students are unaware the club exists, let alone where to find it or what the magicians do. “The comp for the society is finding the club first,” Ishii jokes. “I’ve been looking for the Magic Society for two years and could only join now. They did a very bad job of publicizing themselves for a very long time.”

In the past previous presidents believed in the benefit of remaining intimate and compact. “For a while the old president wanted to keep it very exclusive,” Newman-Plotnick states, as he wanted people who appreciated the art at the base of magic, “not those who were simply interested in figuring out the secret behind the trick.”

But recent leadership has expressed an interest in reforming this exclusivity and expanding their size. Members intend to focus more on publicizing the group and organizing more demonstrations, with the goal of facilitating a general curiosity in the performance of magic on campus.

While multiple members seem to be well versed in the language of magic, the club includes participants of all levels. Coinciding with a new attention to advertising, the current president is also open to more novice magicians and spends many of the meetings teaching the basics to the neophytes. “It’s a very big commitment to try and teach someone magic,” Newman-Plotnick explains, but the new leadership is very accommodating.

This gap in skill level does make cohesiveness in the club very difficult because novel magicians require a good deal of attention. The weekly meetings are often divided between newcomers learning basic proficiencies and advanced illusionists sharpening their intricate tricks. “The first meeting was literally just learning how to shuffle cards and the correct way to hold a deck,” Ishii explains. “These things seem very basic, but if you’re not an active card player you wouldn’t know the correct way.”

While some would expect the Magic Society to organize shows and spectacles featuring illusions worthy of David Copperfield, the shortage of advanced participating magicians and the disparity in skill level in the group makes shows very difficult. “It takes a while to become performance ready,” Ishii states. “Half of our club probably couldn’t perform right now.” The current members hope to find a way to perform in coming years, and plan to publicize this future demonstration it in a big way.

Everyone joins the society for a different reason. “It makes really smart obnoxious people feel stupid,” Newman-Plotnick says to justify his interest in magic. No matter what individual reason for interest in magic and despite slight difficulties that accompany a diverse skill level, the Magic Society encourages anyone attracted to learning the art to join. These magicians are happy to reveal their tricks, if you can find them.