Felice Ling is an outstanding magician with a long list of accomplishments; she created and runs Boston Magic Lab, where both established magic stars and brilliant up-and-comers try out new, innovative magic in front of a live audience. She’s a magic scholar; her thesis at the University of Chicago was a study of street performers in the city.
She helped establish the Inclusivity and Diversity in Magic conference in 2021. And this year, she achieved the dream of nearly every magician: a one-person show that played to sold-out, enthusiastic crowds.
She’s been performing in the street and studying street performance for years, going back to her thesis. So when the International Federation of Magic Societies, or FISM, the international magic Olympics, announced that for the first time they would feature street magic as an exhibition category, Ling was ready. For all of those reasons, she joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath for The Joy Beat. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: “Just Felice Makes Friends” is pretty much Felice Ling’s own story. She’s really playing herself, a performer who’s a skilled magician on stage with props, but a bit socially awkward with people.
Felice Ling: What the show is about, partially, is kind of my own social awkwardness coming through in magical theatrical stage form. And a lot of that person, I think it is a persona, but it is a part of me. It’s like a part of me that was, that’s either exaggerated or a part of me, that maybe existed in middle or high school. I think, I hope I don’t sound as awkward as I do in this conversation than I do, did on stage, but it’s easy for me to access because it is a part of me.
Rath: It’s a unique and endearing approach, which pretty well describes Felice’s magic. After seeing lots of magicians with polish displaying superhuman skills, it’s nice to see one who is so human. But it’s almost an incredible contrast to the Felice Ling who performs street magic.
Ling: People who have seen me on stage and people who have seen me in the street, I’ve gotten very different reactions to. Like, some people are like, wow, these are two entirely different people. One person was like, no, they’re just different sides of the same person. But it’s just, I think, stark enough that people are surprised by that.
Rath: Felice has been performing and studying street magic for years. It was the subject of her thesis. So when FISM, the international magic Olympics, announced that for the first time they would feature street magic as an exhibition category, Felice was ready.
Ling: I don’t know why it took so long for street magic to get in there, but I’m really glad that it did.
Rath: Getting ready for her stage show involves a lot of rehearsal, practicing tricks. But Felice performs different magic in her street set, things she’s performed a million times that are, as magicians say, bulletproof.
Ling: This one, I didn’t rehearse, I just had to get myself calm because I have my show in my bones. And it’s just mentally, am I calm enough to be present? To be able to react to things? I wasn’t worried about the tricks at all.
Rath: As a street performer, Felice can’t afford to be shy or socially awkward. The street doesn’t grant you an audience. You have to build a crowd, sometimes literally pulling people off the street.
Ling: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s something that you have to do on the street as you learn to build your audiences around you. Part of that involves the psychology of making the show feel like a show, and so when it starts to feel more like a show, it’s more likely for people to stop.
Rath: This year’s FISM was held in Italy, adding a language barrier to the whole process. Felice was the very first performer in the very first round, meaning it was on her to build that crowd for everyone.
Ling: You want to get your audiences closer to you so that draws in other people and then when you get your audience closer to once they decide to step closer to you they’ll also make the decision to stay and watch as opposed to like if their feet are turned away and they’re still watching with their body with just what their heads turn towards you but their feet are like saying they want to leave if you can just get them turn your feet towards you then you’ve gotten them to commit to watching your show.
Rath: Not only did Felice get a crowd to commit, they stayed after she rapped, something the other magicians who followed her deeply appreciated. There’s a kind of fellowship among street magicians. Even at FISM, they were rooting for their competitors.
Ling: Yeah, so street magicians, we work together often. If we’re in a festival or in a street setting where there’s a lot of other performers, we often have to work together. And then in the festival setting, we often just sit in the back and watch the show right before us. And then we take turns, and then we also talk to each other and give each other tips or encouragement or, you know, just, we’re in it together.
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