Lisa Menna

Last updated

Lisa Menna (born July 23, 1964) is a magician and activist. [1] [2] [3] Called the most influential female magician of the 20th century by BBC World Service, [4] she was a pioneer in a male-dominated profession. [5]

Menna gave a briefing for the High Commission of Human Rights at the United Nations focused on her work with Cause To Wonder and the use of curiosity to introduce ideas of human rights for women.

In 2019, Lisa Menna performed for the 100th anniversary of the International Labour Organization in Geneva on international women's day. [6] [3]

Career

She was banned from learning magic at the Magic Circle Fakir Circles and Tannen's magic classes because she was female. . (Tannens). [4]

Menna was the first woman to lecture and perform at FISM. She is only woman to have been invited to perform in every theater of the Magic Castle in Hollywood. [7]

In 2001, she achieved notability and worldwide success performing as a trade show magician, When the Wall Street Journal reported that she brought in ten time more leads than the average trade show display, she became known as "the Darling of Dot Com". [8]

In 2011, Menna founded Cause to Wonder, a non-profit theater organization that coordinates curiosity-based events around the world. [9] an organization which uses performance art and education to promote human rights. The most notable programs took place in Mozambique, Antigua, Sicily, Ethiopia, Tortola, the US Virgin Islands and India. Eighteen months after regional performances that included a magic show with conservation information, a measures and impact study found 104% retention of the phrase, "A clean lake is a happy life".[ citation needed ] Evidence that the method was successful was shown in that social change ideas spread beyond the initial audience.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Kellar</span> American stage magician

Harry Kellar was an American magician who presented large stage shows during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. T. Selbit</span> English magician, inventor and writer (1881–1938)

P. T. Selbit (1881–1938) was an English magician, inventor and writer who is credited with being the first person to perform the illusion of sawing a woman in half. Among magicians he was known for his inventiveness and entrepreneurial instinct and he is credited with creating a long list of successful stage illusions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debbie McGee</span> English radio and TV celebrity

Debra Ann McGee is an English television, radio and stage performer who is best known as the assistant and widow of magician Paul Daniels. McGee is a former ballet dancer and for three years was artistic director of her own ballet company. She presents a Sunday morning show for BBC Radio Berkshire. McGee was a finalist in BBC's 2017 Strictly Come Dancing and a winner of the 2019 Christmas Special, and as of January 2018 is a recurring member of the Loose Women panel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. C. Sorcar</span> Indian magician (1913–1971)

Protul Chandra Sorcar was an Indian magician. He was an internationally active magician throughout the 1950s and 1960s, performing his Indrajal show before live audiences and on television. Sorcar died of a heart attack at the age of 57 in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, Japan, on 6 January 1971, where he was performing. P.C. Sorcar is known also as P.C. Sorcar Senior, is renowned as "Father of Modern Indian Magic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sawing a woman in half</span> Stage magic trick

Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of stage magic tricks in which a person is apparently cut or divided into two or more pieces.

Fay Presto is the stage name of Letitia Winter, a British magician and member of The Inner Magic Circle known for her close-up magic.

Intellectual rights to magic methods refers to the legal and ethical debate about the extent to which proprietary or exclusive rights may subsist in the methods or processes by which magic tricks or illusions are performed. It is a subject of some controversy.

This timeline of magic is a history of the performing art of illusion from B.C. to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul W. Draper</span> American book editor, stage magician, author

Paul Draper is an anthropologist, academic, and an award-winning mentalist, magician, and film maker. As an anthropologist and communications expert specializing in the cognitive science of religious beliefs, he has lectured at Fortune 500 companies and universities. As the creator of the show Mental Mysteries, Draper blends his academic background as an anthropologist and communications expert with the arts of mentalism and magic. Draper performed live streaming shows during the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Dietrich</span> American stage magician and escapologist

Dorothy Dietrich is an American stage magician and escapologist, best known for performing the bullet catch in her mouth and the first woman to perform a straitjacket escape while suspended hundreds of feet in the air from a burning rope. She was the first woman to gain prominence as an escape artist since the days of Houdini, breaking the glass ceiling for women in the field of escapes and magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese Water Torture Cell</span> Predicament escape

The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini. The illusion consists of three parts: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks; next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace; finally, he is lowered into a glass tank overflowing with water and the restraint is locked to the top of the cell.

Debbie Leifer was named 2006 Greater Atlanta Magician Of The Year by the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society Of American Magicians Atlanta chapters. Debbie is the first female corporate magician to receive that honor in the 35-year history of the prestigious award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magician's assistant</span> Performer in a magic act who is not billed as the magician

A magician's assistant is a performer in a magic act who is not billed as the magician or principal name in the act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic (illusion)</span> Performing art involving the use of illusion

Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.

The Mercury Wonder Show for Service Men was a 1943 magic-and-variety stage show by the Mercury Theatre, produced by Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten as a morale-boosting entertainment for US soldiers in World War II. Directed by Welles, the show starred Welles, Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and Rita Hayworth, whose part was later filled by Marlene Dietrich. Jean Gabin also worked on the show backstage, as a propman. The show ran to 150 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Bavli</span> Israeli mentalist and illusionist (1971–)

Guy Bavli is an Israeli mentalist, illusionist, actor and lecturer. He is known for being the first Israeli citizen to win an international magic competition in the United States. He owns the entertainment company "Master of the Mind", based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Jason Latimer American magician

Jason Latimer, known by the stage name LATIMER, is an American illusionist. In 2003, he became one of four Americans ever to win the title Grand Prix "Best Overall" at the World Championships of Magic. In 2012, Latimer starred in the six live British television specials on the BBC One's "The Magicians," and won UK competition overall. In 2014, Latimer joined Penn & Teller and Christen Gerhart as a judge on the American magic competition television series Wizard Wars on the Syfy channel. In 2015, Latimer launched the Impossible Science program in San Diego, CA. Currently, Latimer is the curator of Impossible Science for the Fleet Science Center and oversees the Impossible Science Initiative in science centers throughout Southern California. Jason co-hosts Science Channel's series SciJinks with The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki and Mythbusters: The Search's Tamara Robertson. In 2018, Jason joined the likes David Copperfield and David Blaine as one of the few recipients of the prestigious Golden Grolla Award from the Masters of Magic in Saint-Vincent, Italy. In 2018, Jason was the closing speaker of the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., for recognition of Impossible Science and changing education with wonder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carisa Hendrix</span> Canadian magician and stunt performer

Carisa Hendrix is a Canada-based magician and fire eater who often performs in the persona of Lucy Darling.

Benjamin Hart is an English magician. In 2007, he was awarded the "Young Magician of the Year" award by The Magic Circle. Hart has worked on British television and is an inventor and designer of magic tricks and stage illusions. In 2014, he starred in Killer Magic on BBC Three. Hart was a finalist on Britain's Got Talent in 2019.

Megan Knowles-Bacon, known by her stage name Megan Swann, is a British magician who served as president of the Magic Circle from 2021 to 2023. She was the first female president of an organisation that had not admitted women at all until 1991.

References

  1. "Lisa Menna: Magician and Free Spirit". Genii . William W. Larsen Association. 60 (3): 28–35. January 1997.
  2. "Lisa Menna, Female Magician Extraordinaire". CNN headline news . Spring 1986.
  3. 1 2 Schick, Dennis (February 2014). "Cause to Wonder. The Lisa Menna Story". The Linking Ring . 94: 18–25.
  4. 1 2 "Lisa Menna: Magician". BBC World Service Outlook. BBC. December 25, 2018. pp. 2nd story.
  5. 8 Famous Female Magicians Breaking The Glass Ceiling Are You Fashion December 14, 2020
  6. "Helping Women Brings Good Things". Cause to Wonder. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  7. "Lisa Menna: Corporate Magician". M-U-M . Society of American Magicians. 88 (8): 26–41. January 1999.
  8. "Lisa Menna: The Darling of the Dot Com". Wall Street Journal . September 11, 2001.
  9. Cause to Wonder