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She-zam! Women show why magic has been missing a trick
Kayla Drescher has long dealt with male magicians excluding her, assuming she is someone's girlfriend, or even one time requesting she "do magic by a poolside in a bikini" in Las Vegas.
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Magician Kayla Drescher performs at the Magic Castle, in Hollywood, California on October 13, 2021. (AFP/Valerie Macon)
S
itting behind a card table in the secretive Magic Castle, Kayla Drescher widens her eyes and nods exasperatedly when asked about being called a "female magician."
"Yes, I am very, very sick of being asked what it's like to be a woman in this industry," she says.
"'Female magician' feels like I'm being placed in a subcategory of magic... I'm being placed in a metaphorical box, not just an illusion."
But while the label is "exhausting" and "annoying" for Drescher, "we still have such a small percentage of women in this industry -- I think it does still need to be talked about."
The stereotype of a magician in a top hat sawing his glamorous, sequinned female assistant in half endures among the wider public, who can rarely name performers beyond Harry Houdini, David Copperfield and David Blaine.
While the outfits have changed, still just seven percent of magicians operating today are female -- roughly the same proportion as the membership of the elite "Academy of Magical Arts" that calls the Magic Castle home.
Drescher is one of two billed female headliners on the night of AFP's visit to the cavernous members-only institution on a hill above Hollywood which is devoted to the art of illusion.
