Chicago used to be a destination for magic.
“In the heyday of magic, this was the magic hub of the world,” said Joey Cranford, owner of the Chicago Magic Lounge in Andersonville. “We had more magic shops per capita. We had prop builders. We had close up bars. We were a magic hub. But all that went away. The magic kind of left Chicago.”
That was decades ago. Today? The magic is back, according to the magicians that spoke with Robert Loerzel, a freelance journalist who wrote about Chicago’s magic scene for WBEZ.
In this episode, Loerzel explained Chicago’s on-again-off-again relationship with magic – from Harry Houdini and the World’s Fair to today – and he told us where you should go to see a magic show right now, amidst Chicago’s magical renaissance.
