Ferdinando Buscema

Conjuring, illusionism, prestidigitation, secular stage magic, sleight-of-hand artistry—these are different names for the mind-blowing performing art form par excellence.

Having our senses duped and our model of reality warped can bring us to a place where our rational mind and our feelings short-circuit: to experience something we know it’s impossible, yet we see it happening. Potential outcomes of this situation can be astonishment, mystery, a non-threatening sense of uncertainty and not-knowing. This special kind of thrill partly calls to our primal childlike sense of wonder, but often requires the intellectual maturity of an adult to effect us most powerfully.

To successfully transport an audience, the magician unabashedly deploys trickery, deception, ruses, subterfuges—a weird set of tools-of-the-trade that must remain hidden and secret, otherwise there’ll be no magic.

Breaking the most basic of the magicians’ rules, during a fast-paced and interactive lecture/show Ferdinando will share some of his secrets—secrets that are hidden in plain sight: through sleight-of-hand and sleight-of-mouth, flirting with revealing and concealing, he’ll invite the participants to play with their perceptions and their notion of what is possible.

Although some secrets can be revealed, in the realm of magic is “secrets all the way down”; to paraphrase poet W.B. Yeats: The world is full of secrets, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

All in all, this lecture/show is designed to evoke the mysterious dimension that lies behind and beyond all experience.

Ferdinando is a Magic Experience Designer — a professional trickster and an international specialist who designs “magical experiences”.

With a background in mechanical engineering, humanistic psychology and hermetic traditions, Ferdinando has been chosen as a partner by major corporations, leading universities, and high-end clients to create unique events, learning experiences and edutainment-based trainings.

An award-winning conjuror and sleigh-of-hand artist, Ferdinando is a credited performer at the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, the most exclusive stage for magical entertainment.

He is the Magician-in-Residence at the Palo Alto-based think-tank Institute For The Future, is a teacher at the Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas, and writes for the techno-cultural blog Boing Boing.

Ferdinando is the co-author of the book Amaze, the Art of Creating Magical Experiences, the manifesto mapping the discipline of Magic Experience Design.

Website: www.ferdinando.biz | Twitter: @ferdinando_MED