Anne is not the only woman on staff, and that’s not counting the illustrator. There’s another woman with a man’s pen name. Am I going to tell you who? Well, no. You’re welcome to guess, but no guesses will be confirmed nor denied. With that being said…
I’m very proud to announce that The Magic Oval will be sponsoring Mystify Magic Festival!
You may have some questions.
Why on earth would a tiny blog be sponsoring a festival? Surely we must have paid out the ass for it? Well, yes. But we’re also attending Mystify and want to see it continue into 2026 and 2027 and so on.
Needless to say, we’re extremely excited!!!
We have some very special stuff planned for Mystify attendees, so pay attention to our ads in the program if you’re going.
Why Mystify in particular?
Quite simply, even though we’ve never publicized it before, we’re extremely proud of the fact that we have more women on staff than many magicians even have as friends. (No offense, PigCake, but you know it’s true. 😏) Women in magic are something that, behind the scenes, we’re very passionate about supporting. Plus, Leah Orleans had the best show at Magifest.
So, what do we plan to say about Mystify from here on out?
A lot! After the convention the people attending will share a retrospective, and if you’re going to Mystify you’ll get updates on how the convention is going throughout.
Let’s hear now some words from Anne, about why this convention is important to her.
Words from Anne
As the most visible woman of the Oval blog, I have been tasked with helping to cover the Mystify Magic Festival. Normally, I would say I would rather be trapped in a room full of plague vermin than associate with my fellow conjurors, rats after all are far more lovable. But Mystify hits a specific soft spot for me. The topic of women in magic is near and dear to my heart.
The contributions of women in magic have been neglected for far too long. When we talk about the greats in magic, we usually jump to Houdini, Thurston, Copperfield, but there have been so many women that have contributed to the art. Without the Fox sisters, mentalism would not exist in the way we know it now. Lulu Hurst was included in the original Jinx 5 Foot Shelf of Magic, Princess Tenko was popular enough to inspire an anime, and yet despite all of the influence women have had, magic is still often considered a man’s game.
Positive representation matters. It is entirely the fault of Fay Presto that you have to put up with me today. I didn’t think magic had a place for people like me. And I wonder how many little girls never picked up a magic kit because they thought magic was not for them. But when we let the spotlight shine on the many excellent women on the stage, we open up the world of magic and let the little girl who saw a magician at her birthday party know that she can do it, that she is welcome. And I can think of no better positive examples than some of the talent that is appearing at Mystify.
It is an honor to be asked to write about it, I only hope I can do it justice. Because magic is my home, and I can only say that because of the groundbreaking work of the women that came before me.
Magic conventions come and go, but Mystify feels like it is doing something important. Women have been instrumental in shaping not only our art form but my own personal journey in magic, and I think it’s great that there is a convention to celebrate that. Besides, Blackpool gets a convention and nobody even likes that town.