When Nicole Cardoza saw a man pull a rabbit out of a hat as a kid, she knew right then that she loved stage magic. However, even with all the suspension of disbelief that it requires, she could never imagine herself being a magician.
“I never saw another Black woman being a magician,” Cardoza said. “I still haven’t.”
In the realm of stage magic, the presence of women is a rarity, with studies revealing that only 3-8 percent of magicians are women. This statistic becomes even smaller when considering the scarcity of Black women in the field. Yet, Cardoza is challenging this statistic by bringing her unique brand of stage magic to venues and churches across the U.S., proving that ‘Black girl magic’ is more than a phrase.
The magician stopped at The Atlanta Theater on Friday for the fifth leg of her spring tour and her first time touring in the city.
“By the end of this hour, I want you to recognize the magic that is inherent in you,” she said at the beginning of her show.
Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
An intimate theater of 50 people watched as Cardoza used cardistry to showcase her first illusion. She asked three random audience members to pick a color, suit and number of their choosing. Combined, their choices created a black six of spades. Cardoza revealed that what seemed to be a deck of cards in front of her was actually one card.
“I had a dream about this card last night.”
She revealed a single black six of spades in the card pack, eliciting gasps and applause.
Cardoza’s journey into stage magic began a decade ago, intertwining with her work in the wellness community. Her studies of magic led her to draw connections between stage magic and the cultural appropriation of spiritual and healing practices during colonization. She was also surprised to find stories of Black magicians throughout history including Richard Potter, the first magician in America to achieve fame; Henry “Box” Brown, an enslaved man who mailed himself to freedom and became a magician; and the Armstrongs, a Black family of magicians during the Jim Crow Era.
“Why, like with so many other things, is there so much blackness at the center for practice but we’re never on stage?”
Her show is aimed at bringing those stories to the stage, blending cardistry, illusions and storytelling to honor the history and future of Black magicians. While the Atlanta show was held in a theater, most of her shows are intentionally performed at churches. Cardoza recognizes that there may be a lot of people within the Black community who haven’t seen a magic show because of the negative connotations that magic holds as being evil. Still, she hopes to redefine how people associate stage magic.
“I really just want to reckon with what has taught us as Black people of what is good magic versus bad magic and what is worth believing.
“There’s so much stage magic, and it looks and reflects so much of what we know as Black people. But it’s been taken from us in many ways, and so have the practices of which it reflects. So, it’s a reclamation of magic in all its forms.”
Even though she amazes audiences for the better part of the year, being a magician isn’t the only trick Cardoza has up her sleeve. She’s also an award-winning serial social entrepreneur, investor, author and public speaker, upholding her desire to “reimagine what’s possible.” Cardoza is also challenging the ideas people may have surrounding her identity as a Black queer woman performing stage magic. She said her identity doesn’t dictate what she wears and it shouldn’t set her apart from the norm that is a white man performing magic.
“I don’t feel tied to gender representation or, in many ways, race in magic in the same way that I think other people do a lot, especially a lot of white women … I think people don’t take me seriously. The industry is so far behind. They’re just having these conversations around representation.”
Cardoza said she hopes her Atlanta show brings healing and youthful excitement to audiences. She also shared that she’s excited to have a show in a Black city, especially in a region where the stage magic community isn’t substantial.
“So much of Black stage magic’s history in particular is rooted in the South and rooted in Georgia, and so I just think that’s really powerful.”