I should probably clarify that, while a magic act to some of the old 70's punk music sounds fun... I'm more concerned with groups like the Steampunk genre and how to apply it to magic.

However, as there are already a few Steampunk magic threads around here, I thought it would be fun to speculate ways to do this in some of the other variations. For instance, the idea of performing an act with a cyberpunk theme to it interests me, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd go about it, other than a Pepper's Ghost routine probably being an excellent fit for it somewhere.

Stylistically though, it seems to be Cyberpunk magic would lend itself quite well to the Bizarre Magic genre, with the theatrics and atmosphere taking on the bigger part of the act.

However, Dieselpunk and Atompunk also interest me, although to a lesser extent as I have even fewer ideas how one would perform an Atompunk (somewhere in the post-war years during the 'atomic age') magic show, and Dieselpunk would essentially just be the future of a Steampunk genre.

I dunno, I just thought this thread could be interesting to help facilitate some unusual ideas for an act as well as provide a look at some of the other X-Punk genres out there.

Posted: Apr 1, 2011 8:29pm
Edit: Accidentally quoted above post instead of editing it...

On youtube, I saw a video of.a comedian doing a "punk magician" bit. It was more a schtick than actual magic, but very funny.

Cyberpunk might have potential for a mentalist routine if you can work in mind reading as a tech thing. Or something. Whether that would work would depend on whether you expect your audience to take you seriously in terms of what they really know, or whether you want to create an "old cyberpunk" feel. The real trouble with using tech would probably be that the audience would suspect that you really are; that you just have hidden microphones or something. If you want to go modern you could add a transhumanist twist and play all your tricks as a product demonstration of artificial enhancements you pretend to have.

I can't even think about Atompunk without my brain turning the whole thing into a perfect nuclear family parody (like with a mother producing a ridiculously huge breakfast, one plate at a time, from thin air for an adoring family), so I have no ideas there. Sorry.

A nice starting point:

http://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Magic-Ormon......34401642

Steve, ,that looks awesome. I might have to send away for it, thanks!

Jack, that's more or less what I was thinking too. My knowledge of 'Cyberpunk' is pretty limited, but I'd figured playing around with some mentalism and maybe a few large-ish scale illusions could make it work.

Recently as well, I've been thinking of more of a steam/diesel punk character. Sort of an 'Edwardian Adventurer' angle on the guy. Each of his tricks are presented as a miracle of 'modern' science. An imp jar routine suddenly becomes a demonstration of experimental gyroscopes to keep an air ship upright even in the fiercest storms for instance.
Or Professor's Nightmare is referenced as using hydraulic tubes of some kind... maybe claim they've been specially treated with unknown chemistry so that, in a pinch, they can be stretched to an appropriate length without losing their durability.

I dunno, it seemed like a possibility.

Ed Wood meets Bill Neff.

I am a dieselpunk performer. My entire life revolves around it...

Hi,
I've been performing a steampunk genre character when busking for the last 2 years and I've found the character and background info of the steampunk look, technology, inventions, and "science" help make writing the scripts for my effects much easier. It's a great genre for this and I think it readily lends itself to magic.
Building a character that has good backstory and lots of reference material to draw from is great, and helps the overall performance. The look also helps in the street in getting attention and crowd gathering.
Bruce aka Dr. Vir Lateus Dentum

Hey brother! I am The Dieselpunk magical variety artist. I've written a dieselpunk novel - Tales From The Flip-Side, and am the host and producer of the Dieselpunk Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher. I am your Magic Café' Dieselpunk expert. If you have any questions or need feedback/ideas, feel free to connect with me.