Cape Town Magic School Builds Confidence Through Performance

In Cape Town, South Africa, the College of Magic is helping children develop performance skills, creativity and confidence through the study of illusion and stagecraft. The school welcomes about 190 students ages 10 to 18 every Saturday, bringing together young people from different racial and economic backgrounds through a shared interest in magic.

One of its students, 11-year-old Lubelo Mthenjana, demonstrated his skills during the school's annual junior magic contest in September. Wearing a black three-piece suit and a yellow bow tie, he performed tricks for an audience of about 30 children and parents, making paper clips disappear and reappear before producing sweets seemingly from thin air.

The performance drew laughter, astonishment and applause. Mthenjana, whose stage name is Spade Boy, began learning magic after watching a family friend perform a trick. He had to wait until he turned 10 to enroll at the college.

For the young magician, joining the school has expanded his interests and ambitions. He described the experience as having "opened up a new world."

Living in Makhaza township, about 40 minutes from the college, Mthenjana spends his free time watching magic performances online and practicing tricks on his family. He keeps his equipment and props in a box hidden in his bedroom and sometimes turns everyday activities into opportunities to practice.

His enthusiasm extends to the kitchen, where ordinary household tasks can become impromptu performances.

"If my mom is cooking and asks me to pass the potatoes, I'll start juggling with them," Mthenjana said.

The college teaches a broad range of disciplines, including puppetry, mime, clowning, juggling, card tricks, illusions, mentalism, theater production and escapology. Its students also learn practical performance techniques designed to help them develop stage presence and communicate with audiences.

David Gore, who founded the institution, said its curriculum covers the abilities required to perform magic and related arts.

"All the skills that will make a good magician," Gore said.

Gore and a friend established the school in 1980 while he was studying law and financing his education through private magic performances. Their initial publicity effort involved demonstrating tricks at a local newspaper office.

"We walked into our local newspaper house with our top hats and tails, told our story about how we were starting the College of Magic, did magic for the journalists in the newsroom, and they published an article," Gore recalled. "From that article, we had 34 young people who started attending formal weekly classes studying magic."

The school's origins coincided with apartheid, South Africa's system of racial segregation, which restricted interactions between racial groups across many areas of public life. According to Gore, the college adopted a multiracial approach from its beginning despite the legal and social restrictions of the period.

"When we started out, our organization was illegal," Gore said, referring to the school's policy against racial segregation. "This was an opportunity for young people from all backgrounds to come together around a common interest in magic, to learn about each other and understand each other."

Decades later, the institution continues to bring together students from different socioeconomic circumstances in a city that remains divided along racial and economic lines. Students share classrooms, equipment, performance spaces and meals, regardless of how they travel to school or their family's financial circumstances.

"Many of our young people remain siloed in their socioeconomic groups, very often along either language or racial lines," Gore said. "Some arrive in very fancy cars, others have taken an hour in a collective taxi to get here. But when they're here, they work with the same equipment, the same classes, the same stages and get the same food."

The six-year program charges tuition, but the college reports that about 80% of its students cannot afford the fees and receive sponsorship, primarily through private donations. Gore said magic offers an accessible creative outlet because students can practice and perform without substantial financial resources or expensive equipment.

"Magic is such a wonderful companion for our young people here in South Africa," Gore said. "They're able to carry it in their pockets, into the communities and the marginalized areas where most of our students come from. It's an art form that can be performed without being wealthy or needing very expensive instruments."

Research has also examined how learning magic may support children's cognitive development. A 2021 study by researchers at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Edinburgh found that children who learned and performed a magic trick made greater gains in creative fluency and originality than children who completed a comparable art activity.

Other research cited in the report found that watching magic can challenge assumptions and stimulate original thinking, with one study identifying activity in brain regions associated with cognitive flexibility and the processing of unconventional information.

Gore said the benefits of the program extend beyond preparing students for careers as professional magicians. He views creative thinking as an important ability for young people entering the workforce.

"Many of our graduates don't become performers or magicians. But one of the skills that this young generation is most going to need for their careers is creativity," Gore said. "That is what's so fantastic about magic: Nothing's impossible for us."