Dr Todd Landman, The Academic Magician, is an Associate Member of the Magic Circle with Silver Star, An Immortal, Founder and Lifetime Honorary Member of Psycrets: the British Society of Mystery Entertainers, Visiting Professor of Performance Magic at the University of Huddersfield, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Professor of Political Science, and Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
He was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and began performing magic in 1977. He was an award winning member of the Magician’s Alliance of Eastern States, and a mentee of Joe Homecheck as part of John Fedko’s Keystone Conjurers in Camp Hill Pennsylvania in the 1980s. After receiving his bachelor’s degree (University of Pennsylvania 1988) and two master’s degrees (Georgetown 1990, Colorado at Boulder 1993) he moved to the United Kingdom in 1993 where he pursued his PhD in political science and built his academic career.
He turned to mentalism and bizarre magick in 2006 and was mentored by Roni Shachnaey until his unfortunate passing on 24 September 2017. Roni, Todd, and Steve Drury founded Psycrets: The British Society of Mystery Entertainers in 2007, and organised 14 Tabula Mentis meetings in the UK before handing the reins over to Steve Drury and a new committee. Todd has crafted a number of theatre shows, including ‘Metaphysical Magic,’ ‘An Evening of Enchantment,’ ‘Beyond the Veil of Ignorance,’ ‘Then and Now,’ ‘Edge of the Unknown’ (with Paul Voodini), ‘The Magic Menagerie,’ ‘Haunted’ (with Paul Forster), ‘Subversion’ and ‘Defying the Elements’.
He is a writer and creator of numerous books and effects, including Cogito Ergo Sum, The Condemned, Luna, The Hedge Tarote (with Christopher Gould), Macrocosm, The Rorschach Cards (with Christian Schenk), The Ring of Gyges (with JC Mooreni), The Orne Experiments, The Bequeathment, The Moonboard (with Paul Kostrach), and Arcana Hermetica (with Paul Kostrach). He is editor of The Magiculum (EyeCorner Press 2014) and The Magiculum II (forthcoming 2020) and is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Performance Magic.
For the East Coast Spirit Sessions, Todd provided a brief overview of his concept of the Academic Magician and performed and explained a number of his signature effects, including Wittgenstein’s Beetle, Cogito Ergo Sum, Icons, Machiavelli’s Prince, Ring of Gyges, and Roderick’s Diary. The video is 62 minutes long and was recorded live on 18 January 2020 in The Magiculum in Nottingham, United Kingdom.