From Dua Lipa to Broadway, Houdini never disappears
6/17/202654 min
There may be no one alive who saw Houdini perform magic. Yet we still know his name and his legend. Dua Lipa namechecked the escape artist in a 2023 dance hit and she's not alone. Houdini is still a cultural reference point, despite having died 100 years ago. And that’s pretty much what he would have wanted. IDEAS explores why his name persists in our imaginations and how his magic helped his family escape poverty.
Guests in this episode:
Adam Begley is a biographer living in London, and author of Houdini: The Elusive American.
David Ben is a conjuror, writer, and consultant in Toronto. He’s writing a graphic novel featuring an imagined adventure for Houdini.
Katie Bender is a playwright and actor. Her interactive performance about Houdini is called Instructions for a Seance.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:28
[digital jingle] This is a CBC podcast.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:32
[mysterious music] He died 100 years ago, but Harry Houdini has still not entirely left the stage.
David Ben· Guest0:48
If you poll the public today to name a magician, the odds are Houdini would be still number one.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:56
A few years back, Dua Lipa made a hit song out of him.
Dua Lipa· Soundbite1:00
They say I come and I go. Tell me all the ways you need me. I'm not here for long. Catch me or I go Houdini. I come and I go.
Nahlah Ayed· Host1:10
And she's not the first.
Speaker 6· Soundbite1:12
Like Sherry Papini, Harry Houdini, I vanish into the thin air as I'm leaving like- Abra, abra, cadabra.
Nahlah Ayed· Host1:19
Houdini lives on in branding, too.
Speaker 7· Soundbite1:23
Want to generate vast landscapes with towering mountains, detailed ecosystems, and a densely populated town? Houdini