High-tech magician Trigg Watson brought smartphones, technology and audience participation together for “Magic for the Future” in McCrary Theatre on Sept. 15.
Watson’s performance blended traditional illusion with technology people interact with in their everyday lives. Throughout the show, audience members were invited on stage and incorporated into several of his tricks.
Watson has appeared on television programs, including “America’s Got Talent,” where he was a semifinalist. His approach to magic focuses on finding new ways to create illusions in a world where technology has made once-impossible ideas increasingly ordinary.
“I think the only way to make the modern world feel like magic again is to use the technology against itself and to actually figure out what kind of magic I am able to do using the tech that we have in our lives,” Watson said in an interview with Elon News Network.
The performance was part of Elon University’s Lyceum Series and featured illusions involving digital devices and other technologies alongside more traditional elements of magic.
While technology plays a central role in Watson’s performances, he said the goal of his work goes beyond figuring out how to surprise an audience.
As he has developed as a magician, Watson said he has become more interested in the feeling an illusion creates for the people watching it.
“The more you get into magic, the more you realize that it’s much more fun to give people that feeling of wonder, astonishment and awe,” Watson said. “When you grow as a magician, you realize that’s really where the fun lies.”
That sense of wonder remained at the center of Watson’s performance as he combined new technology with one of magic’s oldest goals: making an audience question what is possible.