New: see a clip from Ian's shows here 

Stop Press:
After a very successful run in Brighton, Ian Saville's classic socialist magic show
Brecht on Magic
has won one of three awards from Fringe Review website for "finest theatre and performance, covering all-round excellence in staging, writing, crafting and production of a theatre or performance piece"

More details. 

This award is in the form of a Teapot, so should go well with the Tap Water Award Ian won in Edinburgh in 2004.

Welcome to the Magic for Socialism home page.

This is where you'll find information about the Socialist Magic act that I've been performing to many different sorts of audiences over the past twenty five  years. 

The act is funny, magical, thought-provoking and topical. It has won awards - in 2004 I received a "Tap-Water Award" at the Edinburgh Fringe - the alternative to the Nestlé owned Perrier Award, and it has had many rave reviews.

I've played to audiences all over the UK, as well as in other parts of Europe. I have also performed in Canada at the Vancouver and Winnipeg Folk Festivals. My act is a celebration of socialism, not a send-up, but it won't appeal to anybody who can't laugh at ideology, as well as using it to change things.

Here you can sample my act, and my one-man shows, extracts of which are linked to this page. If you really like the extracts, you can even get the complete text of the first full-length socialist magic show, Brecht on Magic. For academics (or anyone else who's interested), there is also a copy of my thesis on Workers' Theatre. Both of these can be found on the Download Page.

I've performed socialist magic on picket lines, at benefits, and at many labour movement events. I've also performed in comedy clubs, theatres, arts centres, universities - even the Albert Hall. Lately I've also done the odd gig at Art events (including the first of the Hayward Gallery's 100 ideas events).

So what is socialist magic? Well, whereas David Copperfield is content with little tricks like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, I aim at the much more ambitious goal of making International Capitalism and exploitation disappear (though I haven't quite succeeded yet). I realise that most of you will not be entirely familiar with the Socialist Magic genre, so I've included bits of my act, interviews, and sections from my full-length shows to give you a flavour of what I do. In fact, I usually begin my act by showing you a trick that I first saw a bourgeois magician do many years ago, and then showing both how to do the trick, and a dialectically opposite method of performing it. Click here for the beginning of my act.

If you like what you see, and would like me to perform for your organisation / festival / theatre / campaign, or if you have ideas about how I should develop the art of socialist magic, let me know.

List of Shows available (with links to scripts/information)

Download Page

Interview from Live magazine

Short Biography

The Vision - A Poem from the Shows

Reviews of the shows

List of upcoming performances

Leon Rosselson's Page

Questionnaire. A short feedback form

E-mail me with any comments, suggestions or bookings at:

ian@redmagic.org.uk