LAist Studios presents Imperfect Paradise: The Castle: Part 2

California Love

LAist Studios

Music

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Part 2: Once inside the iconic members-only Magic Castle, queer hobbyist magician Carly Usdin starts to become disillusioned with the club. LAist Senior Producer Natalie Chudnovsky dives into how this comes to a head in 2020, when the Magic Castle faces allegations of racism and sexism.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From homemade burritos to water to backpacks, teams of volunteers hit the streets to provide services to Gunn House.
0:07.0	Meet these folks on LAA Studios How to LA. Whoever you get your podcasts.
0:22.0	Hey, this is In Perfect Paradise from L.A. Studios. I'm your host, Antonia Serrejido. This is the castle part two. Last episode we met
0:25.1	Carly Houston and learned about how they got obsessed with a members only club in
0:29.6	Hollywood called the Magic Castle and spent a whole year learning magic to access the space.
0:35.0	It felt like you were back in time in a place where like almost everyone there's an
0:39.2	older white cis heterosexual man it's their world that you're stepping into.
0:44.0	And Carly was excited to be part of changing the castle by bringing their friends and maybe even
0:49.3	starting a club for queer magicians. Coming up on the show, in the wake of George Floyd's
0:55.1	murder and protests in 2020, Carly reaches a breaking point. And the Magic
1:01.6	Castle faces a reckoning.
1:05.0	I still to this day will not enter the building alone.
1:08.0	We are not a truck with an engine.
1:11.0	We are one wheel on a radio flyer wagon squeaking a little bit in the distance,
1:18.9	hoping someone will listen.
1:20.3	Sanjes never happen quickly enough, but we have to be mindful about everybody's opinion.
1:26.6	I had good intentions, at least 50% good intentions, and then I think 50% kind of like chaotic screaming and like just
1:35.2	having hit a wall and like feeling powerless. Here's Alayist senior producer
1:41.7	Natalie Chidnovsky.
1:45.0	I asked Carly to show me a magic trick.
1:50.0	These are two rubber bands. I'm going to hand them to you.
1:52.0	One of the only tricks they still remember.
	...

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