About This Item


  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0116
  • Summary(1:30) Professional magician, criminal defense attorney -- (1:50) Work as a magician -- (5:17) first few weeks of the pandemic -- (6:34) Teaches afterschool in Park Slope, early March: school parent tested positive for the virus, school closed -- (9:05) Performing magic online -- (11:20) 10th week of online magic class and show -- (11:50) Adaptations of online magic, Zoom -- (15:15) Fuzzy the Bunny with facemask, hand washing -- (17:30) Weekly free shows, school shows, birthday parties -- (18:44) Not like live performance, no direct reaction -- (22:15) Computer could be less intimidating for beginning performers -- (24:20) Much of the wonder of performance translates -- (24:37) Grew up at Ocean Parkway, Avenue P, school in Coney Island -- (24:59) First performances on street -- (25:35) Times Square -- (27:11) Differences in neighborhood: more people out -- (27:53) Street closed, people playing in street -- (28:57) In future people will be more conscious of germs, proximity -- (29:13) Hopes people will appreciate human touch more -- (29:40) In future, magic act will fit in suitcase -- (30:38) Changes with pandemic -- (31:40) Livestream requires new material weekly.
  • Date2020-05-18
  • Physical Description1 sound file (34 min) : digital, WAV
  • CreatorMalanaphy, Liam 
  • CollectionBrooklyn Covid-19 Stories
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • Genreinterviews
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on May 18, 2020, by Micah Langer. Collected for the Covid-19 Oral History Project through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
  • SubjectQuarantine ; COVID-19 (Disease) ; Epidemics ; Coronaviruses ; Magicians ; Teachers
  • PlaceKensington (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview with Liam Malanaphy on 2020 May 18.