Bronson Chadwick
Magician, Illusionist & Sleight-of-Hand Artist
A Bit About Bronson
Bronson Chadwick is a full-time professional magician based out of sunny Midland, Texas. Bronson is a second-generation magician originally hailing from Fort Worth, Texas with much of his childhood spent in the foothills of small town North Carolina. Bronson's father is a professional magician based out of Fort Worth and taught most of what Bronson knows about magic. Bronson has served as president of the Texas Association of Magicians, regional vice president of the Society of American Magicians, and has operated two magic shops. When not doing magic, Bronson enjoys creative writing, art, film, music, theatre, cooking, and warding off awkward situations with dry humor. You can learn more about Bronson Chadwick, including his work in magic outside of the Magic in the Library project, at his website at www.bronsonchadwick.com
Magic in the Library: Sixteen Years in the Making
June 2007
April 2008
June 2008
August 2010
October 2011 - July 2012
August 2013 - February 2022
March 2020
December 2020 - January 2022
February 2022 - December 2023
January 2023 - March 2023
April 2023 - July 2023
July 2023 - November 2023
Looking Forward
While still in school attending Crest High School in Shelby, North Carolina, and an avid scout with the Boy Scouts of America (now Scouting), Bronson Chadwick was enamored with magic and decided to produce a large-scale literacy themed magic show production for his Eagle Scout project. Construction of props and set pieces began for a show to happen sometime in late 2007 or early 2008. Larger props were assembled at the Illusion Warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas: Bronson's dad's magic shop and magic manufacturing studio.
The educational magic show was finally produced as an afterschool program event for Springmore Elementary school for some 100 students.
Bronson graduated high school and received his rank of Eagle Scout at the same time in 2008. A few days after, he moved from North Carolina to Fort Worth, Texas working in the back of Illusion Warehouse as well as working part-time for a local oilfield supply company in the summer before beginning college at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth.
Bronson repeated a small handful of his small show, The Magic of Reading while in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. While attending college, Bronson ran the Illusion Warehouse magic shop with limited success. After considerable stress and psychological turmoil from running the store, performing magic shows, and taking college classes, Bronson closed the Illusion Warehouse and returned to North Carolina. The Illusion Warehouse sat mostly vacant for close to a year before it was reopened once more by his dad.
While working a job outside of magic for a few months in the Carolinas, Bronson made a phone call to a theatrical agent in Canada who had hired him for one-off events here and there since 2008. Desiring to return to Texas, Bronson inquired about magic show performance opportunities in the area. The agent on the phone encouraged Bronson to sign up for the company full-time magic program, working in the northeastern part of the United States. Bronson loaded down his old minivan with clothing, magic props, and a few basic housewares and relocated to Pottstown, Pennsylvania a few weeks later. There, Bronson gan a ten-month tour of the Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New York City, the New York Upstate, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and surrounding areas. Bronson's magic shows varied greatly based on whatever opportunities the agency decided to book. This included providing magic entertainment at corporate events, in educational venues, and small family functions. Bronson repeated The Magic of Reading a few times while under contract for the agency.
When the contract for the full-time salaried position ended, Bronson loaded up the contents of his one-bedroom apartment in the high-rise building and moved to the city of Midland, Texas where some of his family lived. For the most part Bronson opted to mothball The Magic of Reading as there was another magician in the area performing in libraries and schools. In an effort to keep the peace of the local magic community, Bronson focused his work in magic for events for adults including company parties, retirement center entertainment, and family events. While in Midland, Bronson met Emily Daw, an accomplished visual artist with a similar passion for education, who he married a few years later.
The Covid-19 Pandemic struck a major blow to the live entertainment world. Magicians, along with every other kind of live entertainer were unable to perform in live event settings.
During this time, Bronson opened The Wonder Store, a magic and joke shop in a shopping mall in Odessa, Texas with an online store available online for purchase. The store remained open only for a year, however, with the aftershock of the pandemic still affecting small retail businesses.
As the pandemic began to subside on a national level and magicians slowly went back to work taking magic gigs as often as possible, Bronson did the same. With magic events booking infrequently enough to earn a full-time living, Bronson did some substitute teaching in Odessa, Texas. As a reward for good behavior, Bronson would perform magic tricks at the end of classes. While teaching English and science lessons, Bronson noted the attitude that students had toward reading. Some students were hesitant to read, while others were downright upset at the idea. The incentive of seeing a magic trick at the end of class however was motivation enough to keep reading. It was during this time that Bronson decided it was time to bring The Magic of Reading back into production but this time not to not only incentivize but to illustrate readership skills.
In the months to follow, Bronson gathered together his old production notes, old props, and began to work on a version of the magic show that was more relevant to the needs of modern students and matching present-day language arts curriculum. The magic show was relabeled as a "magic show program" in an effort to explain to educators that the presentation was more than children's entertainment for end-of-year school celebrations but a tool that could be used year-round to motivate and educate students.
With the newly-created program ready for a trial run, Bronson renamed it Magic in the Library. The first presentation of this large-scale educational magic show program was done for a local Boys and Girls Club location in Midland, Texas. The program garnered the attention of local news outlets and even a few adults came to watch the show in addition to the 200 children. In the summer to follow, several regional civic libraries also booked Magic in the Library where the show program was again refined. Some local magicians came to watch the show in one public library and recommended that Magic in the Library play in schools around the year due to the academia-heavy presentation style. Bronson agreed.
In the late summer and early fall of 2023, Bronson mailed out a series of brochures and letters to various schools in the Texas Panhandle and across west Texas. The response was very positive, with multiple schools wanting presentations of the program during the school day. A problem was quickly realized, however. Magic in the Library was not easy to set up on stage each time. The show program took at least an hour for setup, forty-five minutes for take-down, and since most schools wanted at least two productions of the presentation on campus once set up, Bronson was limited to performing in only one school per day. With multiple schools within a single geographical area interested in the production, Bronson began to search for ways to either make the show smaller, or to make it possible for multiple school groups to attend. It was around this time that Bronson began to toy with the idea of hosting Magic in the Library in a theater, civic center, or event center to have multiple schools attend all at once.
Magic in the Library is quickly growing as an independent brand, separate from the rest of Bronson's work in magic. Taking it as a sign from God, Bronson now pursues his educational work in magic above any other type of magic booking. His future goals include showcasing Magic in the Library almost exclusively in "field-trip settings" so multiple schools can see the program at its fullest potential on stage while reaching more schools as he tours across the country.