About this Event
PRS Benefit Event: A Private Tour of the Magical Workshop and Clockwork Automaton Collection of John Gaughan
Imagine a workshop filled with priceless 19th-century mechanical marvels: intricate, handcrafted automatons of William Tell shooting an apple from his son’s head; of a jeweled peacock that plucks your card from a deck and spreads its tail feathers in delight; of the famed chess-playing Mechanical Turk which astonished Empress Maria Theresa, Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. Imagine a treasure chamber filled with more magical delights than the eye can count: a head of Beelzebub from the Theatre Robert-Houdin, a pair of Houdini’s handcuffs, a visiting card from Georges Méliès. Demons and goblins, trees that sprout blossoms and oranges out of thin air. The gossamer stuff that true magic is conjured from.
Such a place would only exist in the fiction of J.K. Rowling or Jorge Luis Borges, yes? In fact, this impossibly beautiful and wondrous treasure chamber exists, right here in Los Angeles, in the form of the workshop and clockwork automaton collection of John Gaughan. For over 60 years Gaughan has designed and constructed magical illusions for masters of the art such as David Copperfield, Criss Angel and David Blaine, who has called him “a magical genius.” He has also pursued a unique and amazing passion for collecting and restoring 18th and 19th century automatons, often spending a decade or more to rebuild their intricate inner workings of gears and pulleys and tubes so they can once again play the clarinet, make a ball disappear and reappear, spread their tail feathers, astonish us over and over. His priceless automatons have been displayed at museums and theatres around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Magic Castle.
Although not generally open to the public due to his busy schedule and the rarity of his apparatus, Gaughan has generously agreed to open his workshop and collection up once more for one night for supporters of PRS, including such treasures as the Mechanical Turk, Antonio Diavolo and the Clarinet Player. For those of you who joined us for this incredibly rare opportunity the last two years, you know what a truly wondrous and magical experience it is!
Attendance is limited to 60 people for this private tour.
Ticket Price: $100 per person to benefit PRS’s nonprofit programs / PRS Members $90 per ticket.
Location and parking instructions will be e-mailed to ticket buyers after purchasing tickets. (The workshop is a short 5 minute drive from PRS in Los Feliz). Tickets must be purchased in advance for the Tour – there will be no tickets sold on-site at the event. This is an in-person event only.
Special Thanks to: John Gaughan, Jeff Chang.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States
USD 108.55
