The Boston Magic Lab is hosting its biggest event yet

Over the last six years, the Boston Magic Lab has established itself as the place for cutting-edge magicians to experiment with new material in front of a live audience. On Friday, Jan. 17, the Magic Lab will be hosting its largest-ever “Chemystery” show at the Rockwell Theater in Somerville.

Felice Ling, the main magician behind the Magic Lab show, and Meadow Perry, one of the headliners for the show who performs magic with bubbles, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss the upcoming event. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: Something I have to disclose right here at the top: Felice and I are friends, and careful listeners to this show know that I’m a magician. And I’ve performed a few times at the Magic Lab. I’m not performing in the “Chemystery” show, but, obviously, I am loaded with pro-magic bias.

I want to start off with you, Meadow, because you performed all over the country and a lot of different kinds of venues. So, tell us what the Boston Magic Lab is like as a performer, how it compares to other places.

Meadow Perry: It’s really exciting to perform at the Boston Magic Lab because a lot of people come there excited to see something new. They’re excited to be given sort of this wonder. And it’s really a place for magicians to kind of come together and support each other, building new material, trying out new material. And some of my best pieces were born out of doing a show at the Boston Magic Lab a few years ago.

Rath: Talk about that: how a place like that kind of works in a creative process for a working performer.

Perry: Well, it’s really fun because you get to collaborate with these other magicians and get their opinions on pieces and — hey, what did you think of this? How do you think it could be better? And I think that, as an artist, really helps to amplify your performance and how you develop new material.

You have to have other people’s perspective and life experiences as an input on yours because we can’t just be our own focus, our own perspective. You need to get outside perspective. So it was really funny because particularly a piece that I was debuting literally on the ride up there — because it’s a five-hour drive for me, and I was with another magician friend of mine, Lindsey Noel. And, literally, we were hashing out different details in the car right up there even, and came up with a different, better script. And so I got to try this out. And now it is a staple piece of my show. So Boston Magic Lab is really invaluable for trying out material as a magician.

Rath: Felice, let’s get some Magic Lab backstory. You’ve also performed all over the world, but you’re based out of this area. When did you come up with the idea for the Magic Lab? That was you and several other magicians, right?

Felice Ling: Yeah. So the Magic Lab, the initial idea, actually came out of a similar show in the Toronto area. There’s a organization up there, the Toronto Magic Company, and they used to have a show called “The Newest Trick in the Book.” And the idea is, it’s kind of an open mic for magicians.

Coming out the idea, and after that crew came and visited the Boston area, we decided it would be a great idea to start something like that here.

Rath: That’s awesome. And one of the things I love about the Magic Lab ethos — and it’s one of the reasons I got to perform there, I think — is because you really celebrate the diversity of Boston and magicians and feature really diverse artists trying new stuff.

Ling: Yeah, that’s something that really matters to me personally. And on top of that, sometimes that does make for a very chaotic show. I think that’s one of the charms of the Magic Lab. We do have performers who have never been on stage before. And then we have amazing professionals, international performers like Meadow. And so you kind of get the full range of the skill levels at the Magic Lab.

And that’s important because you get to see woman magicians, for example, really kind of killing it at the Lab. And then you’ll see brand new people who might be in the audience who are magicians or hobbyists who might be afraid to go on stage. But when they see someone like them really doing well on stage, that encourages to come back to the Magic Lab another time as a performer.

Rath: It’s usually at the Rozzie Square [Theatre] and it’s definitely got a kind of an improv quality to it. But the upcoming show, “Chemystery” — you’re going to be in a bigger venue. Tell us about that and about the “Chemystery” show.

Ling: Yeah, so the idea of the “Chemystery” show is that it is where we showcase magic — whereas at the Magic Lab, it’s where people try out new material. So at the “Chemystery’ show, you’ll see two local acts who have performed their sets before at the Magic Lab. They’ve had the chance to polish it over time. And then you’ll see two headliners. Our other headliner Jeki Yoo for example, had never been to the Lab before — but Meadow has...

Rath: And, I should say, Jeki Yoo — that’s “America’s Got Talent,” the magic champion. He’s been on “Fool Us.” He is incredible.

Ling: Yeah. And we’ll have some Magic Lab frequent performers doing some close-up magic before the show. So if you come at doors, you’ll see some magic right in front of you. And then you’ll see our main show, which we’re very excited about. The theater will fit 180 people — our regular site only fits 50 people, so this will be probably the biggest show we’ve ever done.

Rath: Meadow, you’re one of the headliners, along with with Jeki Yoo. Tell us a bit about what audiences are going to see.

Perry: They’re going to see a lot of magic, of course. But I think one of the unique things about the style of magic they’re going to see is: there is an element of storytelling.

We mentioned that there is sort of this improvisational element to it where we’re interacting with audiences. You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen because, obviously, introducing an audience member into a piece, a participant, you don’t really know how it’s going to go and you just are improv-ing through it.

So I think that’s something that is unique to magic shows in general, but particularly to Boston Magic Lab and the “Chemystery” show is this sort of open-ended improv style.

So I think audiences can really expect magic. They can expect wonder and curiosity — and just a really amazing show that’s going to inspire people.