John Wyman

John Wyman Jr. (January 19, 1816 – July 31, 1881), known professionally as Wyman the Wizard, was a magician and ventriloquist who was popular in the United States during the mid-19th century.

Biography Wyman was born in Albany, New York. His father, a merchant, planned a business career for him, and after attending Albany Academy Wyman found work in a Baltimore auction house. His interest in magic and ventriloquism, however, led him to begin his performing career with a show at the Baltimore Museum. According to a possibly apocryphal account related to Harry Houdini, Wyman managed his own career and never had a manager except for a single 1850 appearance in New York City, managed by P. T. Barnum. However, other records indicate that he made his 1836 Baltimore debut under the management of Charles D. Selding, and for sixteen years was under the professional management of George Wood.

Wyman's early skills improved after a journey abroad, during which time he likely made purchases from Voisin's Repository, a shop in Paris which sold magical novelties. He also bought a number of techniques from the Scottish magician John Henry Anderson, including the secret to performing the "Magic Cauldron," "Nest of Boxes," "Aerial Suspension," "Inexhaustible Bottle," and "Gun Trick."

During his career, Wyman made a regular circuit of smaller cities and towns, which he tended to prefer over large cities. He is recorded as having performed at Lynchburg in 1855 and at Richmond in 1857, where he made use of a ventriloquist dummy and an "egg-bag." It was in 1857 that Wyman joined the committee convened to investigate the Fox sisters on behalf of the Boston Courier, eventually concluding that the sisters were fraudulent.

Wyman apparently suspended his magical performances upon the outbreak of the Civil War and his assistant at the time, one Ebenezer Mason, enlisted with the Union Army Balloon Corps. He resumed his usual shows after the war. Historian of magic Henry R. Evans recorded fond childhood memories of seeing Wyman perform.

Magic tricks attributed to Wyman include a "second sight" illusion, where he would describe objects hidden by a handkerchief (having secretly stolen a glance and rapidly memorized the contents), and an illusion where a borrowed watch was apparently smashed, but in actuality had been removed by an assistant to be discovered unharmed among the audience. Wyman predicted his own death in July 1881, stating to his friend Thomas W. Yost: "You will not see me again. This is the last of Wyman." He died a few days later. He was buried in Fall River, Massachusetts among his wife's family.