The Great Nicola Magic Festival

September 27 and 28, 2024

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The Great Nicola Magic Festival celebrates the life and magical career of one of the most influential magicians of all time, Monmouth's very own, the Great Nicola. A magician on par with Houdini, Nicola traveled the world and pioneered numerous illusions, many of which he built right here in Monmouth.

Born William Mozart Nicol in 1880 in Burlington, Iowa, to Anna Letitia (Donaldson) and John Nicol, Will and his family moved from Keithsburg, Illinois, to Monmouth in October 1883. Will's father was a photographer and also performed as a magician. His stage name was Prof. Nicoli, "the world's wizard." Charles, Will's older brother, was a performer, too, using the stage name Von Arx. Sister Maud also performed with her father, slumbering mid-air in opera houses. ​

​Will was athletic, serving as captain of the high school "ball team" in 1898. He also did very well in local Y.M.C.A. competitions, and in 1899, a local newspaper reported he was heading to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to "take a course of training in physical culture, preparatory for the position of physical director in the Y.M.C.A." 

The Great Nicola's first performance was in 1898 at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, a world fair held in Omaha, Nebraska. He and Charles were there to run a photograph gallery, but when someone was looking for a magician, Will happily obliged. By 1900, he had vaudeville bookings in Europe, thanks to help from Loie Fuller, an Illinois native, who had lived in Monmouth and was famous for her serpentine dancing. 

He traveled the world, with an elaborate set and a menagerie of animals. In 1918, the Monmouth Daily Atlas described his performance style: "The chief feature of it is its rapidity, yet for all there is no appearance of flurry, fuss or fluster. No time is lost in tedious preparations, tiresome patter or elaborate explanations. He just stands there and does things, all sorts of strange and bewildering things, without chattering about them, the consequence being that one has hardly realized the wonderment of one trick before he is half-way through with another. Before he has been on the stage five minutes he has performed as many tricks as some conjurors would execute in half an hour, and yet he apparently has hardly moved a muscle" (March 22, 1918).

By the 1930s, he was so famous he appeared on 12 issues of Wheaties cereal boxes, revealing tricks such as the jumping rubber band and the vanishing penny.

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The Great Nicola Magic Festival, 2018-2023

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In 2018, the Warren County History Museum began hosting The Great Nicola Festival. We have held festivals in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Our museum holds a large collection of Nicola artifacts and we love showing ​them to visitors! Nicola was very proud of his hometown, and mentioned it throughout his travels. From his first trip to Paris in 1900, he kept in touch with friends and the local press to share his news. Later, he erected a billboard in Monmouth to announce his upcoming events.

Stay tuned for information about our 2024 festival, which will be held September 27 and 28!

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The Republican-Atlas, 22 February 1901, Monmouth, Illinois

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The Monmouth Daily Atlas, 14 March 1918, Monmouth, Illinois 

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Vaudeville News, 5 March 1927