Under the TV category at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival is the world premiere of Magic City: An American Fantasy. The pilot episode screened was directed by Charles Todd and the TV showrunner is Bayan Joonam. There are a number of executive producers on this series which include Cole Brown, Jami Gertz, Jermaine Dupri, Aubrey “Drake” Graham, Adel “Future” Nur, Peter Nelson, Bayan Joonam, Devin Chanda and Alex Kaplan.
If you’re from Atlanta or have at least visited the city (especially in the ’90s), you are familiar with a strip club called Magic City. I’ve personally never been to the establishment and don’t live in Atlanta, but I’m well aware of its existence. This is because Magic City became notable in its own right, thanks to a man by the name of Michael Barney — also known as “Mr. Magic.” A man with a deep resounding Barry White-like voice, he managed all aspects of the club and was the guy to turn to if you had an issue with the establishment.
In 1985, Barney had the foresight to see that creating a small strip in Atlanta would become a lucrative business. He was successful in his venture because as a result, he was able to bring in some of the biggest celebrities into Magic City. This includes pro athletes like Shaquille O’Neal and hip hop artists like Tupac Shakur.
Magic City: An American Fantasy provides an engaging experience for the viewer through its storytelling with dramatic sound editing as commentators tell their stories. Archival footage showing big name talent that stopped by, taking photo ops with the night club dancers, also illustrates how prestigious this club was and how it was set apart from others in the state of Georgia.
Producer Jermaine Dupri (an early frequent patron of Magic City) gives his social commentary about how the eminent strip club influenced the southern Atlanta music scene. It was quite eye-opening to learn about the origin story of hip hop songs crafted because of Magic City’s influence. Magic City became a place for rap artists to get their music out there and this was ideal, given so many celebrity patrons frequented the club.
DC, the Brain Supreme (Cecil Glenn) — one half of the popular ’90s duo Tag Team — spoke in the docuseries about the birth of the hip hop ballad “Whoomp There It Is.” He started out working as a DJ for the club. As it turns out, that hit single is actually a song about Magic City. “Whoomp There It Is” went platinum. Another famous Atlanta-based rap duo called Outkast also created some history at Magic City. As the music of this place intersected with hip hop, their hit song “Bombs over Baghdad” video featured girls from Magic City.
As for the professional sports side of it all, Shaq also appears in the doc. He mentions his historic $120 million contract deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. The life-changing call he took that night was inside of the four walls of Magic City.
The heart and soul of Magic City are the dancers, and a few who worked there are also featured in the docuseries. Notably, a dancer by the name of Strawberry discussed the pitfalls of the job. There’s sadly an ugly side to the business, as it can be very risky for these women to be in this line of work. Tragically, some have become victims to homicide. However, it is interesting to see that in the case of Strawberry, even the deaths of other women who worked there wasn’t enough for her to quit. One line that she says resonates: “Dancing is the only thing that has no doors but is the hardest thing to walk away from.”
When the city of Atlanta got news of the Olympics coming to town, they wanted to walk away from Magic City. As the city tried to clean up its image to make way for brands and corporations to do business with them, the culture and community of the city suffered. The story of how the trajectory of Atlanta shifted before and after the Olympics rippled into so many different parts of Black culture. An annual spring break festival for Black college students called Freaknik also suffered the same fate.
I found this one-hour pilot to be informative, entertaining, and engaging. It illustrates the entrepreneurial side of the exotic dance rather than the exploitative side of it. The production team carves together a subject matter to show you Magic City’s influence on not only the city of Atlanta but how it crossed over to pop culture itself. The dancers who work there aren’t two-dimensional sex objects, but hard-working women making a living and some truly enjoying and feeling passionate about what they do. It’s an intriguing look at this world, and the stylized editing, music, and cinematography keeps the viewer dialed in.
Magic City: An American Fantasy made its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW TV & Film Festival.
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