Pop-Up Magazine is a magazine performed live. The shows feature never-before seen or heard multimedia stories performed on stage by writers, radio producers, photographers, filmmakers, and musicians. The events are not live-streamed or recorded for later viewing. Pop-Up Magazine events are currently produced two to three times a year and routinely sell out. There are usually around 12 short stories. The production runs approximately 100 minutes. Each story is designed specifically for a live format, often using media considered unconventional for journalism. Many stories are performed alongside photographs, animations and illustrations, or film, and many are accompanied by an original score performed live by . After each show, the performers and audience share drinks and conversation together in the venue or a nearby bar.
History
Pop-Up Magazine was founded in San Francisco in 2009 by Douglas McGray, Lauren Smith, Derek Fagerstrom, Evan Ratliff, and Maili Holiman. McGray says the idea for the show came from trying to get different kinds of storytellers and artists together in the same room. "Filmmakers have their film openings, and artists will have gallery openings, and writers will have their readings. And we're never at the same things together. We thought about the idea of a live magazine as a way to bring these different communities together and bring their communities of fans together." The first Pop-Up Magazine show was at the 360-seat Brava Theater in San Francisco's Mission District in 2009. Its audience has nearly tripled every year since launching, growing from that 360-seat theater to a 900-seat auditorium in 2010 to a 2,600-member audience in 2011. In the fall of 2015, Pop-Up Magazine went on its first national tour with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City. In spring of 2016, the show toured again, for a live audience of nearly 10,000 people, in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland. In 2018, Pop-Up Magazine was acquired by Emerson Collective.
Collaborations
Outside of its own tours, Pop-Up Magazine occasionally partners with organizations and public figures for special performances. In 2011, they collaborated with SFMOMA with a show about wine and ESPN the Magazine for a show about sports. In 2013, they produced a night of stories and live music inspired by Beck’s Song Reader, a collection of sheet music written by Beck and published by McSweeneys. And, in 2015 they curated Session 8 of TED2015 in Vancouver, producing a set of 11 stories performed on TED's main stage.
''The California Sunday Magazine''
Pop-Up Magazine is produced by California Sunday, Inc., which also publishes an online and print magazine called The California Sunday Magazine. McGray launched the magazine with publisher Chas Edwards in October 2014. In 2016, the magazine won the National Magazine Award for overall excellence in print magazine photography. Other finalists included National Geographic, New York, Vanity Fair, and Wall Street Journal. McGray said: “We started a media company. We approached it like a story production company. Some of the things we’d make would be live experiences, live stories, and some of the things we’d make would be stories for you to read at home.”
