The NEW Genii Is Out of the Lamp!

 

When I say, "The NEW Genii" I'm speaking of the magazine first started by William Larsen Sr. back in 1936. This was truly a family magazine for many years. From 1936 till 1999, the magazine was produced by the family Larsen. But in 1999, Richard Kaufman purchased the magazine and has kept it running until January 2025. I believe the magazine was sold to Randy Pitchford before this time, but Richard stayed on as editor.

Now in February 2025 we have a new editor, Jim Steinmeyer, well he is listed as the Executive Editor. Richard Kaufman is staying on to run the Magicana column. Some of the old columnists have remained and some new ones have come on board.

One of the interesting things is the look. As you can see by the image above, they've gone with a new Genii Logo. I hope the color pink is just for this month. The b/w image on the cover is cool. The inside is full color. The lay out is very different from the older Genii. I guess it has a more contemporary look on the inside. A lot more 'white space' at least at the start of some columns. 

It has one magic history column, which I'm glad to see. The Table of Contents breaks the articles up into the follow categories:  Features, Columns, Voices, In Practice, In Performance, Marketplace, Workshop, and finally, Perspectives. 

So what do I think overall? I love it. I am thrilled Genii continues. I hope it continues for another 100 years quite frankly. It is important for many reasons. If you've ever done any research on magicians of old, the magazines of the time hold a huge amount of information. And Genii will continue to discuss, the old, the modern, the new, and the future of magic within it's pages!

If you don't already have one, get a subscription today. www.Geniimagazine.com

Eradicating TRICKS From Magic :Essay

 

I would like to give you, my fellow magicians, something to think about. I am sure I am not the first person to have this idea, and possibly not even the first to come up with this solution. But I would like to eradicate the word "TRiCK or TRICKS" from the magical vocabulary. And maybe to be more precise eradicate it when performing before lay people. 

First let me begin with the why. The word trick to me and to others sounds negative. "Oh He is going to TRICK me" or "She is going to play a trick on me". These both have negativity in them. It goes along with the word "fool" which is another word, I'd like to get rid of but as long as Penn and Teller have their TV show, it stays. 

Here is another reason. I can state for the record, I HATE the people on social media who expose magic and then treat it like something stupid. I'm not naming names or giving anyone credit for being a jerk. But I hate the demeaning of magic. That's where all this came from actually. All those exposure videos and making magic look cheap or stupid. And they all play into the idea of 'tricking someone'. Most decent magicians are not interested in 'tricking someone', but rather creating a unique moment of magic that the spectator can experience.

Watch this. Magic has some stupid explanation. It's just a fake coin, it's just a fake card, it's a string, it's this or that. OK. But let's attack Music for a moment. WAIT, that's not music, it's just sound. You're just hitting a metal string with your fingers to make that sound. Or you are just using your fingers to hit a plastic key tied to a string which makes the sound. OR Art. WAIT, that's just a bunch of paint on paper, so what. Or PHOTOGRAPHY. WAIT, I can do that on my phone, so what.   See when you break things down to the tiniest degree, everything can be shown to be stupid, especially if you talk like Mitch Pelegi (sorry old reference to another time). 

Jamy Ian Swiss said, "Magicians have taken something intrinsically profound and made it appear trivial." And that is a hard statement to hear, because it's true. But perhaps, our own terminology isn't helping matters. Remember when the movie The Prestige came out. They had these terms that they said magicians used to describe certain things in their shows. One of the words was the Prestige.  That's good. We never used it in real life, but we sure should have.

I propose we ditch the word "TRICK" and replace it with 'composition'. The definition of the word means,  a work of music, literature, or art. EXACTLY! Just add magic, to that definition. We can create all sorts of titles for these compositions. But I love calling an effect a composition. "This is my latest composition with cards, I call it The Dance of the Pasteboards" or whatever. It sounds so much better than, here is another trick. 

I know for me, I am going to make a concerted effort to refer to routines in my show as 'compositions' going forward. What do you think? I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts...

MAGIC CASTLE SAVED

 

JAN 8, 2025. It was a harrowing night, but firefighters and staff at Hollywood's Magic Castle were apparently able to save the building as fires raged a mile away. In one video I saw, you could see the fires burning the hillside and they sure looked a lot closer than a mile. 

Staff and firefighters took extra precaution by soaking the buildings roof and surrounding shrubbery with water. It's never a guaranteed fix given the ferocious nature of these wild fires, but thankfully it worked. Frankly it falls more into the miracle category.

It was only a few years ago that a fire broke out at the Castle, not related to a wild fire. Thankfully, the Castle was saved then too because of some smart thinking members and staff who took action when needed. 

This California WildFire is an unimaginable tragedy. I have friends who are waiting to evacuate. There are people in the magic world we have yet to hear from.

UPDATE: Just heard from John Cox. He is safe. Mike Caveney and Tina Lenert are safe. The Houdini Estate made it through so it's safe. I will post more as I hear.