Just Max

As a student of magic, I often think about what it would have been like to meet some of the historical characters in our art. Of course it goes without saying, though I am saying, that I'd want to meet Houdini. He is hardly the only one. I'd love to meet Kellar, Blackstone, Fu-Manchu, Thurston, Robert-Houdin, Dante, Herrmann, Richiardi, and the list goes on.

But there is one guy who kind of stands out, I suppose because he was a little peculiar and yet his magic was incredible. His name was Max Katz Breit and he was born in 1873 in Ostrov, not far from the border of Poland and Austria. His performing name was Max Malini, or just Malini. I first encountered Malini reading stories that Dai Vernon shared in his Genii column 'Vernon Speaks'. If Vernon looked up to Max Malini, then he is surely someone we all need to pay attention to.

The Little Man of Nuremburg

His name was Matthias Buchinger and he was born in 1674 in Anspach Germany. He became known as 'The Little Man of Nuremburg' and was very famous in his day. It's difficult to say what his specialty was as he was proficient in many things. For example, he was an accomplished artist. The self portrait  above was drawn by Buchinger.  He was an excellent marksman and was equally skilled with rifles and pistols. In the performing arts area he not only could play numerous instruments but it is said that he even created a number of unique instruments of his own design. Finally, the reason he is on my blog is that he was an accomplished conjurer.

The Great Dunninger

Today, marks the 119th birthday of the man who is arguably America's Greatest Mentalist, Joseph Dunninger. After having researched and written blogs about Robert Heller, William Fay, The Davenport Brothers, Anna Eva Fay, The Great Alexander and others involved in the world of mentalism and magic, I thought it might be time to do some research on the man who became synonymous with mental feats and mind reading.