As you probably already know, Erudite Magic is all about magic in the printed word. Magic books have a long and prestigious history. In fact, some have asserted that there are more books on the subject of magic than any other singular topic. While I doubt the veracity of those claims, it’s indisputable that there are a LOT of magic books out there.
While the catalog of magic books is extensive and well known, we spend much less time on another form of magic in print - the venerable magic periodical.
In this issue of The Erudite Magic Digest, we’re going to take a look this red headed step child of the magic book world and talk about some magic magazines!
How it started
Ironically enough, I was turned on to magic periodicals through a book. A long time ago, I bought Practical Mental Effects, which is a collection of the “best of” The Jinx published by Ted Annemann’s friends after his death.
I absolutely loved what I was reading in the book, so I quickly turned my sights to acquiring the full Jinx set. After sourcing and acquiring all three volumes, I fell in love with the format: short write-ups from different magical creators, a variety of props and types of tricks, topical information from the period, and of course, updates to previously published items.
Little did I know that this was the start of a beautiful thing. It wasn’t long before I went after Harry Lorayne’s Apocalypse magazine (a far more contemporary source than The Jinx), The Collected Almanac, The Trapdoor, and Hugard’s Magic Monthly. Each was wonderful in its own way, but I kept coming back to the short and punchy writeups, the variety of material and creators, the mix of formats (close-up, stage, parlor), and the explanation of both sleights and tricks.
I learned a lot of great magic from the pages of these bygone magazines, but I sometimes ponder the great mysteries of life - that this may not have happened if I hadn’t picked up one of the OG compilations of a great magazine.
How it’s going
I don’t want you to read the preceding section and think that I acquired all of these compilations overnight. Far from it! It took me more than a decade to source everything and save up the money to purchase them and leave room to feed my family. But, I proceeded methodically, buying where I saw availability or good deals.
There are still tomes that are on my wishlist, but recently, a good friend helped me complete my collection of The Phoenix. I had all of the bound volumes except the book containing issues 101 - 150, and I was on the hunt for this final publication. He found it at Haine’s close-out sale, and snagged one for me, meaning I can now peruse over 12 years of great magic at my leisure.
And that’s how I recommend you consume a periodical - leisurely. These magazine compilations are often still showcased in their original serial format, meaning you can sit down and read one issue in a reasonable amount of time. And, because you have the entire thing in front of you, you don’t have to patiently wait for the arrival of the next issue. If you so choose, you can jump around from one creator highlight to another, or skip an issue altogether if it doesn’t resonate with you. And, there’s absolutely no reason to feel badly about it!
As you do this, you’ll enter a time warp, figuratively transporting to a bygone era of magic. There, you’ll discover tricks so old they’re new again, as well as magical creators who never got the opportunity to put together their own dedicated work. Occasionally, you’ll be treated to various items of gossip or importance at the time, which in hindsight often look petty or shortsighted, but with the benefit of time, have often healed over. Regardless of what catches your eye, you’re sure to find things of interest.
The problem with periodicals
Up ‘til now, it might sound like I’m saying that periodicals are the holy grail of magic books, but this format has its own issues. For every problem, though, there’s an upside…
For example, you’re often seeing some of the early attempts by new creators, and at times, editors (under looming deadlines) push something into print that may have been better served to wait. In other words, the quality of effects in a periodical can vary widely.
On the flip side of this ‘problem’ is that you often get access to new names before they hit it big and put out their own book at a much higher price point. Harry Lorayne contributed to Hugard’s Magic Monthly before hitting the big time with Close-Up Card Magic in 1962. David Regal published many of his effects in Apocalypse before revising and republishing them in his own books later. And even Asi Wind submitted items to the Talk About Tricks column in MAGIC magazine before they were released on video and in his own book.
If you were a subscriber at the time, you got access to these creators’ material long before anyone else realized how great it was.
There’s another ‘bigger issue’ (see what I did there??) with magazines that are now compiled, and that’s the size. For a magazine to make a worthwhile book, it usually has to run for a long time, meaning you have years and years of material in between two covers, and that can be overwhelming. You may not pull it off the shelf as often if a book feels that massive.
But the obvious flip side of this problem is that you have way more to look at than one single creator’s last year or two of productivity. You have a veritable treasure trove of magic available to you.
What do you think, do you get a lot of value out of magic periodicals? What are some of your favorites, whether now or in the past?
Here’s to the editors
At the end of the day, any magazine that came out faithfully for any length of time has my admiration. After four plus years of producing videos weekly, and now several months of writing this newsletter, I’m familiar with what it takes to consistently churn out good content - it’s hard work!
In fact, I want to publicly praise Richard Kaufman for his incredible run as the director of Genii magazine from 1999 through 2024. That’s a heck of a long time to do a job like that, and to do it while writing other books. My hat is off to him (and his team!), and I appreciate all of the great magic he’s published over the last 25 years in this special category.
I’m excited to see where Julie Eng and her team will take this storied magazine. She has big shoes to fill, but I’m confident that she’ll continue to make the magic world happy each month with a new issue of Genii. Plus, anything that frees up Richard to keep writing the updated Greater Magic is good news for us!
Speaking of editors and publishing content, if you’ve read this far, would you consider sharing this with some of your magic friends who you think might enjoy it?
A few favorites from Genii
In keeping with the theme of both this issue and the bonus content of previous issues, I’m sharing some hidden gems I’ve enjoyed from the pages of Genii. Since they’re not mine to share, I’ll point you to the chapter and verse, but you’ll have to do the actual leg work of looking them up online if you want to learn their secrets.
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