Mysterious things happen in a magazine. I’ve been struck with the way that some obscure trick, or person, or reference, will appear twice, or three times inside of one magazine. It happens without any sort of explanation. For the editor it can happen in a sort of blur of e-mails, text, proofreading, and captions, which makes it even stranger. This month seems to be the Sam the Bellhop issue. I don’t know why. You’ll find Sam appearing—not surprisingly—in Bill Malone’s unrelentingly hilarious responses to our popular “Genii Questionnaire.” But Sam also appeared, without any prompting, on the pages of our exhilarating “culture meets magic” theorist, Annanya George. In typical Annanya George fashion, you’ll never see it coming, but suddenly Sam is there.
This month we’re pleased to report from March’s Mystify Magic Festival in Las Vegas. We sent a Genii contingent to the event with a pile of new magazines, t-shirts, and tote bags for the dealers’ room. This photo, from the Genii corner of the Mystify dealers’ room, shows Richard Kaufman, our former editor and current contributor, as he contemplates a new hoodie. Behind the dealer’s table was editor at large, Chloe Olewitz, and behind the camera was executive director, Julie Eng. On page 16, Rebecca Spectre shares, “The First Ever Mystify Magic Festival,” a terrific insider’s look at this new convention. There’s no question that the event generated a lot of interest—not the least of it from the lucky attendees.
Also in this issue you’ll find a couple of articles that I’ve been working on. Bob Higa is a longtime friend and one of the best-known, most-respected magicians in Chicago. His model for business messaging with magic was amazing, so I was happy to report on how all those pieces came together through his career. It’s a story about how a great magician can use magic to inspire in unconventional ways. That’s called “Higa: Storming the Business World.”
Because I’ve watched him perform the Snowstorm in China many, many times, and always marveled at his work, I hope you’ll turn to the lavender pages at the end of this magazine. There you can see Higa’s famous Snowstorm in action, old school! Or, even better, find it on our May Genii Links page and watch Higa's snowstorm in real time.
Max Maven and T.A. Waters shared a close friendship and years of creative collaboration. Unfortunately, I watched their friendship fall apart, and it happened just before another interesting personality entered the equation—a robot named Balsamo, a mass of brass and steel gears concealed inside of a skull. Balsamo was the creation of a Lyceum magician named Joseffy, a revered inventor who had been dead for over 50 years, but could still speak through his mechanical creation. If this sounds like the beginning of a fantasy novel… you’ll have a chance to experience one of Max’s great successes and marvel at the wonderful, curious personalities that made it all possible. Take a look at “Max Speaks to Balsamo.”
WATCH: May 2025 • The Genii Speak
Our associate editor, Vanessa Armstrong, takes charge of The Eye every month (in addition to numerous other duties). She selects, researches, curates, and writes the news stories that get delivered to you in the magazine and online. In addition to Genii, she writes on culture, history and entertainment for magazines like The New York Times, Atlas Obscura, and Smithsonian.
Vanessa is an insightful editor, a great writer, and extremely knowledgeable about our world of magic. I’ve admired the way she’s put together The Eye and I took the opportunity to talk to her about the process of how this all happens. Because of her expertise with other publications, I thought it would be interesting to talk about basic publicity for magicians: what we should know about seeking publicity in local publications or online sources. Take a few minutes and get to know Vanessa in the Genii Speak video link above.
I also recently had a conversation with Dave Egan, who is the current president of the Dai Vernon Foundation. You’ll see Dave’s picture in this month Magic Castle report by Shawn McMaster, and a brief discussion of the Vernon Foundation’s recent work. It’s an amazing and little-known charitable group, working to help magicians in need, and I’ve known about them and worked with them on a number of projects over the years. If you’re overdue for a “good news story” that makes you feel happy about magic, and grateful for human beings in general, watch the May Genii Speak video and meet Dave. This is a group that deserves to be celebrated for the work they’ve been doing.
From our Department of Missed Credits: In the April Issue, our article on Jonathan Green was illustrated with dozens of beautiful, historic American playing cards, circa 1860 to 1890, that would have been shuffled and palmed by Green through his career. They tell their own story, of course—you can see modern features like rounded corners, double ends, and corner indexes being innovated on the faces of those cards. Lee Asher supplied us with these cards, along with his article about 19th-century cards. Lee was able to supplement his own collection with cards generously offered by Dr. Paul Bostock. Lee sent us that credit, but it didn’t quite make it onto our pages. So here’s our official thanks. Paul is the editor of Clear the Decks magazine, the Genii of the playing card world. (Their club is called 52 Plus Joker.) If you want another peek at his collection, just go to his website, plainbacks.com. Thanks, Paul, for your generosity in telling the Green story with those beautiful cards on the green felt.
From the Department of Sticker Shock: With the June issue, you’ll notice a cover price of $12.99. You won’t pay that much, unless you’re buying it at a magic shop, one issue at a time. If you subscribe in the U.S., the cost of the issue each month, with postage, is $9.58. That’s a little more than $2 each week. (It’s much cheaper if you only purchase a digital subscription; it’s more expensive if you want paper issues sent overseas. Take a look at our ad on the inside back cover of this issue, and contact our business office for details.)
I’m including a picture of $9.58 that I just pulled from my pocket. This is the spot where, advertising experts tell us, we’re supposed to compare that to the cost of a Starbucks’ latte, or Time magazine, or the cost of a gallon of gas. But I’m not going to do that. We don’t want you to think of Genii magazine as a mere cup of coffee. We want you to consider that $2.39, each week, might be the very best investment you could make for your profession, or your avocation, or your passion. We think that the mix of news, ideas, creations, venues, shows and products has been curated to give you as much as possible, as efficiently as possible. We think these connections are inspiring. We know that our new Genii site, soon to come online and accompany the magazine, will be your link to the magic world. And we’re sure that, by opening the door each month, we’re introducing you to some very important innovations and information.
