A Gary Kurtz issue?

[Chris Deleo]

He seems an like obvious candidate for a feature issue. Any possibilities, Richard?

[Richard Kaufman]

Gary hates magicians and won't even talk about his past with friends. No chance whatsoever. He earns a living doing mentalism in French.

[Chris Deleo]

won't even talk about his past with friends.

That's unbelievable!!!

[Karl Miller]

Hi Richard,

What about an issue with Bob Fitch on the cover? I would love to see that. He is a great guy, and has given us so much.

Best regards,

Karl

[Mats Kjellstrom]

Im a fan of Garys magic world.

http://www.garykurtz.com/

I meet/saw him at a magic convention in sweden mid 90s, he did some amazing stuff on stage and on the floor in the hotel lobby.
Nice memories.

[Richard Kaufman]

Gary was an amazingly talented and creative magician.

[Chris Deleo]

Indeed, he was....

some of my strongest coin routines are Gary's, learned from "Unexplainable Acts" and the A1 tapes.

[John McDonald]

Does anyone know what the reason for distancing himself from magic was/is?

[Bill Mullins]

Does anyone know what the reason for distancing himself from magic was/is?

Magicians?

[rkosby]

That's a shame. I met him once years ago. He was a magic celebrity but he was completely unpretentious. Sorry to hear his feelings about magic have changed. He sure did make a lasting contribution to magic.

[Jeffrey Cowan]

Richard's comments about Gary Kurtz come as a surprise to me. I talked with Gary at 4F in what I think was around 2002. Gary was really gracious when I asked him about two of his tricks (one from Richard's book that I had seen him perform differently at a lecture years ago and one from one of his A1 videos) and he walked me through the parts where I had questions/issues. Gary also said that his new focus on mentalism had allowed him to again treat close-up magic as a hobby.

Does Gary now have kids? That might have affected his interest and opportunity to interact with magicians. As RK can attest, they do suck up a lotta time.

[Jonathan Townsend]

A bilingual mentalism special?

[Areeb Malik]

I've seen a part of his mentalism show on tv. Interesting, but doesn't compare to when I saw him at a Montreal Magic Convention years ago.

He was really nice and very impressive magician. Too bad he's out of magic, but I guess Flurious just doesn't pay the bills.

[David Acer]

I don't think it's fair to say Gary "hates" magicians - hate is a pretty strong word to put into someone else's mouth. Gary has always had diverse artistic interests, dating back to his days as a dancer, so it's not surprising that he's moved, if not beyond magic, then certainly through it to a medium he feels better serves his muse.

[Richard Kaufman]

I was quoting someone who spoke with him within the past year or two.