The Genii Forum

It was great to see you there, Jim!

Scotto wrote:And to give full credit to Mike, he then pulled out a second "Ring Flight" with the correct ring on it. He told me before we started, that it might be a life changing event to me, but he had a reputation to uphold, and had to complete the effect correctly.
Thank you again Mike

What a great human story. Thanks for sharing it with us in the hinterlands.

JimAlfredson wrote: No, mai-ling, it was not Louie's blade box, but was borrowed locally.

Thanks for replying Jim.
I've been trying to pin down a photo of
Todd performing with it for a couple of years now.
(along with a story for my book project
I've had a difficult time trying to pin down Todd to do that for me)
I thought I might have had my chance!

darn.

For me, the highlights (aside from seeing everyone) were John's performance of Goodbye Winter and the tour of his shop.

Goodbye Winter looked fantastic. Man that girl moves fast...

And the visit to John's shop was amazing. His old place was a lot of fun, but the room that he's built to house the core of his collection is just spectacular. The write-up in a recent issue of one of the magazines (Magic? Genii?) was good, but didn't compare to actually seeing the collection in its new home.

And the burgers were delicious...

I spoke with the two lead snobs from the conference today and you can listen to Jim & Mike reflect on the conference tomorrow.

Ricky was involved only with the first History Conference, when it was associated with The Mulholland Library, of which he was then curator, 22 years ago.

He did take part in the panel discussion two years ago for the 10th anniversary of the Conference.

As promised, my chat with the self confessed (Tongue firmly planted in cheek) Magic Snobs is now online. Mike Caveney & Jim Steinmeyer talk about the LA Magic History Conference in past present and future tense, then discuss the piece of furniture that looks like a book just released by Taschen. They'll be making an appearance in LA Next week to sign them as well.

Listen Here and Read More

For anyone interested in magic history and collecting, this Conference is as good as it gets. Where else can we learn "Where Did The Doc Go?" (thank you, Diego) and see illusions not performed for one hundred or two hundred thirty years.

While we never know if they'll do it again, it might be worth letting them know now in the event there's a waiting list.

Mike used to introduce each Conference by saying "We do this for ourselves and invite our friends." I have never felt he meant anything other than all of us.

Phil Schwartz

Obviously, Mike & Jim specifically addresses this thread in our chat.

Even if I never get to attend such a cool gathering of magical minds, it's still reassuring and nice to know that people can concert their efforts to bring about such a wonderful event. It's things like this convention and the Magic Castle which help make me feel proud to consider myself a "magician." Thanks for everybody's willingness to share info about the conference.