He’s a magician, photographer, historian, author, and consultant for numerous television and Broadway productions. His work with Doug Henning and Harry Blackstone Jr. has earned him a shelf of prestigious awards. Charles Reynolds reflects on magicians he has known, and magic he has created.

The 21st century has seen an explosion of magic on UK television and, as Head of Magic at Objective Productions, Anthony Owen has been responsible for producing much of it. In the past seven years, 35-year-old Anthony has overseen over 100 hours of magic programming, and more is on the way.

If, as Robert Louis Stevenson once suggested, wine is bottled poetry, then Eric Leclerc’s Impossible Bottles are bottled mystery — magic tricks frozen in time. “I find that magicians are a perfect audience for Impossible Bottles,” Eric maintains. “They are the ones who observe them and ponder them the most, staring at them the longest. It is the only magic trick where the spectator does not see the presentation or the build-up, only the end result. That end result is ultimately the only part of the effect that matters. And because the final object is so amazing, the how of the trick is still present, even if the spectators were not present to see the how to.”

Back in 1941, Geraldine Larsen penned a small book entitled The Diary of a Magician’s Wife. She was indeed married to a magician — author and magazine editor William Larsen Sr. — but her book was fiction, “being one week a month taken from the diary of Mrs. Lotta Hocus, the fascinating young wife of that famous amateur magician, Al Hocus.” Certainly, her magical family and friends could see glimpses of themselves reflected in the exploits of the Hocuses, stemming from Geraldine’s own mother’s advice: “Don’t Marry a Magician!”

What happens when a magician’s wife trades places with another man’s wife, who is not so into magic as much as she is into perfection, meticulousness, and stability? That was the subject of an episode of ABC’s new season of Wife Swap. Read all about Andrew and Melissa Martin’s two-week ordeal that aired on network television in January. Also featured this month is a report on Teller’s bloody and mysterious production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth currently running; the closing of Triple Espresso; magic duo the Gamesters’ new sexy Las Vegas venture; “A Moment With…Max Maven” about his new position at the Magic Castle; and much more.

Nineteen products are covered this month by John Lovick, Brad Henderson, Peter Duffie, Jason England, and Michael Claxton.

• Seriously Silly Live by David Kaye
• Impossible Card in Rope by John Rivav & Juan Cáceres
• School Daze by Black's Magic
• The Bammo Dekronomicon by Bob Farmer
• Don Alan's Magic Ranch
• Ascension by Joshua Quinn
• System 88 by Dr. Lisa Chin and Docc Hilford
• BLANK!, Mental Influence, The Lady Travels, and PSY Color Change Deck DVDs by Kenton Knepper
• Civil by Sam Fitton
• Business Card-iographic by Brian Curry
• The Original Escapes of Arthur Coghlan by Arthur Coghlan
• Catching Up with Milo and Roger by Dustin Stinett
• Fingers of Fury Vol. 1 DVD by Alan Rorrison
• Bunko by Jim Steinmeyer
• That Reminds Me by Michael Close
• Heiny 500 by Karl Hein

This month, Josh Jay again features the work of a single magician, and guess what? There’s only one card trick. Eric Leclerc is a young professional from Ottawa, Canada. His first language is French, but he’s equally fluent in English. Eric recently took first place in close-up for the Canadian Association of Magicians 2006 competition (he won the stage contest in 2003). His offerings here feature drinking straws, drivers’ licenses, bic pens, doll hands, and vodka!

David Kaye recently lectured at a wonderful convention in Israel, named MARS (Magic at the Red Sea). While at the convention two magicians, Dani Ryb and Josh Phaff, each told David that the big closer for their kid shows was Needle Thru Balloon. While this effect is usually relegated to “I haven’t done that in years” status, these two magicians close their shows with it!

Anthony Owen is back with another series of columns, sharing some of his mentalism-themed ideas with you. The plot for this month’s effect was created by Richard Pinner and Jon Allen during a discussion with Anthony and some other friends about the classic Any Card at Any Number problem.

With this issue, David Starr finishes his year of columns. As you know, he likes to experiment with a variety of non-box shapes. Looking at curves and spheres and tubes obviously presents new challenges when creating illusions. Boxes just seem to be more functional for magic. His latest offering, Tube Turner, may be inspired by classic box effects, but the “tube” element provides a practical opportunity for a new “twist,” quite literally.…

Bob Neale kicks off a six-month series. “Seeing the Dark” was the keynote address at Jeff McBride’s Mystery School in 2003. Given its length, this essay and the five original tricks that are part of it will appear in monthly installments starting with this issue.

Dear Show Doctor: “I am a strolling magician, and I would like to know the best ways to hand out business cards or marketing materials during strolling engagements. I want to make an unforgettable impression on people during my performances; yet, I’m getting very few responses from handing out my business cards and other materials. Why are people forgetting me and my show? Do you have any suggestions in this area?”

This month, Larry asks a very practical question for performing magicians: what are the “presentational frames” for the pieces in your repertoire? You may not have thought about it consciously, but he bets you will discover that your most successful pieces already have a frame. It can usually be captured in a word or short phrase, such as “story,” “experiment in uncanny coincidence,” “demonstration of skill.”