By Steve Trash and Rory Johnston

By Alan Howard

With the Masters of Illusion TV series still syndicated around the world, many of the masters themselves have now taken to the road. The open-ended tour of Masters of Illusion — Live! brings the magic from the screen to stages across the country.

By Richard Hatch

His show is billed as Magic, Mind Reading and Mystery: An Intimate Evening with Paul Vigil. A soft-spoken man in a three-piece suit, Vigil creates aura of wonder each week within the elegant surroundings of… a tattoo parlor?

By Diego Domingo

Billboard magazine was more than just a collection of show reviews, listings of who’s where, and gossip columns. It was the communications hub of American entertainment in the early 1900s, keeping magicians — and all other acts — in touch, no matter where they roamed.

Billed as “Celebrating 100 Years of Magic at the London Palladium,” Palladium Magic brought together a once-in-a-lifetime collection of magic luminaries at the venerable showplace. The show was crafted and assembled over the course of two years by producer Paul Stone, and everything came together successfully on Monday night, September 19, 2011.

It’s spooky. It’s wacky. It’s Ed Alonzo’s Psycho Circus of Magic & Mayhem, which appeared all last month in Southern California as Knott’s Berry Farm underwent their annual transformation into a gigantic Halloween Haunt, where Ed Alonzo’s 35-minute show played three times a night.

With a population of 70,000, Zamora is a pretty town in the west of Spain, very close to Portugal, where an international magic festival has been held with great success for the past eighteen years. During these years, a total of 128 magicians from 22 countries have performed at the festival.

Melinda, known as “the first lady of magic,” became popular in the ’90s through her appearances on The World’s Greatest Magic specials and various other Gary Ouellet-produced shows. Then, practically without warning, she left the magic scene. Now, after almost a decade, Melinda has decided to come back, appearing in the new V show at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas

Farewell tributes to Earle Oakes and Burton Sperber.

Twenty products are reviewed this month by David Charvet, Peter Duffie, Jason England, Gabe Fajuri, Brad Henderson, Will Houstoun, and Francis Menotti:

Avant-Cards by Wesley James
The Dove Whisperer with James Dimmare
Pandora by Liam Montier
Slo Motion by Joe Litvinchuk
The Latitude 2 and The Longitude by Domanik Mastrianni
Pierced by Chris Piercy
Metal Eclipse by Tristan Mory
Muckless Muck by Jared Kopf
McComb’s Magic — 25 Years Wiser by Billy McComb
Okito on Magic by Robert Parrish
Stitch by David Gabbay
Kodell: Do Something Different by Jack Kodell
No Smoking Zone by Nathan Kranzo
I Can Still See Me by Celeste Evans
Tales of Enchantment by Walt Anthony
Wacky Packet by Nick Trost
Color Change: The Arcane Art of Transfiguration (with Playing Cards) by Crispin Sartwell
Ultra Gum by Spidey, Deven Ye, and Richard Sanders
Recharmed, I’m Sure by Lance Pierce
Ghost Writer by Spider

This month’s “Talk About Tricks” is all about one person — Paul Vigil. Paul speaks with conviction about the magic he performs. He hates most magic tricks and is only interested in the strongest possible effects. Anything less than that is a waste of time. In this one-man issue, Paul details his routines for Diplopia, which requires no sleight of hand, High Five, and Sympathy (for the Devil) Cards, both of which require very little technical handling. Which isn’t to say that these effects are easy…

John C. Green to Al Munroe
When it comes to letters from John C. Green to Al Munroe, Egyptian Hall Museum has an embarrassment of riches. Two huge binders are filled with hundreds of pages of correspondence between these two gentlemen — Green a small-time performer who at age 83 was still going strong; and Munroe, an indomitable researcher of magic’s lesser-known personalities. Most astonishing is the fact that Egyptian Hall’s binders represent only one-third of the existing Green-Munroe correspondence. The other two-thirds were donated to Bob and Elaine Lund’s American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan.

Triple Shot
In this short but sweet coffeehouse effect, you simply and confidently wager twenty bucks that you can influence your coffee mate to select any one of three different sugar packets lined up in a row on the table. You never miss.

What Would Francis Freud Coppola Say?
Just how insecure are you?
We all know that, after a performance, it’s not enough to hear “Hey, nice show.” That falls into the category of “damning with faint praise.” Acceptable compliments include effusive fawning, unrealistic comparisons, and superlatives delivered with conviction. Our reputation as insecure ubergeeks is not entirely undeserved. What happens when insecure ubergeeks compete? Do magicians secretly want other magicians to fail?

Up Close and Personal
There are many and various successful approaches to the presentation of close-up magic. Choosing material and a style that suits you is always integral to that success. The possibilities are limitless. Exploring a range of styles helps you to find what you connect with and enjoy the most. And much of close-up magic can also translate to the stage.

A Green Routine for Multum in Parvo
Water in a small cup multiplies again and again to eventually fill many glasses. It’s a perfect trick to teach many lessons: conservation, salt water vs. fresh water, and the importance of natural resource protection.