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“

A Magician is not a Magician because he knows tricks, but because he knows Magic, the principles, the fundamentals. -Harlan Tarbell

”

Featured article The Genii-Orben Poll was conducted in 1949 and reported in the February, 1950 issue of Genii magazine. The article complained about how boring magic had become. "The largest single complaint about magic was its unoriginality." Amateur, semi-professional and professional magicians listed their most used tricks in their repertoire. The list consists of 85 tricks, the most popular first, with the total votes following the name of the trick. The ones with over 100 votes included: Linking Rings (287) Cut and Restored Rope (246) Die Box (141) Billiard Balls (137) Paper Tear (123) Twentieth Century Silks (111) Vanishing Cane (107) Egg Bag (100) Read more about The Orben-Genii Poll... Did you know... From MagicPedia's newest articles: ... Mac McDonald(1907-c.1982), of McDonald's Aces fame, was a Diamond Broker before he became a magician... ... Jack Merlin (c.1885-1943) was buried at Marion National Cemetery in Marion, Indiana... ... Houdini had a nephew, Harry Houdini Hinson, who was an amateur magician that died at the age of 21... ... Houdini wrote under the name "N. Osey" for both Mahatma and his own Conjurers' Monthly Magazine.... ... American author John Ball (who wrote the mystery novel "In the Heat of the Night" involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs in 1965) performed as a semi-professional magician in college as Jacques_Morintell... ... Joe Sternbach brought the New York Roundtable to the west coast by starting the Los Angeles Roundtable in 1946... See also Recent changes. Featured Tip Subscribe to MagicPedia updates MagicPedia RSS feed for new articles MagicPedia RSS feed for latest changes Follow @MagicPedia on Twitter

On this day May 16... 1888 - In the Los Angeles Times, Harry Kellar suggested several possible methods for Spiritualistic Fraud. 1958 - Richard Kaufman was born. 1908 - Harry Kellar bids farewell to the stage with Howard Thurston at his side. 2006 - George Sands passes away. Featured Video Paul Gertner Performs his Cups and Steel Balls In the news March 24, 2012, Cesareo Pelaez (1932-2012) (Marco the Magi), founder of Le Grand David, passed away peacefully after a long battle with congestive heart failure. March 21, 2012 Frank W. Dailey (1919-2012), Past National President of the Society of American Magicians (1983-1984), passed away. Upcoming Events... I.B.M. Annual Convention, Norfolk, Virginia, July 3 - 7, 2012 SAM Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada, July 23-26, 2012 Genii's 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash, Orlando Florida, October 4-6, 2012 Collaboration requests... Help MagicPedia by: Selecting a Random page and reviewing it. Making an article from the Wanted Page list. Adding Categories to articles. Adding public domain pictures to articles. Submitting items for "in the news" or "Upcoming Events" sections. All you need to do is join (free) and click "Edit"

Featured picture Jac Olten (1913-c.1995), who also gave himself the title of 'Count', was a professional manipulator who toured France, Germany, England, Africa, and the United States.