I live on the east coast, somewhat isolated from the world of magic, and so there are lots of magicians I never get to see work. Benjamin Barnes of Chicago is one of them. When Carisa Hendrix first approached me with the idea of doing a cover story on him, I took the opportunity to ask a bunch of people their opinion of Ben. All were effusive. Ben is the person who books the Chicago Magic Lounge, an extremely successful venue in Chicago that I’ve always enjoyed visiting. He’s also a regular performer there. The videos I’ve linked to in the article will give you an idea of his style, which I like a lot. Classy but not too subdued; impressive without a lot of forced excitement. And he fooled Penn & Teller.
The Tenyo Company of Japan is about to release its new line of tricks for 2025. I offer a review of the new tricks, with videos of them, and then Yuki Kadoya takes you to the annual Tenyo Festival which took place at the end of September in Tokyo with a full report. As my time in charge of Genii draws to a close, this may be the last of these annual reviews you see here. I hope you’ve enjoyed them.
David Britland’s “Cardopolis” has run in Genii for many years and this month’s column will be the last. He’s going to devote his attention to a paid version of his Cardopolis website at https://cardopolis.substack.com. The free version will still appear periodically at https://cardopolis.blogspot.com. For his final column, David divulges a gussied-up presentation for the “21-Card Trick” perfectly matched with a stealthy method.
We hear the expression that you have to “make a trick your own” when you perform it. Most magicians don’t know exactly what that means, but in this month’s “Expert at the Kids Table” David Kaye will explain it. * John Gaughan’s “Chamber of Secrets,” which Dustin Stinett will continue in these pages going forward, treats a fairly silly trick of Floyd Thayer’s, but one which many collectors nevertheless hunt for. * Jamy Ian Swiss brings you Noah Levine’s handling of the justifiably famous “Stencel’s Aces” in this month’s “Magicana.” Noah, who will shortly become the Magic Editor here at Genii, has most improbably improved Bob Stencel’s original handling. * “Panmagium” brings, of all things, a fine card routine from Jonathan Pendragon. * In “Thoughts …” Rafael Benatar continues his exploration of the Double Lift. * Robert Mansilla shares a nice routine using a red/blue double-backed card in “Artifices.” * We closing in on the last few installments of Jon Racherbaumer’s column “Exhumations,” and this month we get a trick by Ed Marlo and Don May. * Shawn McMaster brings us yet another month of Magic Castle Madness in “Knights at The Magic Castle.” * “The Eye” gazes over many realms from which Vanessa Armstrong plucks the most interesting stories. * “Light from the Lamp” has been where Genii’s reviews have been parked since October 1936. This month David Britland reviews books, Mark Phillips reviews tricks, and Joe M. Turner reviews videos. Joe has been with us for many decades, always doing great and thoughtful work for our readers. This will be his final column. Thanks, Joe!
