Merlin’s Librarian

Based in New York City, The Conjuring Arts Research Center is one of magic’s greatest treasures. Under the stewardship of Founder Bill Kalush, CARC has become the preeminent research facility for people studying magic and related variety arts, which include, but are not limited to: “psychic phenomenon, hypnosis, deceptive gambling, science and history of playing cards, mentalism, ventriloquism, juggling, and sleight of hand techniques.” 

CARC not only houses one of the largest libraries dedicated to magic in the entire world, they have created a wondrous search engine called Ask Alexander which allows the diligent researcher access to over 2,500,000 pages of text spanning back to the beginning of printing. CARC’s publishing department has produced several critically-acclaimed books on magic and magic history, as well as their biannual journal, Gibeciere.  I once wrote that if Bill Kalush had accomplished nothing more in his life than the publication of Gibeciere, he would have earned for himself an important spot in magic’s history.

I am thrilled to announce that I will be a featured columnist for a new online project produced by the Conjuring Art’s Research Center. A handful of magicians were selected as contributors and I am honored to be included among them. The direction of my “column” is still taking shape. As magician philosopher Eugene Burger put it, “Magic is a house with many rooms.” As a magician, my interests have taken me into many of them and I hope to share those experiences with the reader. My first article poses a question, a question I love asking my audiences as I find their answers illuminating:

“What word do magicians hate the most?”

I’ll give you a hint.  The word I am thinking of is practically synonymous with magic but many magicians will go well out of their way, even resorting to gibberish, to avoid uttering it.

If you would like to find out what this “magic word” is, please check out my inaugural post.

If you would like to see first-hand the power of magic words in action, get in touch with me. I would love to share my magic with you and your group.