I will be in Austin, TX, for a few days soon. I mistakenly thought it would be easy to find out about the magic shops there. But, no, I need some help. Googling provided too much 'other stuff.' Is there a good site to help an 'out-of-towner' find serious retail shops plus the venues for street, restaurant,and theater magicians in the bigger cities?

Yellow Pages, the book.

I found a few at this web site

http://www.magicdirectory.com/Magic_Shopping/Shops/

Mike

Thanks. I arrived!

Hi, Ed.

This reply may be too late to help with this trip but for future reference you might want to go to http://www.infospace.com/ and do a search for "magic supplies."

You can also see a fairly-up-to-date list of magic shops by doing a google news group search for the alt.magic FAQ which is published periodically.

Hello Ed,
I was not familiar with either web site. They are now with my 'Favorites' for future reference. Thanks

We just returned from an enjoyable 5 days in Austin. Following the recommendation here, I used the Yellow Pages. Found four magic retail shops! Unfortuanately 3 of the 4 were closed. The other was listed as a bridal shop. When I found it, the name had been changed again. It is now the Party Store, Lemar and Oltorf.

The interesting owner,told me she had been running shops there for > 30 years. TWice she had tried exclusively magic inventories. Both failed. Loving magic, she might have tried once more if plans with a local magician had materialized. He (possibly 'The Great Scott?)died this year. Her Party Shop had one counter of magic (good, but limited selections). The rest of the store was packed with fine party decorations, invitations, costumes, gags, etc.

I never found a magic performance, but there were lots of other things to do and see around Austin.

Hope to see you soon, -E

The best thing to do when traveling to another city, if you want to find a magic shop, is to call the local IBM or SAM officers. Failing that, call a local magician.

I keep hammering home about the areas in which the internet is lacking. Finding current information of this type is one of those areas. Live people are almost always better sources.

Even yellow page ads can be hopelessly out of date. For example, if a shop closes 30 days before the yellow pages come out, that ad will be there for the entire following year. And if you aren't using one of the "real" yellow pages, or you are using the directory in your hotel, the information may be older than that.

There are a couple of other magic shops in Austin that you should have been able to find.

I've found several from the Dealers List in the back of MAGIC magazine. It's categorized by location!

If you ever go to Austin again, try Texas Magic Supply!