Now that 70+ years of archives are available, it would be interesting to see what people think are the best tricks ever taught in Genii. I've been getting Magic for years and only recently subscribed to Genii. I personally think Ryan Swigert's Kickback is the best trick I've ever seen taught in a magazine but would be interested in researching the Genii archives for similar gems.

You'll find thousands of great tricks in the first 74 years of Genii. Literally ... thousands.

True. That's what makes my question interesting. Be interested to hear what people think are some of the best.

Little Kreskin in the March 2011 issue of Genii. It's the best one!

A few stand-outs from a purely subjective point of view:

VENETIAN DECK (Tom Stone), August, 2005: Is it a gag or a trick? Either way, in the new millennium, it's really the only way a working pro should be using the Electric Deck. Andi Gladwin told me Chris Mayhew said Tyler Wilson loved it.

DIMINISHING RETURNS (Daryl), September, 2005: A new plot in money magic based on a mathematical riddle, and one of the most brain-busting bill routines I've ever seen. No gimmicks—just a stack of currency and some inspired handling.

OSMOSIS (Al Schneider), March, 2006: This is Al at his best—a groundbreaking approach to the coins-through-silk. Three coins are magically plucked through a sheer scarf, one after the other, with no fiddling in between. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S9pavdVRKw

JACK PARKER ONE-MAN MAGICANAS (June 2006 & June 2007): Two stellar Magicanas by the late, lamented Jack Parker full of new plots, new sleights, and some of the most interesting card magic to come along in years.

RAZOR BURN (Eric LeClerc), October, 2006: This trick looks so good it doesn't have to make sense. The magician holds a disposable (i.e., Bic) razor at his fingertips, when suddenly, it morphs into a fully loaded matchbook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNQSqiGIxpc

PROGRESSIVE WILD COIN (Nathan Kranzo), October, 2006: Three silver coins become copper coins, which then become Chinese coins, all at the magician's fingertips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bpOtAB2oxs

BURGOON'S BALLOONS (Tom Burgoon), November, 2006: Five-plus minutes of entertainment using nothing more than a Change Bag stuffed with animal balloons, and that's before you blow one up and start making your favorite animal. Hilarious for kids and adults.

THROUGH THE DRINKING GLASS (R. Paul Wilson), January, 2009: The holy grail of impromptu card transpositions. One card is placed under a drinking glass, another is placed on top of the glass, and a third is shown on the deck before all three change places. Based on a Peter Duffie two-card transpo.

BALLOON BANK-NITE (Hiro Sakai), February, 2009: Tom Sellers' Bank Nite plot gets a makeover from Hiro Sakai, who performs it with a folded hundred-dollar bill in one of five inflated balloons hanging from a rope that's suspended between two mic stands. Easy to do, fills the stage, and you can carry the whole trick in a coin purse. (a big coin purse)

INTERPLAY (Bro. John Hamman), March 2009: A fascinating handling for Twisting the Aces, followed by a transposition of all four cards with another four-card packet. This generated a lot of buzz on the Genii Forum when it first came out, and Bob Farmer has some great work on it that will be published in an upcoming Magicana. (Bob willing)

SIGNED QUARTER IN BALLOON (Michek Huot), May 2009: Michel could have released this as a one-trick DVD, but he chose to send it to the magazine he loves. And when MAGIC rejected it, he sent it to Genii HEYOOOOOOOO! A spectator lobs his initialed quarter into the air, and when it hits an inflated, transparent balloon in your hands, it drops inside. The balloon is popped, the quarter is returned, and the audience is dumbfounded.

PETE McCABE'S TWILIGHT ZONE (September 2009): Definitely a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of trick, but totally awesome nonetheless—you hold a coin at your fingertips a foot or so in front of a mirror on any wall (living room, hallway, whatever) and ask a spectator to point to the spot on the mirror where they see it, then you reach over with your free hand and pluck the coin from that spot. At that moment, the coin is no longer in your other hand. Like I said—awesome.

YANNICK LACROIX'S BERMUDA TRIANGLE (September 2010): Three coins vanish and reappear on the table inside a makeshift triangle formed by the coins themselves. A natural follow-up (or lead-in) to Camille Gastine's "Trangulation," published in the December, 2005 issue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6JqYhYs6uo

My thanks go out to David Acer for his post here. Some wonderful effects to discover! For someone such as myself whom is relatively new to magic the iGenii archive is a fantastic resource.

So cheers Mr Acer, and cheers to Mr Kaufman for making these past volumes available.

Yes, a big thank you to David Acer for passing along those favorites. There is SO MUCH to discover in these volumes, it's sometimes hard to wrap my mind around!

No question - iGenii is a mind-blowing resource. If you're looking for some focus, you might also want to check out these three entries on Magicpedia:

* A list of all the tricks in the original William Read Woodfield Magicana series, which ran from 1948 to 1949:
http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Magicana

* A list of all the tricks in Charlie Miller's "Magicana New Series," which ran from 1964 to 1978 (contributors like Roy Benson, John Carney, Albert Goshman, Bro. Hamman, Larry Jennings, Ed Marlo, Harvey Rosenthal, Faucett Ross, Roy Walton, etc):
http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Magicana_New_Series

* A list of all the Magicana tricks published in the Kaufman era, from 1998 to present (Asher, Avis, Britland, the Bucks, Dingle, Duffie, Elmsley, Farmer, Fisher, Fulves, Goldstein, Goodwin, Hamman, Hartman, Hollingworth, Jennings, Kimlat, Kosby, Lorayne, Maven, Maze, McClintock, Ogawa, Regal, Sakai, Sanders, Sankey, Schneider, Steinmeyer, Swain, Wagner, Weber, Yedid, and the list goes on and on):
http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Magicana_Kaufman

Awesome. Thanks David!

Wow thanks David!

TIMMY TOILET PAPER (February 2004):This is one of the best comedy routines I have ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0J9nHHaOjs

Many thanks!

Thanks. Have never really used the online datae base before ... till this thread

I'm going to post one here that I just came across: Larry Jenning's "Prefiguration," from February, 1965. I read about this trick in the current issue's review of the "Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks" DVD. I didn't know the trick and found it using the Ask Alexander database. Fantastic effect, fun to perform, and similar to -- and in some ways superior to, since it's genuinely impromptu -- Yves Doumergue's "Ten for Ten," which was wall the rage here a few years ago.

FYI, the Ask Alexander database is a tremendous resource.

Thanks to bugjack, I went to look up Prefiguration and in doing so found a variation by Randy Wakeman called Fore-figuration in the April 1991 issue. You might want to check it out.

Bumping this thread for more ideas

Subscribe to Genii and dive in. The deal for international customers is superb and yes, you get the whole Genii archive through the Conjuring Arts Research Center. And re-read David Acer's earlier post; his suggestions are superb.

Best,
Vlad

Already subscribed

The tricks in David Acer's post are so great. This is the reason I bumped the thread!

The strongest collection of tricks for me was in the GENII GOES TO TOKYO (May 2000) issue.

Other gems include LuLu Lemon by Chris Mayhew. And don't forget the GENII double issue from last Nov/Dec - which was a 'best of collection' for tricks published in GENII over the years.

Another favourite is THROUGH THE TRAPDOOR by Jim Steinmeyer.

And other suggestions can be found here:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......m=226&16

Joe

Cognitive Color Change by Tom Stone is another favourite.