Salvano and Voitko mentioned above are great performers.

But, if it is funny you want... VERONIN is KING and Otto Wessely is Crown Prince.

Deceased or retired magicians?

Kaps and Cardini and Channing Pollack.

Also
Mac King- hes just so funny.
David Copperfield for advancing the art.

Everyone is forgetting the italian stalion Rocco! I love how he makes a complete mess of the stage breaking all conventional rules, gets away with it, and never thinks twice about!!!

The man has got a set!

My favs are

Tony Clark-The best card manipulation act in magic

Christopher Hart-THE HAND!!!!!!!

Bill Andrews-An amazing all around magician and a GREAT ball manipulator

One more set of opinions:

Best stage magicians according to all of the UFOs:

Jeff McBride
Lance Burton
Kevin James
Johnny Tompson
David Copperfield
and we feel the most underrated but sublime stage magician: Kirby Van Burch!
-Ed

Oh yeah. Kevin james and Topaz

Salvano

Watch out for Kenji Minemura of Japan. Wonderful to watch.

Rannie

Rocco hands down for content and personna.

By anychance do you like dove magic?
LoL
Nick

I think so....but they are VERY good Choices!

Jeff McBride- for artistic creativity & entertainment -knows so much & is good with it-also he seems such a great bloke very approachable.!

Michael Ammar- Very Entertaining & made close up magic a new concept for me!

Tommy Cooper- Totally Hilarious & reminded us not to be too serious about Magic!!!!!!

David Copperfield -Earlier days showing how Magic should be presented - graceful, funny & very theatrical-Him & Doug Henning bought magic to the masses to make it popular in the 70s.


Michael Finney-What you see is what you get!-Total Hilarious Professional Entertainer with a polished act!. If I had to hire 1 person to entertain 500 clients with a 45 min show-Theres no one better to do the job!!

Richard Ross-Made a Magic classic-Trendy again! You could hear a Pin Drop when he performed the Linking Rings as it was so amazing!!

Finally - A Wild card- Brent McLeod still attempting to rise to these great Heights working his Buns off in Presentation, Showmanship, Promoting & Learning all the time to even come near some of you Café Readers & all the above in Entertaining Magic to present to the Public!!

Cheers

Vito Lupo is my choice. Very creative a great stage persona. Even at 17 years old he did a wonderful clown magician and won FISM.

Lance Burton
David Copperfield
Demier (sp?)

Wow, the best stage magicians?? I guess Michael Ammar doesn't count then, right?

I would have to say;

David Copperfield - Come on...what hasnt the man done? Even if you don't like him, you have to admit that without him, magic wouldnt be where it is today as far as popularity and such. He's as great a showman as he is a magician.

Jeff McBride - Seems like most people are agreeing on this one. His stage show is brilliant and his techniques are out of this world. I was wondering the other day if there are any card moves McBride cant do...He is also a wonderful teacher...Its hard to beleive that he was the same kid that hid magic books from everyone.

James Dimmare - In my opinion, he has the best dove act in the world. He is one of the few, to me at least that still blows me away even after you know how he does his stuff...to me when he performs, its still magic.

My Best,
Allen

Does anyone know how I could obtain videos of some of these performers? I still don't know how I have been doing magic for 13 years without seeing the greats perform. Lack of cable maybe... I daresay it has forced me to be creative though!

I would suggest the DVD called 'Illusion' to see (some of) Copperfield's best stuff, 'McBride on Stage' to see some of Jeff's, and I wait till the next time WGM comes on fox and hope you catch Dimmare. Good luck!!

My Best,
Allen

The best is also Norm Neilsen and Joseph Grabriel.

Joseph's dove act is beuatiful and he really has a nice charisma on stage and repoire with the audience. He connects well.

Norm is just amazingly creative. His zombie violin is pure art.

Another one in close-up category is Tommy Wonder. A very creative mind indeed.

Kyle

Salvano.