Blog
The Honest Liar
News, updates, thoughts and essays about magic, cooking, pizza, baseball, cinema and more, along with an occasional book review. Also a periodic feature revisiting entries from my Take Two series in tandem with past book reviews.
Howard Schwarzman: Wishes Fulfilled
Howard Schwarzman died, at the age of 92, on July 21, 2020. News of his death first came to be known in the magic community about a month later, at which time I wrote this tribute, which was posted at the Vanishing Inc. website. You can find it there accompanied by some excellent photographs, and a rare video of Howie performing John Ramsay’s “Three Coins in the Hat.” However, now that my blog is active I wanted to add my tribute here as well, and to draw attention, and tribute, for some who may have missed it at the time.
The End of An Era
Al Cohen, the legendary and beloved Washington D.C. magic dealer, passed away on December 13th. To mark his passing, I am posting here the cover feature article I wrote for Genii magazine that appeared in the March 2002 issue.
Vernon’s Elegant Selected Card Management
In the mid-1980s I visited the Magic Castle and had the opportunity to session with Dai Vernon, at his regular seating area that was then located immediately outside the Close-up Gallery. Although throughout the late ‘80s I spent many more visits with the Professor and got to know him better, it was late in his life and we didn’t typically session so much as chat about magic, along with many other subjects. So although this was not the first time we had met, the particular encounter has always stood out in my memory.