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Okay so who's yours and why!?

I really like Daniel Garcia! I think he brings great comedy to his performances and gets great reactions! He's so likable you don't want to try and catch him out. Most of the time I watch something I'm thinking how are they doing it and when I watch his tricks I just kinda get to into it to think about how he's doing it.

So.. What about YOU!? If your magician isn't that well known you could provide your favorite effect or video from youtube or something!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJsHmChXLY

Juan Tamariz is one of the few performers I have ever seen that can make an hour of non-stop card magic exciting (to me at least). His sheer energy, enthusiasm and love of the performance is stellar. I normally don't care too greatly for card magic, but I love to watch Juan Tamariz at work!

Richard Osterlind reminds me of Peter Falk, and it's a great persona for a mentalist - friendly, engaging, and thoroughly disarming. I think the Columbo comparison's a good one, as he seems to effortlesly sail through his routines, despite a lot of very carefully thought-out detail and subtlety under the surface.

David Williamson is, to my mind, the perfect close-up magician. You can easily forget that he's so innovative and technically talented. You can also easily forget that you're being fooled. David Williamson isn't about the 'trick', he's about the fun of it. Watching him perform is like getting lost in an absurd joke. Great stuff.

It took me a while to fully appreciate Max Maven's performance style, despite being a huge fan of the magic he's published. Having seen him live, however (as opposed to on a video screen) I finally see the point. The guy is very classy, incredibly clever and dryly hilarious. Any American performer that knows the power of the words 'oompa oompa' on a British audience (and has the guts to exploit it) is guilty of genius beyond compare.

John Lenehan is hilarious. 'nuff said.

Terry Herbert is great fun and true gentleman - on and off stage.

Okay, and there's that Derren fella too.

EDIT: I CAN'T SPELLE

Plenty of previous threads on this topic, check out http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic459.php for starters.

Mandrake wrote:Plenty of previous threads on this topic, check out http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic459.php for starters.

That thread is 5 years old! perhaps he wanted to know peoples current opinion...

I'd have to say Michael Ammar. His sponge ball, cups n balls, card and IT magic is something special. He has such a range and he does it all well

I think there's a clear difference between Favourite and Best in history.

Robert Houdin might be one of the most important magicians in the history of ever, but I'll never have the experience of seeing him perform, and for all I know, I might not like his style.

D_Sharp wrote:

Mandrake wrote:Plenty of previous threads on this topic, check out http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic459.php for starters.

That thread is 5 years old! perhaps he wanted to know peoples current opinion...

I'd have to say Michael Ammar. His sponge ball, cups n balls, card and IT magic is something special. He has such a range and he does it all well

Ammar's a case in point. Great magician, but I don't enjoy watching him perform. It's that style thing again.

I have a few but in particular Tommy wonder springs to mind. I have only seen a few of his performance but he seem's to perform his magic with such charm,elegance and grace and IMHO these are thing's that seperate performing magic and performing a trick.

The idea was to indicate an additonal point of reference and perhaps enable comparison to more current thinking. There are other threads on TM along similar lines so plenty of thoughts and comments to take into account.

I still rate Doug Henning, David Nixon and Chan Canasta very highly but we're not going to see them perform any more so opinions like that are perhaps made through rose tinted spectacles to a certain extent?

Lennart Green for me. Amazing. His tricks genuinely surprising and exiting. They are also hard as hell and as for the Snap deal...

great replies! I'm enjoying looking them up!! Keep them coming!

can't narrow it down to one I'm afraid, but, in no particular order

- David Copperfield
- David Williamson
- Eugene Burger
- Derren Brown
- Rudy Coby
- Terry Herbert
- Penn & Teller
- Paul Daniels

Still alive and working: Lance Burton, Bill Malone. Totally different styles, but they're both fantastic magicians.

In the past: Dai Vernon and Cardini. Both of them were so monumental, it's hard to think of any card workers better than them.

More present probably Max Maven.

Not to distant past but passed away about 15 years ago Masklyn Ye Mage, (a.k.a. Tony Andruzzi)

In no particular order

Doug Henning
Shawn Farquhar
Donovan (although I'm pretty sure nobody has heard of him, he is a street magician in Vancouver BC)
Al Goshman
Sid Lorraine
Romain (The Monarch of Manipulation)
both dini's (sly and car)

And I'm sure the list is longer but these are the ones that jump into my head.

These performers have figured out who they are accepted thier character and it just all fits together perfectly and just an absolute joy to watch. When watching them the magician in me does not come out. I don't try to figure it out or analyze it. I just watch with a stupid grin on my face just truly enjoying what is so wonderful about magic.

How can we leave out the Grandmaster of Close Up - Rene Levand

Also, I have always been a ig fan of David Copperfeild



Big D