Welcome to The Magic Portal

Welcome. My name is Steven Schneiderman, and I am the webmaster of The Magic Portal and Magic Reviews web sites. I publish and distribute an electronic newsletter to over 700 magicians world-wide every two weeks. I re-publish my newsletter columns and product reviews on this blog as time allows. If you want to read the latest and greatest magic news from my point of view, then you should subscribe to the newsletter by doing so here:

http://www.m-a-g-i-c.com/lists/subscribe.htm

I have been involved with magic since I was five when my Dad taught me my first card trick. As I grew older, my Uncle Harry began teaching me sleights like the French Drop and routines with the Cups and Balls. My Uncle used to own a magic and joke shop in Manhattan, and my Dad used to work in it as a teenager making effects like the Chinese Sticks.

In the 4th grade I appeared as Houdini Jr. in P.S. 162’s variety show. I did a few tricks from a store purchased magic set, created a tree from newspaper, and ended with a mind reading card trick which failed due to an inept assistance who did not understand the meaning of a key card. As the curtains closed on me, I boldly walked forward and parted the curtains to tell a joke I heard Red Skelton tell on television the night before. I saw the look of shock and disbelief in my parents’ and teacher’s faces. This was not in the rehearsal. At age 11 I was winging it. I told the joke I had heard the night before — the joke about a bigamist going to heaven. There wasn’t a dry eye or seat in the house. As the audience of 600 stood and applauded, I got a feeling in my gut that I can’t put into words. I was hooked.

Not wanting to disgrace the name of Houdini with my blue humor, I changed it to Shandu, The Greatest Boy Magician, and performed at kids parties and school shows until I became a teenager. At that time I dropped the stage name and joined the IMPS, a teenage magic club in NYC under the wing of the SAM. I became vice president during my second year and learned a lot from the adult lecturers that visited us.

In high school I got hooked on close-up and manipulation and made friends with folks like Eric DeCamps, Meir Yedid and Jeff McBride. I did the Tannen Jubilee every year and the Larry Weeks conventions every quarter. I lived and breathed magic. I honed my close-up skills to become the second best card man in NY or at least that’s what I told Eric and he believed it for a while, I think. Meir and I would get together and hang out in fast food joints doing magic for the folks who hung out there, and we would brainstorm new effects for his books and column. This is back when Meir had all his fingers. I’ve got a great picture of Meir shaking hands with Sgt. Slaughter of WWF fame (with only 9 of Meir’s fingers showing — prophetic because Meir had his accident soon after the show)

Eventually Meir landed at Tannens full-time and he recruited me to write a column for Tannens Magic Manuscript for a few years. Around this time Eric was working the Magic Townhouse, and between both friends, I was pretty busy. I helped Eric write his first set of lecture notes and was there to lend support during the production of his first magic videotape. I also coached him on an unforgettable water escape at the Cresthaven Country Club (pix on my site). And you thought he only did close-up. Meir produced one of my card effects, Card Marx, and kept me pretty busy editing his instructions and books. We did a number of projects together. It was fun while it lasted.

I also hung out with a former circus clown, juggler, fire eater and magician, Scott Morris. He frequently kept me out all night, hanging out in clubs like CBGBs watching Jeff Crozier do magic and sing. Scott is quite the world traveller and he taught me the circus arts. Little did I know that years later these skills would come in handy entertaining my own children on rainy days.

During my college years I started writing my own effects and routines down, and when I was 25 I began publishing my own little magazine called Ruminations, Magic That Makes You Think! I had a small list of subscribers including folks like Penn & Teller, Mac King, Jay Sankey, Steve Cohen and others. I did this for two years until I could not handle it anymore. Working full-time and doing magic did not mix for me, and I dropped out of magic pretty suddenly after I wrote Rocco Silano’s first book on sleeving. Most of my stuff got packed away or given away, and as I moved, first to New Jersey and then to Oklahoma, my magic stuff stayed tucked away in boxes.

When my first child, Alex, turned two I rediscovered my magic and starting buying stuff like crazy. I could finally afford what I wanted, and I started reviewing and publishing my reviews online. I started my web sites, published a column for GENII for a year, and basically got back into magic part-time.

As I end this entry, the culmination of almost 40 years of magic ideas is getting ready to appear in the September 2006 issue of The Linking Ring in my own one-man parade. I am very proud and happy to bring to this magic fraternity.