Hi. I live in London. I want to subscribe to a magic magazine that will be useful to me. I have heard of Genii and its reputation as one of the best magic magazines though I've never read a copy before.

My QUESTION is whether I should subscribe to an established magazine like Genii or go for something more local (i.e. something from Britain). Any advice is well appreciated.

Thanks.

You should be able to buy individual editions of most magic magazines (I don't subscribe to Genii or Magic but I'll buy a copy when I'm at the local magic shop). I would recommend you buy a few issues of a few different magazines and then decide which one is most helpful. You may find that you tend to like one magazine more than the rest (for example you might prefer the columnists of one over another).

Genii is a very good magazine.

Magic Magazine is also very good.

Depends on what you want. Genii is more "high brow" coverage. Magic is more general and seems to cover the younger guys work a little more.

Both are excellent. I personally like Genii more. I have subscriptions to both.

If I can afford one magazine in magic IT WOULD BE GENII!!!

I don't subscribe to either Magic or Genii, but I pick up both whenever I am able to swing by a magic shop. Both are pretty good, in my opinion.

I take both and you couldn't go wrong choosing either. Both are top drawer magazines with monthly tricks that vary from beginner level to way past expert. Both will keep you posted on what is going on in magic, and give you enough ads to find just about any magical apparatus, book, or trick you could ever want.

I wanted to subscribe to a magazine so I checked out the biggest ones. And I have to say that none of them are for me. Seems like most of the content is either glossy overdone ads or celebrity stuff like in most magazines. Only these are magic community celebrities. I'm not especially interested.

And the tricks and techniques give you less value for your money compared to what you get from buying a regular magic book. Generally speaking that is. There are nuggets of gold of course. I also find Genii to have more content to my liking than the others I have seen so far. Just not enough for me to subscribe when there are so many unread books and manuscripts.

So what I do is to buy old issued whenever I need to look up something specific. There will typically be a reference to a certain issue in a discussion here, and I can go to the magic shop and find that back issue for a third of the price than the latest edition. I like treasure hunts and I'm lucky about half of the time.

However, I still would have wanted something to arrive in my mailbox had I found it and had I had a bit more cash than I do right now. Magazines like Trapdoor and Apocalypse I would have loved to subscribe to had it still been possible. Something with less photos of smiling people in makeup and more thoughts on mechanics.

Chances are you would disagree with me, but you should at least check out the different publications before subscribing, as Jeremy L suggests.

Nobini, I do not disagree with how you feel regarding magic material. As much as I admire the high profile magicians, I would rather read about techniques and mechanics of tricks. I like your idea and I think I will do that. When you say 'lucky half the time,' do you mean that the issue that you want is not on sale?

EuGeNiO

Eugenio, there is as far as I know only one small magic shop in my country and he still carries magazines and have them new every month, even though he is always left with a stack of unsold copies. It is a small country after all. All of his old issues are on sale.

But when I look for old magazine copies I tend to find the back issues I want only around half of the times. The other times they are either not there anymore or we simply cannot find them in the chaotic unsorted old boxes we need to search through.

BTW, if anyone is looking for old issues online, I believe that Genii does sell back issues too, as does The Magic Depot and other places, I'm sure. But with all the international shipping and weeks of waiting I either find what I want at my local store or I move on.

It took me several years before subscribing to a magazine. I also bought back issues when the price was right, mostly Magic and Genii. I got tired of being behind the times and finding out about the latest after it was old news. I've just started my 2nd year of Magic magazine. It seems to have a lot of card routines and would enjoy other areas of magic being written about but I'm glad that I have the subscription.

My favorite is Magic. It's just a fun read for Magic enthusiasts.

I also get Genii, and will continue to do so.

Also check out the mags from the IBM and SAM...
The Linking Ring and MUM.

You're from the UK? I recommend Magicseen.

http://www.magicseen.co.uk/

I bought the first few issues, and it was great! Don't buy many magazines lately, as they're to expensive to ship regardless of where I order them from. The majority of my favourite magicians are Brits, so this was far more interesting to me than Magic or Genii, both of which I always found a bit dull.

Cheers,

Chris