This isn't the type of show that is going to get a lot of publicity but it is going to be a special and entertaining night. Tom Klem has organized Remembering Mike Bornstein, a tribute to a beloved local magician who created a series of well-regarded magic effects and also performed in the 1940s as Kolma, the Magical Mandarin.  The show will be presented Friday, May 26 by Ring 26 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in New York.
The event provides an opportunity to see magicians David Oliver, Dave Chandler, and Rene Clement perform the type of magic that was Mike's forté. Oliver and Chandler are both accomplished magicians who perform regularly at Monday Night Magic as well as many other venues. Rene Clement is a sklled and funny local magician who knew Bornstein for years.

Remembering Mike Bornstein
Friday, May 26, 7:30 p.m.
The Musicians' Union Building
322 West 48th Street, at 7:30 p.m.
Free Admission
Featuring: Rene Clement, Dave Chandler, David Oliver
Tom Klem (Master of Ceremonies)

Veteran magician and magic store owner Denny Haney has influenced many up and coming magicians over the years, including Scott Alexander and Malcolm Puckering. The two younger magicians originally met each other in the orbit of Haney's store in Baltimore and have worked with each other both on their individual acts and increasingly as partners, including a recent appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Here Denny, Scott, and Puck chat about their interconnecting careers, Scott and Puck's process of getting their performances together for America's Got Talent, the state of magic today, and the state of magic retail (The ​​​Denny & Lee Magic Studio continues as a brick and mortar hub for magic in the Baltimore community at a time when these types of local resources are becoming harder to find).

Ricky Smith brought his magic products and sleight-of-hand expertise to the Saturday magic hangout at Cafe Rustico yesterday. Ricky took time to offer sleight-of-hand tips to anyone who was interested and also demonstrated his products, including his system for making a card magically appear in a sealed envelope inside a notebook​. Ricky also created a new booklet of magic effects especially for the sale. For those who weren't able to attend, Ricky's products can be found online at diagonalpalmshift.com.

The gang of magic lovers hanging out at Rustico on Saturday ranged from age 7 to 93 and much magic knowledge was shared. For more info about Cafe Rustico and the other magic get-togethers in New York, go here.

• Finding Vintage Joy in Georgia

by Herb Scher

There I was roaming around Cartersville, Georgia, poking into Main Street shops on a sunny Saturday. I was in town for my nephew’s wedding and we had a little extra time after a breakfast thrown by relatives of the bride. In my fantasy world of hunting for vintage items it’s these small, lost-in-time towns where the treasures lie. Many times I’ve imagined wandering into some dusty old shop and finding the magic items of my dreams.

But these scenarios hardly ever come true. First of all most of these places aren't so lost-in-time. And, in my experience it’s extremely rare to find magic items in random thrift stores, for example. More likely you’ll find mismatched sets of drinking glasses and out-of-date cookbooks. 

I didn’t even really have magic on the mind at all when I wandered into the Creative Tag Estate Sales Shop. There seemed to be random bric-a-brac all over the place. There was stuff on the floor, stuff on the counters, and stuff in Tupperware tubs. One feature that stood out immediately was a huge wall of wooden cubby holes that stretched from floor to ceiling for about forty-five feet with a tall ladder that would move along the length of the wall on a metal track. There was also a massive antique cash register sitting in a recess in the shelving area. The expansive shop had previously housed a hardware store that had been run by four generations of the same family.

​I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for in this shop, but it seemed that rather than expecting to find individual treasures from the past, it was the building itself that was the main artifact of interest. I had my camera with me and hoped there would be a chance to take some interesting photos. After a brief conversation with one of the workers there I was offered the opportunity to roam around the building’s second floor, which it turned out itself contained a fascinating hodge-podge of items that had been stored or jettisoned over what must have been at least a century.

After about an hour of shooting up there, I finally pulled myself away and wandered back downstairs. It was time to head back to the agenda of the weekend. On the way out, I stopped to say a brief hello across a counter to the store’s proprietor, who hadn’t been around when I arrived earlier. As I greeted her, I looked down and there I saw something that caught me by surprise. Directly in front of me was a card box, specifically a box of blue Steamboats. I spotted one of the old blue tax stamps, putting the box immediately into the realm of an earlier era.