by Herb Scher

The New York Times, June 24, 2011

EVEN if the scores of magicians visiting here for New York’s first magic convention in nine years were to disappear in a puff of smoke, there would still be plenty happening on the local magic scene this weekend.

Saturdays typically find conjurers getting together to talk shop and share tricks. They gather at magic stores and at a Midtown Manhattan pizza restaurant, Cafe Rustico II, the site for an informal weekly meeting that began decades ago and continues as a proving ground and social club.

For those serious about mastering magic, the Rustico’s group can be an important resource. Newcomers may first have to show that their interest is genuine, but for an art based on secrecy, most of the magicians are generous about helping anyone who wanders in and wants to learn to amaze. “It’s like the medieval guild system in action, where apprentices learn from masters,” said Jack Diamond, a former mathematics professor who is a regular there.

And so, on a recent Saturday he huddled over a deck of cards at Rustico’s with his own mentor, Wesley James, who retired from a 25-year career as a full-time performer. Sol Stone, too, was there, at a table in the back covered not with plates and pizza crusts but with cards, coins, rings and other tools of legerdemain. At 88, Mr. Stone has attended these sessions regularly since 1945.

Many of the participants have been friends for decades. Although most earn their living through other means — Mr. Stone is a retired psychologist — the group has fostered professionals like Steve Cohen, who attended in the 1980s when he was a teenager and the group met at a deli.

“It forced me to practice, because you wanted to be able to show something you’d been working on,” said Mr. Cohen, who now stars each weekend in his show “Chamber Magic” at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Some magicians circulate among the scenes at Rustico’s and two of the city’s major magic stores, all in a Midtown magic zone, within a few blocks of Herald Square. At Tannen’s, the oldest local shop, aficionados pop in for magic jam sessions. At Fantasma Magic, Simon Lovell, an irreverent English card whiz, often hangs out before heading to his Saturday evening show at the SoHo Playhouse.

On another Saturday, a customer at Fantasma was learning a trick from Steve Dane, who works there.

“I have a dozen cards with different outcomes for the future,” Mr. Dane said. “The cards read, ‘You will meet a mysterious stranger’ or ‘You will be very happy’ or ‘You will take an exciting trip’ or ‘You will make a lot of money.’ ”

Mr. Dane showed the customer how, inevitably, the spectator picks the card that says, “You will make passionate love to a clown.” When the spectator looks up after reading the card, the magician is wearing a clown nose.

Fantasma is also the organizer of this weekend’s convention, Magic on Manhattan. In addition to talks, there will be a roster of top-flight acts, including several rarely seen locally, in two shows open to the public at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Liu Chen, a Taiwanese sensation, will perform, as will the quick-change specialists David & Dania. The event honors the master magician John Calvert, who turns 100 in August.

Several of the Rustico’s regulars acknowledged that the group had shrunk in recent years and that fewer young magicians attended. They suspect this was partly because of the Internet, where online magic groups and sources proliferate. But the Internet didn’t prevent Alex Stone, 35, from sitting down with Mr. James at Rustico’s.

“The age of close-up analog miracles has sort of come back,” said Mr. Stone, who is not related to Sol. “With so much of our daily experience mediated by technology, I think there is something refreshing and alluring about being mystified with a deck of cards, or a coin or a thimble, something very unassuming, which happens directly in front of you.”

Jerry Deutsch, a gregarious regular, spotted a family with two young children having lunch at Rustico’s and approached their table. “What’s on your finger?” he asked Avery Logan, 7. Mr. Deutsch gave the boy’s finger a squeeze, and it squeaked. He repeated the trick for Avery’s sister, Savannah, 4.

“Are you strong?” he said to Savannah, displaying a quarter in his hand. “Can you squeeze my hand, very hard?”

Savannah gripped his hand.

“Look what you did,” Mr. Deutsch said. “You are very strong!”

He opened his hand to reveal that the quarter was now bent. Savannah giggled. “I did it!” she exclaimed.

As Mr. Deutsch continued to entertain the children, Sol Stone performed tricks for their parents, Jim and Leigh Logan, who were visiting from Maryland. They remarked that he looked younger than 88.

“Magic keeps you young,” Mr. Stone replied. “I still come down about 45 weeks a year. This is my recreation. I’ve been at it for 81 years.”

A woman leaving Rustico’s with a friend was curious about the nature of the gathering.

“We are intrigued,” she said. “You all work in the same area? You belong to a club?”

Mr. Stone replied: “Did anybody show you any magic? That’s what we do here, we’re all interested in magic. Don’t leave without seeing something.”

He stood up with a pair of dice and said, “If you’ve ever played board games or gambled with dice, you may have noticed that the opposite sides of the die add up to seven.” He showed various combinations to illustrate this.

Then, holding a die firmly between his thumb and forefinger, he showed the side with one spot and said, “If I rub the one, it becomes a six.” Magically, it did.

“Bravo,” the woman who had inquired said.

Mr. Stone continued making the spots change, at one point “borrowing” a spot from the woman’s sleeve to change a four to a five and back again.

“So now you know what we do here on Saturday,” he said.

“That’s exasperating,” she responded, “that magicians never explain!”