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Last month we reported on the sad passing of June Horowitz, the first woman to serve as president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. She was 104 years old.  

Randy Vander Wal, the current president of IBM Ring 211, was on hand to witness one of Horowitz’ last tricks, one learned during a nigh century-long romance with the art.  

MLive, the channel that uploaded the video, had this say:

June Horowitz, one of magic’s most well-known and beloved magicians, performs a card trick when she was 104-years-old. Horowitz, who known for her sense of humor, wit, intelligence and willpower, helped shatter glass ceilings for female magicians. She started performing magic when she was around 6 or 7, sometime around 1920. She died at 104 on June 27, 2018. (Video footage is courtesy of Randy Vander Wal, Grand Rapids International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 211.)

There is an art to telling bad jokes. The deadpan delivery, the slightly-too-long pauses, the feeble explanation, they’re all vital to delivering a quip that invokes not laughter, but a long weary sigh as your audience realizes that you have wasted vital seconds of their life. You have, in essence, killed a tiny part of them with your words. It’s like being an evil wizard.

It’s in this manner that sleight-of-hand maestro, Patrick Kun, just committed mass murder in a trick video that opens with a clanger so deliberately bad I physically winced.  

He then followed it up with a really cool trick that actually has me considering picking up a micro-deck. The sleights are easy to follow on a second viewing, but the trick is crazy smooth the first time round. The slow-burn reveal of the switched card box is such a good way to open the routine too.

Kun makes his living performing live, hawking goods in slick ads for the likes of Coca Cola, and selling his own magic tools and accessories, including a really swank cardistry/performance deck called Mirage that I may just add to my collection.  You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

IKEA has a reputation for stark minimalism, but the Swedish furniture giant just got even more minimalist thanks to the quick fingers and wit of Irish magician and mentalist, Joel M. 

It’s a cute locale for a few cheeky sleight of hand tricks, including a fork-bending trick with a neat set up and a killer punchline. 

Joel posts videos on his YouTube channel regularly. You can also follow him on Instagram and Facebook.