🍎 THE MAGIC APPLE — Local services in Los Angeles

My experiences with The Magic Apple/Brent Geris have been nothing but superlative. I have not been into the store physically yet (so far all of my shopping has been over the internet as I live 1,000 miles from the LA area), but hope to check that box before too much longer. Brent has given me excellent service including contacting me via email when he had a question. He also processes orders in a very timely fashion - orders have always arriven sooner than I expect.

If you are considering getting into magic, I can’t recommend highly enough visiting a real brick and mortar store. You get to see and feel stuff that you may fall in love with. And, as a bonus, you can never tell who you may run into. Here are a couple of stories to illustrate the point:

In 1981 (the year I started in magic), trade show/cruise ship magician Charles McFarland and I were flying a LearJet for a company in west Texas and would take our people to Denver on a regular basis. Charlie had already gotten into magic (at age 29, I had never even seen a card trick) and he knew where to go. We went straight to Zeezo’s Magic Castle in the mall where I witnessed the great Lamont Ream (demonstrator for Zeezo’s at the time) perform an ace assembly for small crowd at the counter. Lamont had some of the smoothest hands in the business. When it was over I felt light-headed and couldn't quit smiling. I, happily, have been a card addict ever since.

On another trip that same summer, we dropped in on Steve’s Mile High Magic near downtown Denver. Proprietor Steve Aldrich knew Charlie and immediately told us that we could not leave his store, not for a second. He wouldn’t tell us why but, in an hour, it became clear. In walked Joe Stevens who was escorting Dai Vernon, The Professor, from Wichita to Los Angeles. I bought one of Vernon’s magic books from Steve, whereupon The Professor, as was his custom, took a coin out of his pocket, drew an outline around it and signed the inside of the outline. I still have that book.

A few minutes later, a man walked in with his son (@ 11 years old). Vernon did The Princess Card Trick for the boy and we were all suitably amazed by both the trick and The Professor’s bearing and performance. I’ve often wondered if the boy ever learned of the magnitude of that chance encounter with one of the greatest magicians of all time. Although a newbie, I realized how special that day was and will never forget it. Neither will Charlie.

Special things happen at brick and mortar magic shops. Yes, you might meet/see someone famous, but the real magic lies in searching for and finding the miracles and mysteries that exist in every corner of every magic shop around the world. Learning and perfecting a magical effect is just plain fun and is virtually guaranteed to make new friends for you.

The Magic Apple, I’m quite sure, will be worth the trip for anyone interested in venturing into one of most entertaining, fun and mysterious fields in existence. Proprietor Brent Geris is the ideal wizard to introduce you to this wonderful new world. Go there soon! You...

Absolute HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! Do NOT go here. Spent $200 And got horrible service. I think it was the owner, short dude with nasty red skin infection all over his body, is very cold and rude and NOT helpful. If you ask him a question it's like he's doing you a favor by helping you. Anyways, I was the 1st person in the store and was shopping and was piling up my shopping cart and then another customer comes in and they completely dropped me and start helping the other customer when I wasn't even done asking questions or shopping, I was like okay cool no problem I'll let it slide in the meantime while I was waiting the other guy that works there which was pretty nice and helpful so I thought, he starts showing the other customer a trick and it kind of intrigued me and I wanted him to show me but I guess he already put it away but I was ready to buy it because I liked the effect so much but I wanted him to actually do it on me so I can see it first-hand close-up and he was like you already saw what it did already put it away so I ended up not buying it all because he didn't want to "go and get it again" and mind you there was nobody else in the store except me and one other person.

If you do decide to shop here make sure you don't touch any of your magic tricks to buy and make sure you Clorox wipe them down with bleach cuz you might get some kind of disease from the owner or whoever the shorter guy is with the red nasty skin I think that's why he's so mad...

I have always taken an interest in magic but never thought it was very accessible to begin. I couldn't have been more wrong. One invite to The Magic Castle and I had to learn. "Where would I even begin to learn? " I asked myself. Enter The Magic Apple.

Since day one of this journey, Brent and his staff have been some of the most helpful and kindest individuals in educating myself on the craft. I first stopped by just trying to look for effects I had seen performed and were easily purchased. Easily purchased does not mean easy to perform.

Over the last few months they have recommended so many useful books and resources to learn from as well as some of my favorite things to carry with me from day to day. B'wave, Double Cross, and especially TIES, just to name a few.

Always looking forward to stopping by and learning something new whatever that may be. Of course they are a business, but I've never felt pressured to purchase something just because they need a sale. They always seem to take the time to assist me to find something that's trying to fit my needs or current goal in magic.

If you're in L.A. Be sure to stop by for something that will definitely bring a smile...