Tannen's Magic — Local services in New York

Stopped by here on our latest trip because my fiance knows I love magic and wanted me to indulge. And I'm so glad she added it to our schedule!

Once you open the door, you're just hit by this magic secret den kind of feeling. The shelves are lined with magic artifacts from antique magic times. Not only that some are from famous magicians. If you're into magic you can definitely figure out who they belong to (I mean that mask definitely has to be Jeff McBride).

When we stopped in there were just a few people, I assumed regulars or at least someone who is also into the hobby but able to contain themselves. They were just chatting away at some of the latest tricks to come out. One of the other patrons asked if the person behind the counter could demo one of the items he was thinking of buying. The magician behind the counter, Kevin, happily obliged. It was just one trick but he knew how to perform it perfectly. And then as my lady and I were taking all the spectacle of it all in, Kevin asked if we'd like to see a trick. Naturally we said yes and he did one for her and she's been talking about it since!

It eventually got a little steady with a few people coming in. Some just stopping in. Others also in the hobby. My favorite thing about the store was how you could tell Kevin was passionate about magic. I couldn't help listening to another customer talk to him about certain magicians and tricks and the way Kevin responded was so knowledgeable and so excited. And then when I got to ask about certain items I was looking for he got out something that was an off shoot of the method I was looking for and performed it for me and I was floored and sold. The best part was he knew that I was also in the hobby after talking a bit and he knew what holes I would have poked in theorizing how the trick was done while he was doing it and while he was doing the trick he told me to do what I thought was a possible way to mess up the trick. Like I was afraid I would mess up the trick by shuffling a certain way and he was like 'go for it' and completely threw the cards around haphazardly and messily shuffled it and let me follow suit. It was so fair. I won't reveal what happened but it was beautiful to see that Kevin knew how to help me in a way only a person who is in the hobby would know.

Reading low reviews, I don't think those reviewers understood this place. Maybe it's just a magician thing. All I know is that if you're into the hobby of sleight of hand magic, this is a stop you absolutely have to make the new time you're in New York. Oh and they have an awesome and intimate magic show they do a few times a week after the store has closed. That is an...

Tannen’s Magic

Walking into Tannen's is like walking into a mysterious and almost sacred space.

Everyone gets a warm, cheerful greeting and immediately, as storied as Tannen’s, is there’s a sense that everyone is part of that story.

Reed immediately offered to “show me something” and with my mind completely blown I knew that this experience was going to deepen my love for this art.

Two other young men, both professional magicians / college students, were generous in both performing card sleights and offering thoughts on magic, favorite books and celebrating the feeling of experiencing tricks that feel like real magic.

Tannen’s has been owned by Adam Blumenthal since 2010. He was working today and was incredibly helpful and fascinating to talk to.

Visiting Tannen’s made me want to practice, invest time and resources into expanding my skill and understanding.

I hope when you go that you’ll give yourself a lot of time and that you will allow your inner seven year old to really enjoy it.

I did and I can’t wait to go back.

I’ve loved magic my whole life and have chosen this year to be where I start to take it seriously.

Every magician at any level will feel like they are in the absolute right place.

UPDATE: The next day I booked a one hour, in person private lesson. It was with Reed and I wanted to focus on card magic. It was incredible. He met me at the shop one hour before opening and we hit the ground running and packed so much in. Reed is an incredibly focused, articulate and...

Terrible service. The products are the same you can find in any magic shop but here are overpriced. But the worst thing is the service. The guy that was with me was a young kind amateur magician, but he didn't know when you asked for specific magic tricks and all the time he had to ask the man in change who was ignoring him and the customers as well. The manager was all the time making card flourishes and talking with a friend of him in the center table and didn't want to be "bothered" with "silly questions" or help providing a good service to any customers or give advice or support. Because of his attitude I think Tannen only have history, but not any special products, is overpriced and they don't have any good customer service. I recommend that you buy on shops like penguin, alakazam, ellusionist, etc before losing your money and patience at Tannen's. Even tricks I watch in advanced on Tannen's website and I asked for were not available (but the website showed it were available), and the manager said. "Yeah, the website is not updated, but we don't care. Buy what you see in the shelves"...As a professional magician I definitely I won't come back or recommend this place to anyone ...