What’s In A Name, Magically Speaking?Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Walter “Zaney” Blaney is more than a great magic inventor, great magician and incredible supporter of all things good in magic. He is also a very principled and well-spoken member of our community.

Mr. Blaney has written a column on a subject many of us have noticed but few have mentioned. We are honored to have Mr. Blaney on these pages.

Read On . . .

Dear friends in magic:

I have two very good friends named Gerry and Leonora Frenette in Canada. They have a long established magic business named “Magic Makers Inc.” Now there is a company in the USA who also uses the name “Magic Makers Inc.,” established and run by Rob Stiff.

Magicians quite naturally confuse the two. I believe it is unfair for someone to come into our magic field and use the same name of an established business which already had a very good reputation for years. It would be the same problem if some new company opened up using the name Abbotts, or Owens Magic Supreme.

I understand that Mr. Stiff said he was unaware of the Magic Makers Inc. in Canada. Yet when he learned of its existence, he refused to change the same name he took up.

The Frenettes established their Magic Makers in 1986 and first advertised in the Linking Ring that year. They soon were placing ads in Magic Magazine (colored ads), Genii, MUM, The Illusionist, as well as continuing their ads in The Linking Ring. So it would be difficult for anyone to claim they were unaware of the Magic Makers company already established in our business.

The Frenettes first heard of the new Magic Makers around or after 1999. In that year the Frenettes had a great deal of good publicity, articles, stories and reviews in most of the magic magazines. They create and build their own proprietary illusions, along with custom design and standard illusions, and they sell direct-only to their many customers.

This is not meant to be an “ad” for my friends the Frenettes. But the confusion caused by the “other Magic Makers Inc.” is hurtful to them in more ways than one. I only wanted to point out to friends who may be unaware of what I deem to be an unfair situation.

Cheers, Walter Zaney Blaney

Mr. Blaney has written a column on a subject many of us have noticed but few have mentioned. We are honored to have Mr. Blaney on these pages.

Read On . . .

Dear friends in magic:

I understand that Mr. Stiff said he was unaware of the Magic Makers Inc. in Canada. Yet when he learned of its existence, he refused to change the same name he took up.

Cheers, Walter Zaney Blaney