Lifetime Achievement Award 2024

STEPHEN MINCH

June 21, 2024

Today, we cap this special week of celebrations by announcing the Allan Slaight Lifetime Achievement Award. This special award recognizes the exceptional commitment to magic through the dedicated efforts of an individual over a lifetime, and it comes with a prize of $15,000 and an iPad from the Slaight Family Foundation.

Past recipients in this category are: Johnny Thompson, Ton Onosaka, Max Maven, Dr. Edwin Dawes, Juan Tamariz, Jim Steinmeyer, John Gaughan and Goldfinger & Dove, and John Fisher. From performance to mentorship, from research to writing, from crafting to building, each of these individuals has made a deep and profound contribution to magic.

We are delighted now to honour one of magic’s finest contributors: author, historian, researcher and publisher: STEPHEN MINCH.

After writing a number of landmark magic books throughout the Seventies and Eighties, Stephen established his own publishing company, Hermetic Press, in 1988. With over eighty magic titles published under that imprint, Stephen has undeniably advanced magic by bolstering and changing the very way we learn magic. With thorough rigor, deep patience and through a profound sense of passion and a deep devotion for sharing magic at its best, Stephen Minch has redefined the modern-day magic canon.

We are deeply honoured to present him with the Allan Slaight Lifetime Achievement Award.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With special thanks and deep appreciation to Richard Kaufman and John Kaplan for their very kind assistance in the production of this clip.

AND, ONE FINAL NOTE...

That’s another wrap! Congratulations to all the 2024 Allan Slaight Award recipients!

Thank you for joining us on this special week of awards celebration. As we close out a decade of celebrating these awards, we reflect with great fondness and joy on the great privilege to honour these individuals and organizations. Congratulations to you all!

The Slaight Family Foundation has now awarded $510,000 in celebration and recognition of magic as an art. The belief and commitment that the Slaight Family Foundation has made to magic is truly amazing. Thanks to the Slaight Family Foundation, fifty-three individuals and organizations have been recognized and acknowledged for their outstanding achievements in the pursuit of the impossible.

We extend our deepest gratitude to the Slaight Family Foundation, and in particular to Gary Slaight, for creating these awards to both recognize and celebrate magic.

These awards are named in honour of Allan Slaight. Allan had a lifelong love affair with magic, and throughout his life, Allan made deep and meaningful contributions back to the art through his research, writings and philanthropy. We are deeply honoured that his family, through the Slaight Family Foundation, continues Allan’s generous legacy.

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