Tony Hassini – Interview by The Magic Annexe (TMA)

Tony Hassini, founder of The International Magicians Society (IMS), was interviewed by The Magic Annexe during his recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This question and answer (Q&A) session  covers his past, the formation of the IMS and his thoughts on magic in general.

TMA :Tell us about your story. What inspired you to form the International Magicians Society?

Tony : When I went to from London to New York, there were 2 societies – The Society of American Magicians, SAM, and IBM, International Brotherhood of Magicians. I wanted to join the SAM and they said “Well, you have to have 2 people to sponsor you and then you are supposed to take a test. You have to take the test, and only if you pass, we’ll make you a member”.

Before I went to New York, I already worked at the London Palladium. It’s the biggest venue you hope to work in when you are a magician. Just prior to this, I had worked at the London Palladium for 3 months.

So I said to them “who are the 2 people going to put me through the test and if I pass the test I’ll be a member?” The reply was “Mr Schwartz and Mr. Murray”. So I said what does Mr. Schwartz do? They said he was an accountant. “How about Mr. Murray?”" He owns a liquor store.” So I said a “Accountant and Liquor store owner are going to give me a test? And only then can I join your society? I don’t want to join your society!”.

It was then that I decided to set up the International Magicians Society because I want to create a society that doesn’t discriminate.

If somebody wants to learn magic, we’ll work on them. I wanted to create a platform where we can teach them and the only way that we could teach them was through video, and now DVDs.

For example, there is a university or college professor who is the best in the world in mathematics, and another college professor who is best in medicine, and another who is best in psychology, but he can only be in 1 university at any one time. He can’t be in 20 universities. With video, when videos came around, we knew that we can take this very smart guy and put him into video and retain him and be able to disseminate the information all over the world.

Some of the people that we video taped back then – they’re passed on now. They’re no longer with us, but we still have them, now and they’ll be here for the next generation. So that was my idea. That was my goal. That was where I wanted to go but it wasn’t easy.

TMA : How did you go about setting up the IMS?

Tony : They laughed at me when I said I wanted to start another society. We already have 2. Why do we need another? I said, “First of all, we are not going to compete you guys. We’re not going to have conventions. We’re not going to have what you guys have. We’re going to be different. We’re not going to charge an annual fee every year. We’re going to have a lifetime membership.

So I approached a very famous magic shop owner – Louis Tannen who ran a very big magic shop in New York and was very reliable. And he had a thick magic catalogue. I said ” I’m going to start a club and I’m going to give the members a membership card that when they shop with you they get a 10% off. The idea is that I send him customers. He liked that. Once he came aboard, I then got Tony Slydini, Frank Garcia, Mario Gonzalez, and they who came and bought and then the rest was easy. That’s how we started IMS and it’s been a lifetime. I started it in 1968 and it’s been a long time but I enjoy doing it. I don’t mind sharing whatever I know.

TMA : How many members are there in the IMS? And where do you see the IMS 10 years from now?

Tony : We’re listed in Guinness World Records. When they examined our books, we had about 37,000 members Today we are probably 38,000 or 39,000. We knew that because we were audited by Guinness World Records.

My vision is to have 2 million members. They all need not be magicians. They are going to be guys from all walks of life but they all have 1 thing in common. They love magic! They want to learn magic…want to do magic. And the way that I will see achieving the 2 million members is through the TV show that I am working on now. I’m producing a Television show called “The Great Magicians of The World” and we already signed a contract with a major distributor to distribute it worldwide.

TMA : If one wanted to join the IMS how do we do so and how do we get in contact with the IMS?

Tony : There are 2 ways to do it. In many regions, we have an IMS president. You can go to our website which is www.magicims.com, and find out who is the regional president is. And you can contact the person whose country you are in because its easier to talk to the person and get him to sign you up. If you don’t have a regional president, you just go to our website, you click on membership, it will give you the information.

When you come on board, you pay the lifetime membership fee and you immediately get 2 DVDs.

One is the Mental Magic DVD, which teaches you mental magic, which is my favorite type of magic. On the Mental Magic DVD, there is another section which is ‘A Tribute to the Great Masters’. It’s a collection of old films of old magicians, Houdini, Keller, Thurston, every great magician who came before us. We went and bought the old B&W films and collated them into “A Tribute to the Great Masters” which is priceless. Just Houdini’s film cost us over USD $100,000 because we had to buy it from a collector. So you get a $100,000 film free in addition to the rest of the other magicians.

The other DVD has 2 sections. One is Street Magic, you know magic with everyday objects, and the other, Self-Working Card Tricks – tricks that you can do without thinking and they are self working. Those I think are very good DVDs for beginners who are coming on board.

When you become a member, you also get a beautiful certificate of lifetime membership and you get a laminated card and you also have an access code to our on-line magazine.

TMA: Tell us about your experience with Tony Corinda, working in his magic shop. You have previously mentioned that you worked with him for no pay.

Tony : When I went to Tony Corinda, I said I want to work here, he said “Why do you want to work here?”. My reply “I love magic” He gave me a chance and he said I wasn’t going to work behind the counter, I was going to be working in the back room, putting tricks together. So there I’m in the back room, it was a storage room, and he says “Clean this room”. While I was cleaning the room, underneath the shelves, there were lots of spider webs and under the spiderwebs and dust, I found a 5 pound note. For someone washing dishes and earning 2 pounds, it was a lot of money! When I found the money I was thinking, “wow, this is a lot of money! I could go buy a lot of cigarettes. I could go out and impress girls.”. I wanted to put the money in my pocket. But then I felt guilty because this is a man who gave me a job to let me learn what I wanted to, so I decided to bring it back. I said “Excuse me I found this money downstairs while I was cleaning”, and he started laughing. He took a piece of paper from his pocket and on that paper was the serial number of that 5 pound note. He said that a bet was made and the other guys bet that I was going to keep the money. He was testing me to see if I wanted to work for free more than I wanted to steal something.

TMA: I read that the 2 most influential people in your life was the founder and the president of ANA Special Effects Corporation in LA, Dick Albain and later the founder of Mcdonalds Ray Kroc, could you share your experience with them?

Tony : Tony Corinda was the special effects director for Pinewood Studios so I started working with him for Pinewood Studios and I learned special effects. When I went to the United States, I wanted to go into film. I loved magic but I wanted to go into film and I started taking courses in New York University. And in one of my textbooks, I found that Dick Albain was the father of special effects. He did all the special effects for “I Dream of Jeannie”, “The 3 Stooges”, .…all the old movies. So I looked him up and I found his phone number, ANA Special Effects. I called and I got his secretary, who I didn’t know was his wife. She was running his office and I said I wanted to talk to Dick Albain, and she asked what was this all about? I said I don’t really know him but I’m a magician and I’d like to work for him. I don’t want to get paid. She said “Oh you’re a magician? Dick loves magic!” And she went to get him and 10 minutes later, I’m waiting, I’m waiting and he comes to the phone and says (Tony puts on a Texas accent) “You’re are a magician eh?” So you want to come down to the studio eh? Well, come on down!” That’s the way he talks. He’s was really a Texan tough guy.

So I went to the studio and worked for him. He was in charge of doing all the special effects for Ronald McDonald. And then one day Ray Kroc, who was the founder of McDonald’s, happened to be on the set. There was a set built up that actually looks like a McDonald’s store. I was rigging it up and Ray Kroc was watching me. During lunch hour, I got up and went to him and said “Mr Kroc, you know when I grow up I want to be just like you. But I heard you started 5 different businesses and they didn’t really work out. And McDonald’s was the 6th business….” He interrupted me and said “You mean to say I failed 5 times miserably?” And I said “Can you tell me the secret for success – How to make it.” And he said I’m going to tell you what doesn’t make it. Education! A lot of educated people out there that can’t even get a job. Desire ? Just about everybody has a desire. A lot of people who work just die everyday working hard. Talent? There’re so many talented people starving.” And he went on and on and on telling me all of these things that you’d think were the ingredients for success… which they could be.. You have to have these things to be successful; you also have the common sense to make the right decisions for yourself.

But he said “Are you ready?” I thought to myself “Oh my god, I’m never going to make it!”

Are you ready? he asks, I said “ya”.

He says “Persistence”.

Persistence means if you have to keep doing it even if you fail. You fall down, you get up and you do it again. And if you are persistent with it, eventually you are going to make it. So that’s how I met Ray Kroc and that was his advice to me. Working with Dick Albain was a very good experience, we became very good friends.

TMA: If there was one thing you could change about the magic business, what would it be?

Tony : I tell you,. It’s a tough question, but I’ll tell you. Every magic shop, doesn’t matter where you go, in Hong Kong, here in Kuala Lumpur, they have the magic tricks, and they have the customer that comes in. That’s what they do. It’s like a pond with the fish in there and all these guys are fishing from this pond. But eventually, they are going to run out of fish. If you want a lot of fish, you have to go to a hatchery. You have to buy 2 million baby fish, put them in a pond so that 2 years from now, we have more fish. None of these magic shops are doing anything about bringing new blood. Maybe a little advertising and that’s it. What I will do, which I’m already doing is I want to bring new blood into magic. I want to find ways that I can reach out to some poor boy, I don’t care where, when he has no chance in life but maybe by discovering magic, maybe by becoming a magician, his entire life will change. And that’s what I will change in magic.

TMA : How would you describe your greatest achievement so far?

Tony : I give myself credit for being a good teacher. I’m a good teacher because I’m a slow learner. If you teach me a trick, it will maybe take me 3 times as long because I have dyslexia. If you have dyslexia, you see in reverse. It’s like a mirror in which everything is in reverse. Even the alphabets to me are in reverse. So when you are teaching me something, I don’t get it. Everything is in reverse, so I have to learn very slowly before I understand. But when I understand, I can teach. So I think I am a good teacher. So my contribution would be that I am a good teacher

TMA: How does one transition from small effects to illusions? What are the advice you would give to people who aspire to do illusions?

Tony : It’s a matter of decision. If you want to be an illusionist, that’s what you are going to be. And if you want to be a nightclub or cabaret magician, that’s what you are going to do. If you are going to go into illusions, you got to understand that it’s a lot of work and a lot of money. You have to understand lighting; you learn from a good lighting director, you have to understand staging, and above all its very heavy work. After everybody has left the theatre, you are still packing. You are still crating. I don’t envy Franz Harary (gesturing at a Franz Harary poster on the wall of the Magic Annexe and laughing.) That’s a matter of choice, but you need a lot of money, you need storage, you have to store them. Its a whole different ball game.

If you want to do close-up it’s easy. There are hundreds of beautiful tricks. With today’s technology you can have someone run the camera for you. You can have a big screen, you can have an overhead camera, you can do close-up and everybody can see it. And you can do a big show because this thing here on a big TV screen is a big as a Cutting the lady in half illusion. I could take a hammer and I could bang it on this pair of glasses here (gestures to his glasses) and I could make it back to one piece. It is more powerful to break these glasses here with a hammer and put it back together and get everybody see it, than to have this big box with a girl and cut her in half. They’ve seen the big box already. How many times do they need to see guys cutting a girl in half? So for me, that’s not what I would do if I was a young man and I was starting in magic, I would have 1 or 2 illusions in case my client pays me a lot of money and they want an illusion, OK I’ll do it. But that’s not what I like to do.

TMA: We thank you for your time today here at The Magic Annexe and wish you every success.

Tony : Thank you. It’s been a pleasure meeting you all and I hope to see you again somewhere, someplace and we’ll do this again.

Credit goes to www.themagicannexe.com for conducting the Q&A and presenting everything that was said in this readable format. You can visit their site for more references and events happening in Malaysia.

Tags: annexe, corinda, hassini, IMS, international, kuala, lumpur, Magic, magicians, malaysia, society, tony