Texas Magic Supply • Cedar Park

Texas Magic Supply • Cedar Park

Written by Kara Vaught Saturday, 07 April 2007

Magic store encourages artistic entertainment

Texas Magic Supply is full of tricks and slight of hand, but its foundation is sincere. Owners Cyrus Albertson and Diane Klinetob Weirich want to nurture the art of magic as a legitimate form of entertainment for adults as well as children.

“Magic teaches so many things: presence, dexterity, confidence, how to recover from a mistake,” Albertson said. “Whether you buy something from us or not, we want to make magic known.”

Thus, the business pair stocks the magic shop with everything from simple trick kits and gags to books delving into the human psyche, and how a magician can manipulate it. Often, area magicians stop by to swap stories and regale shoppers, and the person behind the counter is always willing to demonstrate.

Albertson and Weirich also invite top performers from across the country to visit and show off their skill, including a 95-year-old magician who has appeared in more than 40 movies and a card handler who can pick up any deck and immediately identify the four aces – despite being completely blind.

“One of our strengths is that we have a national reputation among magicians as a great shop, but we still have small town charm,” Albertson said.

Part of that charm is their willingness to help out in cases of “magic emergencies.” The answering machine at the shop gives out a special phone number for magicians who are able to make an elephant disappear, but ran out of an essential prop at the last minute before a show.

“The middle of the night, whatever, we’ll open up the shop for them when they’re desperate,” Weirich said.

Before magic, Weirich and Albertson were involved in two seemingly unrelated fields: music and technology.

As jet-setting high tech executives, they spent their non-working hours exploring the magic shops in the cities they visited. Later, they ditched the tech business to open Albertson School of Music, drawing on Cyrus’ more than 30 years as a student, teacher, performer and conductor.

Observing the businesses around the music school’s six locations profiting from student foot traffic, Albertson and Weirich were inspired to provide the Austin area with something it lacked.

“Austin had the second-largest Society of American Magicians group, but no major magic shop,” Albertson said.

As a bonus, the music school’s student retention rate went up after the magic shop went in next door. The nuggets of magic wisdom gleaned before and after lessons serve as an extra incentive to keep children coming.

Texas Magic Supply serves customers online at www.texasmagicsupply.com. Visitors can view product demonstrations, performance clips, order tricks and props and find links to Austin-area magicians.

Texas Magic Supply, 715 Discovery Blvd. , Ste. 101, 260-0012