Street Magic Takes the Spotlight: FISM 2025, Covent Garden & Genii’s April Issue
Street magic hits the big stage! FISM 2025 adds a new category & Covent Garden takes the spotlight in April’s Genii Magazine. 🎩
Street Magic’s Big Moment: Covent Garden Stories & FISM 2025 in April’s Genii Magazine
With FISM Italy 2025 adding a brand-new street magic category, the spotlight is on performers like Lawrence Gibbons. Peek behind the curtain in the April 2025 issue of Genii: The Conjurors’ Magazine—its history, hustle, and hat money all rolled into one.
Biggest Takeaways
Covent Garden is home to a tight-knit, passionate community of street magicians performing in the heart of London.
Lawrence Gibbons of "Cain and Abel" shares the raw truth about performing on the street: “It’s very humbling.”
A historical rabbit hole featuring 1800s gambler-turned-magic-inspiration, Jonathan Green, connects gambling exposés to card magic as we know it today.
Watch Genii Speaks:
Jim Steinmeyer talks with Lawrence Gibbons and Jason England about feature articles in the April 2025 issue of Genii: The Conjuror's Magazine.
Street Magic, Covent Garden & The Reformed Gambler Who Changed Everything
In the April 2025 issue of Genii, Jim Steinmeyer takes us on a tour of this month’s magical highlights, and oh boy—it’s packed tighter than a magician’s suitcase!
First stop?
Covent Garden, where street magician Lawrence Gibbons (a.k.a. Abel of Cain and Abel) dishes the real deal on street magic: it's tough, humbling, and wildly addictive.
Gibbons tells us that building an audience, keeping them engaged, and convincing them to pay is the “real work” of street performing.
Covent Garden is more than a tourist hotspot—it's a magical training ground. “You just go and die on your ass for weeks,” he laughs. But the community of magicians at Magic Corner? Incredibly supportive. “If you genuinely want to perform, they will be really encouraging,” says Gibbons.
The issue also dives deep into the life of Jonathan Harrington Green, an 1800s conman turned anti-gambling crusader whose exposés introduced sleight-of-hand tricks into public consciousness.
Jason England explores how Green’s dramatic lectures—using hidden mirrors to “read” cards—planted seeds for modern card magic and inspired legends like Vernon through Erdnase.
“You’re not just reading history,” says England, “you’re tracing the lineage of the art itself.” Talk about a magic bloodline!
🧠 This issue of Genii is a masterclass in magic history, card handling, and the grit behind the glitz.
Subscribe to Genii Magazine:
Genii Magazine – April 2025 Issue (subscription required)
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