Tony Andruzzi (born May 22, 1925 in

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistica ...

– died December 22, 1991 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

) was the name adopted by professional

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

Tom S. Palmer from the age of 45 to the end of his life.

Changing Names

Born to Fay and Tom McGuire, the child was first christened as Timothy McGuire on July 22, 1925. But after Tom McGuire left Fay to raise the boy alone, Fay allowed Charles and Gertie Palmer to adopt the boy. He was rechristened Tom Stewart Palmer on March 29, 1926. His biological mother maintained a friendly relationship with the Palmer family, though did not divulge the nature of her relationship to Tom until his teens. As a performer through the late 1960s, he retained the name of Tom Palmer while specializing in comedy magic. When he moved to

and changed styles to pursue

bizarre magic Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

, he adopted the name Tony Andruzzi, both in performance and in daily life. During his involvement with the

Society for Creative Anachronism The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes ...

in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, he also created the persona of Masklyn ye Mage, a character he would occasionally adopt in and out of period costume through the end of his life. Additionally, as a writer of magical effects, he used a variety of pen names, most notably Daemon Ecks.

Publications

As Tom Palmer: * Cagey Doves (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1969) * The Comedy Act of and by Tom Palmer (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1969) * The Famous Flea Act (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1962) * Modern Illusions (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1959) * The Tie Pitch (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1960) * The Vampira Act (Chicago: Magic Inc., 1961) As Tony Andruzzi: * Compleat Invocation, Volumes 1 and 2 (co-edited with Tony Raven) (Washington, D.C.: Kaufman and Company, 1986) * Compleat Invocation, Volume 3 (Washington, D.C.: Kaufman and Company, 1992) * Tony Andruzzi's Magazine Memory Act (Albuquerque: Flora and Company) As Masklyn ye Mage: * The Negromicon of Masklyn ye Mage (Chicago: Self Published, 1977) * Grimoire of the Mages (Chicago: Self Published, 1980) * Daemon's Diary (Chicago: Self Published, 1982) * The Legendary Scroll of Masklyn ye Mage (Chicago: Self Published, 1983)

Conventions

As an outgrowth of his editorship of New Invocation, a periodical for performers of

, Andruzzi organized and presented conventions for magicians supportive of this genre. Called Invocationals, they were held annually in Chicago from 1984 to 1990. Each Invocational revolved around performances, educational seminars, and socializing, while also paying tribute to a specific member of the bizarre-magic community. Honorees included: * Charles Cameron (1984) * T.A. Waters (1985) * Max Maven (1986) * Stephen Minch (1987) * Ross Johnson (1988) * Tony "Doc" Shiels (1989) * Eugene Burger (1990)

Sources

Unspeakable Acts: Three Lives and Countless Legends of Tom Palmer/Tony Andruzzi/Masklyn ye Mage. Jim Magus with Terry Nosek and Neil Tobin (Lulu.com, 2011).

External links

A Tony Andruzzi Memorial
bearing misinformation supplied by Andruzzi and published by Bart Whaley in Who's Who in Magic (San Francisco: Jeff Busby Magic, 1990) {{DEFAULTSORT:Andruzzi, Tony 1925 births 1991 deaths American magicians People from Cheyenne, Wyoming