Back in Forest Hills, Queens, N.Y., more than three decades ago, a nine-year-old showman named Stefan Kanfer amazed his friends by producing coins and cards out of thin air. "It was the old up-the-sleeve trick," recalls Kanfer, now anchor man of TIME'S Essay section, "and the coins would generally clatter to the floor, to my embarrassment. As a magician, I had ten things working against me--my fingers." So the young Kanfer went to New York University and ended up writing advertising copy, gag lines for Victor Borge, short fiction, TV programs, a few off-Broadway shows. In 1966 he joined TIME as a writer for the Show Business section before turning movie critic and essayist. This week he was back at his old haunt for our story on the renaissance of magic. Over the years, Kanfer has worked on enlarging his bag of tricks. He has learned hundreds of card stunts, math games and vanishing acts from his friend, Science Writer Martin Gardner, through whom he met other magicians willing to share their secrets. Among Kanfer's most prominent mentors is James ("The Amazing") Randi, who served as an informal consultant for the current story. "Steve has been a really good student," says Randi. "If he really applied himself, he'd be terrific. As a writer, he knows how human beings work, which is crucial for a magician. He's also a little crazy, and that helps too." Yet Kanfer remains modest: "The real magic for me is in words, not things. I belong behind the typewriter, not on the stage. When a really good magician performs, I'm the world's biggest geek."

Kanfer's in-house accomplice for his story was Reporter-Researcher Patricia N. Gordon, who interviewed Doug Henning, star of Broadway's The Magic Show. "Henning lives magic," she says. "The enthusiasm he conveys is incredible. Talking to him, I fully expected him to turn into a cougar or burst into flames on the spot." Gordon also found Kanfer's spirited but unmethodical treatment of research materials somewhat extraordinary. "He puts everything together and it comes out pure Kanfer," she says. "That is really magic."

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