SME announces Annemann & Robert Houdin Awards..
Just received word that our friend, Paul Romhany, has been awarded the very first SME award. Congratulations are certainly in order!
Press Release: Stevens Magic Emporium announces two awards. After selling the rights to the Desert Magic Seminar, and realizing that the industry was changing Joe Stevens looked for a way for SME to stay active and relevant in the world of magic. In this new digital age, starting a new seminar was not feasible so Joe envisioned something that while not new — was true to his heart — creating an award that would recognize individuals in the industry that have made a positive impact in both Magic and Mentalism.
The Award for Mentalism is titled: The Annemann Award. The Award for Magic is titled: The Robert Houdin Award. We named the awards after two individuals of who’s legacies are of the highest order.
The initial inductees for 2013-2014 Annemann Award are:
Docc Hilford, Jon Stetson, Ted Karmilovich, Neal Scryer, Richard Webster and Jerome Finley.
The initial inductee for the 2014 Robert Houdin Award is Paul Romhany (The Hardest Working Man In Magic).
Joe has always believed that recognition from one’s peers is one of the highest honors imaginable, and when you look at any one of these recipients there is a lot of support and substantiation for their recognition. These are the visionaries who continue to shape, mold and drive the art we love. We hope that they will be pleased with this award and that it might serve as an incentive for them to continue to create and be inspirational.
The next awards are scheduled for 2015. The initial recipients are a larger pool being this idea has been in the works for a few years and only recently came to fruition. Future awards will also be more interactive allowing peer’s to have a vote from a list of possible candidates. “We are very excited about having an interactive award where by magicians from all over the world can cast a vote.” Mark Stevens – Stevens Magic Emporium