Deaf Magicians Festival

From the 22nd to the 29th of April 2012, the Finnish Association for the Deaf is playng host to the 14th World Deaf Magicians Festival in Helsinki. It may sound curious but there are many deaf magicians, and the American Deaf Magician and academic Simon Carmel has written a book (forthcoming) with biographies of many of them.

Below is a picture of the British Deaf Magician J.J. Stockton, who was active in the Manchester Institute for the Deaf from the 1930s. There is also a photograph of him in a copy of their annual report for 1936. Stockton, who became deaf after contracting measles aged 13, was good enough to became a member of the prestigous Magic Circle.

The Deaf Magicians have a website here – http://www.deafmagicians.org/

Simon Carmel has written an article on the Society of World Deaf Magicians here – http://magicdanonline.com/docs/deaf.html

I Made a Career, in The Silent World, Vol 1, No.1, June 1946, pp. 6-7