Jim Steinmeyer is the man. (http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com/ http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com/) Much of the magic world is divided into two jobs: people who design tr

Jim Steinmeyer is the man. (http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com/ http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com/) Much of the magic world is divided into two jobs: people who design tricks and people who present them to the audience. Both are difficult and respected positions. Jim is one of the very topmost people with the first job (Teller does both). In addition to his career as an illusion engineer, Jim also is a major scholar on magic history. His book, "Hiding the Elephant", is an awesome read. Interesting, and particularly relevant to this discussion, is the fact that "Hiding the Elephant" spends a fair bit of time going over probably the single most famous theft of magic in history: when American magician Harry Kellar stole the British magician John Maskelyne's "The Entranced Fakir" levitating woman trick. Kellar bribed one of Maskelyne's stage magicians, Paul Valadon, to obtain the plans to the trick, and then used the stolen trick to establish himself as maybe the most famous American magician of the time. His entire career in magic had been founded on plagiarism.