Sam Dalal
(4th March 1946 - )
Became interested in magic in his pre-teens, and paid his way through an engineering degree with magic performances. Unaware of magic dealers in those years, he "created" and made most of the magic props he used with effects culled from a Douglas Magicland Catalog he got through an ad in Popular Science. Some of these were just "reinventing the wheel", and some were original, as he found out years later.
When he got better acquainted with the whole big magic fraternity in the late 60s, he started contributing his "ideas" for various magic magazines, like the Magigram, New Pentagram, Abra, and several others.
Inspired by the Jinx, he started his own magic monthly - Swami and subsequently Mantra which ran for over 5 years till 1975. It had contributions from some of the best magical creators of the period, and descriptions of Indian fakir magic (geek magic) that differentiated it from the usual magic magazines.
Around the same time he phased out of performing, and started his own magic manufacturing business (Funtime Innovations). Today some 35+ years later this business is one of the largest in the world, for making items (not just selling them) with a few 100 people working full time on magic props distributed around the world. To date his company has made more than 2000 varieties of props for Magicians.
He has created several magic effects, and written a dozen odd books, edited several others and authored 1000s of instruction sheets and manuals for the props he supplies around the world.
Coauthors: E. W. Bud Morris
