Is the Merlin award worth anything?

Why on earth am i writing about this (the Merlin award)… well, as you may or may not know… i am busy adding magic clubs to the site. And i happened across a club (i will let them have this article), that had ‘links of interest’ to magicians and magic on their site.

One of those links was to the International Magicians Society. It seemed to ring a bell in my head – so i had a quick look.

When i saw the Merlin award, i remembered seeing this on magicians’ sites every now and again for quite a while. And i had wondered previously what is the Merlin award that i see people winning- when i had never heard of it (i have been around magic since the early 80’s).

I had never bothered following up to see.

Which brings me to today and the Merlin Award.

I knew of the Order of Merlin given by the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which is a legitimately valuable recognition of service and the two sound alike “Merlin” and “Order of Merlin”.

Therefore, time to investigate.

So, seeing the website for the society, it certainly had some impressive pictures with magicians. However, to me, it read like copy script for a sales web page.

Dug a bit more, came across this article from Tom Stone: https://www.tomstone.se/en/magic-world/the-merlin-award

Go ahead and read that and come back.

O.k. you’re back.

Now, i guess what we have to remember is, we only give value to something we promote as valuable. So the award seems to do that very well. In other words the ‘value’ of something is primarily associated to our perception of that thing (i digress).

However, having judged students competitions for years, it is very evident which students have put a whole lot of effort into their act and deserve to win and therefore to win the award.

And other awards (service, lifetime recognition and so on) have quantifiable criteria. If you meet the criteria- you qualify for the award. Simple as that.

So, you be the judge- you are to decide for yourself if you value something.

Just don’t expect everyone else to value what you value!

I also happened upon the post from Richard Vegas Magic: https://www.richardvegasmagic.com.au/post/award-winning-magician-best-close-up-magician-melbourne-or-not

Keep your eyes open. Awards are rampant in the publishing industry. Granted, some are based on traffic in niche industries.

The best way to deal with them is: investigate the company, if you do give them a link and show your award, then all good and well- just don’t pay for anything.

And if they will only deal via phone and don’t want to email- smite them to the Rubbish bin.

The floor is open to you all- the comments are open!!!

P.S. if anyone is thinking of any sort of legal interference due to this article— there is nothing to take.

I am trying to keep the hosting up (4 days left) through “buy me coffees“. (i put the link in case anyone is thirsty and wants a shared cup with me).

Don’t forget to list on hire a magician. (i am busy changing again- so the first option is entirely cost free).

OH , and i shall not be adding the International Magicians Society as a club on the site.

Last updated on 2025-04-06