BROKEN WAND :: LOOY SIMONOFF :: BY PAUL DRAPER
Lewis Looy Joseph Siminoff (1928 2011)
"After reading one of Looy's effects as a boy, Looy assumed a mythical status in my brain." Mac King
"Looy is one of the nice guys in magic and one of the best kibitzers I've ever met." Gary Darwin
"Looy has a unique slant on things and is unfailingly generous." Jon Racherbaumer
"Looy Simonoff is my mentor." Paul Harris
"Looy is the Dean of Las Vegas magicians." Jeff McBride
Looy Simonoff was Prof. Emeritus of mathematics & logic at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where he had taught both Magic and Math for 35 years.
Looy was first a foremost a magic inventor and thinker. Magic effects created by Looy have been performed on national television specials by Doug Henning, and in stage and close-up shows by Lance Burton, Mac King, Dan & Dave Buck, Paul Harris, Lee Asher and more. His most popular magic inventions include Earth Shoes (rock from shoe), the Flippant card color-change, Hamman ESP, and the Sooperman levitation. His work in magic can be seen in Apocalypse, Antinomy, Channel One, Magic for Dummies, and regularly in works by Harry Lorayne, Alan Ackerman, and Paul Harris.
If you visited the Gary Darwin Magic Club (The Darwinian Society: Magicians and human's welcome, as Professor Looy referred to it.) in Las Vegas any week for the past 45 years you would have met Professor Looy Simonoff. Someone undoubtedly would have aproached him and asked "How are you Looy?" to which he would clear his throat and with a wry smile reply: "Terrible, Terrible." What's new Looy? Kinematic viscosity (the Greek letter v (pronounced new). When welcomed into his classroom he would produce his best Bela Lugosi accent: "Enter freely and of your own free will"; if you told him to have a good day he raised his voice "Don't tell me how to live my life!" (Followed by an undertone chuckle). Show me a magic trick, I m watching you closely That makes it even better, so I ll go very slowly Great seeing you Looy! and Visa Versa . Goodbye Looy. "Abyssinia" (pronounced as: "I'll be seein' ya" )
When asked why perform magic for others? Looy responded that Magic allows us to: Share a pleasantly magical ambiance of temporary liberation from the tyranny of natural laws. If that isn t enough, it s also a hoot!
What is the best way to invent a new effect? The way I develop most tricks is that I find something I don t like about an existing trick and I work a way around it. Or turning it upside down, given the magic effect that I want to produce I can often find a way to solve the problem and create the given outcome
Looy donated his considerable Jimmy Grippo collection to the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York and is interned in Los Angeles California.
He is survived by all of the math students and magicians that he mentored and taught throughout his life. His memory and legacy lives on in his writings, the effects that he created and in the magic of those who continue to perform his work.
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