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The Magic Circle (organisation)
The Magic Circle is a British organisation dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of magic.
Applicants must qualify for membership, either through a performance exam or by a written thesis on a branch of magic, after which they are designated Members of The Magic Circle (M.M.C.). Further distinctions may earn them the titles Associate of the Inner Magic Circle (A.I.M.C.); and Member of The Inner Magic Circle (M.I.M.C), a select group limited to 300 members. The Circle was founded in 1905, and was male-only until 1991. There is a junior branch, the Young Magicians Club.
The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians at London's Pinoli's Restaurant. At this founders meeting, chaired by Servais Le Roy, those present decided upon the name of the Society: it was initially felt that the name of the Society should be the Martin Chapender Club, in memory of the performer and founding member who had recently died at the age of 25. However, it was finally agreed that the name "Magic Circle", which shares the same initials as those of Martin Chapender, would be more appropriate.
The first official meeting was at the Green Man public house in Soho, but meetings were later in a room at St George's Hall in Langham Place, where David Devant and John Nevil Maskelyne were regularly seen performing.
Devant became the first president of The Magic Circle, and in 1906, Maskelyne edited the first issue of The Magic Circular magazine, a regular feature for members ever since. The Magic Circular claims to be the longest-running regular magic magazine in conjuring history.
The club admitted only men until 1991, when more than 75% of members voted to admit women. But the club's first woman member, Sophie Lloyd, had already joined surreptitiously 18 months earlier, disguising herself as a man with the help of fellow magician Jenny Winstanley, and using the name Raymond Lloyd. When she revealed her gender after women were officially allowed to join, the Magic Circle's members voted to expel her for "deliberate deception". In 2024, the club's first female chair, Laura London, said that she was trying to track down Lloyd in order to apologise and to readmit her, but that Lloyd seemed to have disappeared some time after 1997. In 2025, Lloyd was alerted to the search for her by her sister and admitted to the Magic Circle under her own name.
As of 2024, 5% of the 1,700 members are women. In 2014, Megan Knowles-Bacon became the first female officer in the Magic Circle, as well as the youngest person to be elected as an officer; she was elected as secretary. In September 2021 she was elected as the Magic Circle's first female, and youngest ever, president, using her working name Megan Swann.
The motto of the society is the Latin indocilis privata loqui, which roughly translated means "not apt to disclose secrets". Members give their word not to wilfully disclose magic secrets other than to bona fide students of magic. Anyone breaking this or any other rule may be expelled.
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The Magic Circle (organisation)
The Magic Circle is a British organisation dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of magic.
Applicants must qualify for membership, either through a performance exam or by a written thesis on a branch of magic, after which they are designated Members of The Magic Circle (M.M.C.). Further distinctions may earn them the titles Associate of the Inner Magic Circle (A.I.M.C.); and Member of The Inner Magic Circle (M.I.M.C), a select group limited to 300 members. The Circle was founded in 1905, and was male-only until 1991. There is a junior branch, the Young Magicians Club.
The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians at London's Pinoli's Restaurant. At this founders meeting, chaired by Servais Le Roy, those present decided upon the name of the Society: it was initially felt that the name of the Society should be the Martin Chapender Club, in memory of the performer and founding member who had recently died at the age of 25. However, it was finally agreed that the name "Magic Circle", which shares the same initials as those of Martin Chapender, would be more appropriate.
The first official meeting was at the Green Man public house in Soho, but meetings were later in a room at St George's Hall in Langham Place, where David Devant and John Nevil Maskelyne were regularly seen performing.
Devant became the first president of The Magic Circle, and in 1906, Maskelyne edited the first issue of The Magic Circular magazine, a regular feature for members ever since. The Magic Circular claims to be the longest-running regular magic magazine in conjuring history.
The club admitted only men until 1991, when more than 75% of members voted to admit women. But the club's first woman member, Sophie Lloyd, had already joined surreptitiously 18 months earlier, disguising herself as a man with the help of fellow magician Jenny Winstanley, and using the name Raymond Lloyd. When she revealed her gender after women were officially allowed to join, the Magic Circle's members voted to expel her for "deliberate deception". In 2024, the club's first female chair, Laura London, said that she was trying to track down Lloyd in order to apologise and to readmit her, but that Lloyd seemed to have disappeared some time after 1997. In 2025, Lloyd was alerted to the search for her by her sister and admitted to the Magic Circle under her own name.
As of 2024, 5% of the 1,700 members are women. In 2014, Megan Knowles-Bacon became the first female officer in the Magic Circle, as well as the youngest person to be elected as an officer; she was elected as secretary. In September 2021 she was elected as the Magic Circle's first female, and youngest ever, president, using her working name Megan Swann.
The motto of the society is the Latin indocilis privata loqui, which roughly translated means "not apt to disclose secrets". Members give their word not to wilfully disclose magic secrets other than to bona fide students of magic. Anyone breaking this or any other rule may be expelled.