✦ Golden Grolla Award 2016

Max Maven

The mind reader who changed mentalism

Max Maven (1950-2022), born Phil Goldstein, was the most influential mentalist of his generation and one of the most recognisable figures in all of magic: the sharp widow's peak, the dark elegance, the voice that seemed to arrive from another century. On stage he did not simply guess thoughts, he built rituals of the mind in which the entire audience became part of the experiment, often through interactive television pieces seen around the world.

As a creator he was almost without equal in the history of the art: under his own name and his pen name he published thousands of effects, and it is often said that half the mentalism performed today carries his fingerprints somewhere. Magicians of every specialty, from close-up performers to Las Vegas stars, consulted him for his encyclopedic knowledge of magic history and theory, and his lectures shaped how modern performers think about mystery.

Masters of Magic honoured him with the Golden Grolla in 2016, in Saint-Vincent, recognising the artist who gave mentalism its modern soul.

Honoured by Masters of Magic among the legends who have shaped the history of magic.