Sadly, the curtain will be falling tomorrow on Mr. Magic and Novelties, the 26-year-old Little Rock shop at 8919 Stagecoach Road which the owner believes to be the largest brick-and-mortar magic store in the world. Thursday will be the last day for the shop, which has been open since 1990, and open in the Stagecoach Road location since 1995.
The 2,800 square foot store currently has over 15,000 individual tricks, including trick locks, handcuffs, playing cards of all styles, magic wands, books, DVDs and more. The company will continue sales online at www.mrmagicstore.com.
Owner Jim Henson, a former Little Rock Fire Department Battalion Chief, who got into magic to help break the ice with kids he was teaching about fire safety, cited a number of factors in his decision to close Mr. Magic. The first, however, is probably the most obvious: “The internet,” Henson said. “If you can’t beat ’em, join em, so we’re now an Internet company. Seventy percent of my business is mail order, and I don’t need a big magic store to do mail order.”
Henson, who is 70, said his age was also a factor. “I’m getting older, and I need to close while I still can,” he said. “Nobody is going to know how to close this store but me. We’ve been talking about it for years, and it finally just came to a head. We said enough’s enough.”
A sad day for the lovers of quirky Little Rock. If you’ve ever been astounded by a little sleight of hand, be sure to stop by today or tomorrow before they do their vanishing act.