Bryn Hughes. (Wales, U.K.)

For most of it's duration, my friendship with Eugene Poinc happened over thousands of miles distance. This doesn't seem at all remarkable in these days of e-mail and the Internet, but I always had to resort to the old fashioned pen-pal method of typing or writing paper on paper. Gene was very excited by the late 90's increase in electronic communication, which allowed him direct access to the magic computer network community, so that he was repeatedly encouraging me to get the sort of PC that linked to the nets and webs - though, years before, he had jokingly complained when I started to send him letters printed on word-processors.

I first started writing to Gene in January 1985, after I had seen his recent book, Illusions For Princes And Paupers, in which he had printed his address. I was already familiar with Poincs grandiose ideas from his earlier work, Imagination and his regular contributions to Genii magazine, and my first letter offered alternative dressings and presentations for the mighty pieces of apparatus that he conceived, but which few had the nerve to build. If I wasn't going to be performing his work, he was happy that people were at least thinking about it.

A regular exchange of letters developed, so that by 1986, he was telling me to address him as 'Gene' rather than Mr. Poinc. As I started to attend more magicians' conventions, I had magic news and show reports to pass on to him, as well as pieces of printed matter pertaining to things magical and some of the photos that i took at conventions. Gene would send me more personal packets, containing prints of his vivid drawings by return. This may be a good time to apologize to whoever had the sad duty of clearing out Apartment Six, since some of the unaccountable clutter may have originated with me.

Despite his writing work and variable health, Gene was often the more frequent correspondent of we two. After he sent the family a condolence card when my father died in 1991, my mother would participate in the intercontinental exchange of letters, being dubbed by Gene - for reasons we  never fully grasped but which seemed to have something to do with a book of translated Welsh ballads that we sent him - 'Our Lady Of The Goats'. She had some difficulty getting her head around the flights of fancy in which Gene regularly indulged while writing letters, but, by the time she had got used to it, my sister had acquired a computer with modem at her house, so Gene could perplex yet another Hughes by sending her peculiar messages for her to print out and post on to me.

Mother and Gene commiserated across the miles as each suffered various afflictions, we asked whether he had been caught in the damage zone when riot, fire or earth tremor struck Los Angeles in the 90's, and I was able to tell Gene when Paul Daniels did have the nerve to present Poinc creations -  The Black Hole and Eve 2005 - on his TV shows.

Gene always encouraged me in my unsuccessful writing, and did get to see something for which I was actually paid when I sent a 2001 issue of the Stage containing the annual magic supplement which had finally accepted an article from me, but Gene had already topped this as a gift by sending me his last book, The Practitioner. He had been frustrated in getting more magic books printed, but the begining of his regular column for The Linking Ring in 2002 induced me to finally become a full IBM member, so that I could read him.

After years of letters, I finally got to meet Gene in person in 2000 when I won a magazine competition for a trip to Los Angeles; between the programmed excursions and events. I fitted in a couple of long visits to Plymouth Boulevard and the sort of living quarters that the families of creative minds or collectors fear that their homes may become: A gallery of Poinc's own artwork and a museum & library of what he had accumulated, including his authentic mummy's hand and other ancient Egyptian scraps, all under the gaze of life-size photgraphic flats of Elvira and Xena.

I can't remeber what fat Gene and I chewed, yet I think that those hours of chat in his living room were the highlights of my trip. Studio tours, luxury Hollywood hotels, meals at Spago's, Pucks, and the Polo Lounge - those experiences can, in theory be repeated (preferably if somebody else is paying for them again). No longer though can any of us go back to a special friend like Eugene Poinc.