David Roth (born 1952, New York) is an American magician.

David Roth is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest living coin magicians. Roth is known both for tremendous technical mastery and for playful and surrealistic formal performance pieces. Roth was an important contributor to Richard Kaufman's "Coinmagic," a widely regarded text on contemporary coin technique; his major work was chronicled in "David Roth's Expert Coin Magic," a massive hardcover tome also penned by Richard Kaufman; Mr. Roth has lectured for magic enthusiasts around the world and has produced numerous instructional videos. Mr. Roth is now associated with Fantasma magic, a magic manufacturing and retail company in New York City.

The legendary sleight of hand artist Dai Vernon, wrote about Roth:

"First let me state that David Roth has an amazing ability when performing with coins. He is truly a genius. I have been fortunate to have enjoyed the confidence and friendship of the leading exponents of coin manipulation of the past. T. Nelson Downs, Allan Shaw, Manuel and Welch Miller all specialized in this branch of the magical art. To the very best of my judgment, David’s ideas and execution far surpass any one of them. I feel quite certain that if they could witness his performance they would not only be astounded but realize that they had seen the master."

Magic Castle Awards
1974 “Visiting Magician of the Year”
1977 “Close Up Magician of the Year”
1999 "Creative Fellowship Award"
1999 The "Medal of the Inner Magic Circle with the Gold Star"
Major technical contributions
Roth's trick "The Hanging Coins" (which was first revealed in Apocalypse magazine, Volume 1, No. 6, page 68, 1978) took an ancient, and long ignored, sleight of hand technique and made it far more deceptive and useful. This technique, which Roth dubbed "Edge Grip," has subsequently been explored in depth by other experts in the field. It is a significant tool of contemporary coin magic

Roth's virtuoso execution of a "persistence of vision vanish" led to tremendous interest in his handling of the move (which he refers to "The Retention Vanish"), and - perhaps - to increased use of this move among magicians.

Roth's handling and application of a technique that has - largely thanks to him - become known as "The Shuttle Pass" is highly influential.

Roth's "The Original Chinese Coin Assembly" was highly influential as the first published coin assembly that used the bare hands. This was a highly influential development that has been widely used and explored by other sleight of hand experts.

His sister, Lisa Roth, is a graphic artist based in San Francisco.

Roth's literary works
Expert Coin Magic by David Roth (Instructional book on coin magic published by Richard Kauffman)
Expert Coin Magic Made Easy vol 1 - 3 (Instructional DVD set)
ULTIMATE COIN MAGIC COLLECTION vol 1 - 4 (Instructional DVD set)encouraged his career, though she never worked in the act. They had two children, Byron Thomas and Darlene Pamela.

" ... The Magic Tom Road Show became the longest-running program in Montreal history ... " English language commercial television arrived in Montreal on February 21st, 1961 and Channel 12 was offering « Surprise Party » starring Tom Auburn. This weekly feature, later known as « The Magic Tom Road Show » became the longest-running program in Montreal history. During this time Tom gave over 4,000 broadcasts and acquired a huge and loyal following of youngsters and the enthusiastic support of their parents, who liked the high tone of his offering and approach. The station averaged 20,000 letters a year praising the show. Sadly, after fifteen years, a newspaper headline announced « ...the magic leaves Channel 12. »

He was always ready to perform for hospitals, bringing laughter to lonesome and frightened kids. He also sat for hours holding hands or doing some magic tricks to kids with only a few days left on Earth. The next day, Tom often received a phone call from the hospital to be advised they had passed away, still holding some little toy given to them by Magic Tom.

The biggest star of magic in the province of Quebec moved to French language television in the mid 70s and performed for that segment of the children's population. The mass of publicity he received in the late 1975 and 1976 was stunning.

He received many awards and certificates from community groups, churches, service clubs, corporations, hospitals and homes for the aged. One organization even gave him a gold watch on the occasion of his twenty-fifth annual appearance at its yearly banquet!

From November 1982 to April 1983 he performed on the Island of Maui in Hawaii doing over 45 performances and on March 3rd, 1983 « Magic Tom Auburn Day » was proclaimed by the Council of Maui and a Testimonial Luncheon was held in his honour.

Throughout his career he has given away many times the only thing he had to sell « his talent » and through his talent he has raised thousands of dollars for different events in Quebec and Ontario. He also appeared on all the local telethons to raise money for the St. Justine and Montreal Children's hospitals both in French and English, as well as many radio programs.



Source: The Society of American Magicians and Dolores Auburn.