Stoner's Funstore
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Costumer magazine in 2018. We're reprinting it here because it's still a feel-good article, and because Stoner's Funstore is still in business!
By Ed Avis
As we were researching an article about selling magic tricks and supplies in costume shops, the first few people we spoke to said that the internet has severely cut into their sales of those items. We were starting to lose hope for the topic until we spoke with Dick Stoner, founder of Stoner’s Funstore in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Stoner, who is 90 years old, sells less magic than before, but is still enthusiastic about the line. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview with him.
Costumer: How did Stoner’s Funstore get started?
Stoner: I started the store in 1949. I was 19 years old, and I was doing magic shows. I added some comedy to my routine, and was almost making a living at it. My dad did magic as a hobby. One day he said, ‘If you really want to do this, let’s start a magic shop.’ So we bought an existing shop in Indianapolis and moved the business to Fort Wayne. I was still traveling with my magic shows, but we also were growing the store.
Costumer: How did the business evolve into a costume shop?
Stoner: After a while we realized we needed more than magic. So we added some joke things, and then some masks and wigs. A few years later we bought out a lady who had a few racks of costumes that she only sold during Halloween. We bought her inventory and put it in the upstairs of our building, and that became our rental department. I think we paid $2,500 for those costumes, and that first Halloween we made $3,000 renting them, and we still had the costumes! We realized this is a good business. So later we bought another, larger costume business and moved it here. We now have over 20,000 rental costumes.
Costumer: But you continued selling magic?
Stoner: Yes. We used to sell a lot of bigger tricks to people putting on shows, but not many people today put together magic acts like they used to. If they’re doing street magic, they want close-up card tricks and things like that. So it’s not as big a part of our business as it was, but we still do quite a bit of magic. And we sell it online.
Costumer: Who are your typical magic-buying customers these days?
Stoner: Mostly people doing magic as a hobby. We have a magic club here, and there are 12 to 15 members who come in once a month and they do some shows. We also have a lot of youngsters who see some tricks online and they want to learn how to do them. And sometimes they want to do magic in a talent contest in school, so they’ll get a little a little bigger thing then. There’s a trick we sell called the Magic Change Bag that’s great for kids’ shows. You have this bag, and you put three scarves into it – red, white, and blue. As you’re doing it you drop the blue scarf outside the bag. You reach into the bag and pull out an American flag, but the blue field is missing so it’s just red and white. You “find” the blue scarf that fell out and put that back in, and pull out the flag again. This time all three colors are there, but the red and blue are switched. So you stuff it back into the bag and have the audience say “It’s a grand old flag!” as you pull out a flag that’s right. That trick always gets a great reaction.
Costumer: What are your best-selling magic items?
Stoner: Decks of cards, Svengali decks, things like that. We also sell a lot of coin tricks that sell for $40 to $50. Also some videos that teach sleight of hand. I performed on the Statler Brothers Show, and they allowed me to use footage from that to put together a video. So first the viewers see my performance on the show, and then in the second half I teach them how to do the tricks. The videos are called “I Spell Magic F-U-N!” and “More I Spell Magic F-U-N!”
Costumer: What advice do you have for other NCA members about selling magic?
Stoner: I wouldn’t get into magic real heavy, but it’s a good idea to have some. If you’re doing plays, many of them have a little magic in them, so it’s good for stores to carry tricks that are visual enough for the stage, like magically appearing bouquets of flowers. And there are a lot of magic tricks from just $5 to $20, like the little plastic boxes that look empty, but when you wave your hand over them they’re full of candy. We have kids come in the store all the time, and I tell them we have magic tricks for them. For example, we have something called the Magic Coloring Book, which [has colors that come and go] as you flip the pages. When the youngsters come in I show them that, and sometimes they’ll buy a few more tricks.
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