{"id":20531,"date":"2025-10-31T05:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T05:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20531\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T05:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T05:52:07","slug":"readings-historic-magic-shop-hosts-special-event-this-weekend-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20531\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading\u2019s historic magic shop hosts special event this weekend | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 For nearly nine decades, the Mingus Magic Shop<\/a> on Lancaster Avenue has kept the art of magic alive in Berks County.<\/p>\n

“We’re a brick-and-mortar magic shop for about 87 years. We’re considered to be one of the oldest in the country,” said owner Wayne Shifflett.<\/p>\n

The shop was originally opened in the late 1930s by magician Leroy Mingus. Shifflett walked through the doors himself at age 16, and never left.<\/p>\n

“He taught me a very simple, basic trick. It was the cups and balls. That’s the first one I learned,” Shifflett recalled.<\/p>\n

This Saturday, the tradition continues with “Magic till Midnight.”<\/p>\n

“Starting at 5 o’clock, there will be a different magician performing about a 15-minute show every half hour up until midnight,” Shifflett said.<\/p>\n

Shifflett says what makes Mingus Magic special isn’t just the tricks; it’s the community that gathers around them.<\/p>\n

“It’s a meeting ground for magicians. A lot of times on a Saturday afternoon, there’ll be two, three, four magicians just hanging out,” he said.<\/p>\n

From feather flowers featured in national TV shows, to a key once used by Houdini, the shop holds decades of magic history. And for Shifflett, preserving that legacy has become a lifelong promise.<\/p>\n

“I’ve owned this shop for over 49 years,” he said. “So it’s a commitment that I made. And I’ll be here as long as I can.”<\/p>\n

The event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 For nearly nine decades, the Mingus Magic Shop on Lancaster Avenue has kept the art of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14175,14176,14177,128,130,129,14174],"class_list":["post-20531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-leroy-mingus","tag-magician","tag-mingus-magic-shop","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-wayne-shifflett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}