Magasinet Filter is a small, but reputable, magazine that has been around since 2008. It comes out 6 times a year, and specializes in investigative journalism. It has been awarded several times with and nominated for some of Sweden’s biggest journalistic awards, including the Great Journalist Award, the Golden Spade and the Publicists Club’s great award.
Therefore, it was exciting when Magasinet Filter caught sight of my exposé about the “Merlin Award” and was inspired to write its own article on the subject. In issue #92 (June-July 2023) they published journalist Simon Appelquist’s text. Unlike my own article, Filter focused more on the Swedish perspective and focused on Swedish illusionist Joe Labero’s use of the “Merlin Award” in his marketing, as well as scrutinizing other strange claims made over the years. Happily, but 14 years too late, my colleagues Johan Ståhl, Peter Brynolf, Jonas Ljung and Charlie Caper finally got some vindication, when it was brought up that their bravado at FISM 2009 in Beijing was completely overshadowed by Labero’s “Merlin”-make-believe.
In December, the cultural section of the Norwegian daily newspaper Tønsberg Blad did a full report on the dubious merits that the the Norwegian illusionist Alexx Alexander had used, and now this in Filter. One can only hope that this puts an end to the nonsense.
You can read the whole article here, if you start a free account: Mästertrollaren. Or if you want to read it in English, you can take a peek at this English translation (PDF).
