It was very sad to hear of the death of Steve Quinn recently. Jay Leslie has sent me a few words about about his close friend:

Steven Frances Quinn, 51 from Costa Mesa California died February second, 2001.

He was a member of ring IBM ring 21 and 313 at various times over the last 24 years.

After serving two tours of duty in Vet Nam Steve took up magic as a semi professional. “The Mighty Quinn” was best known for several highly publicized death-defying escape stunts where he was either buried alive or thrown off a bridge handcuffed and tied in a bag. More recently Steve performed a fun box & silk show for schools, convalescents homes and other venues.

His first love however was escape magic. He assembled a Houdini collection that appeared at magicians conventions. Even thought the majority of his shows centered around commercial magic, Steve always performed an escape in his act.

The strait jacket escape remained part of his performance even through it was quite difficult for him to perform the last several months.

Steve had scores of friends, possibly because he never bragged about himself or his accomplishments and looked for the good in others. He will be missed by both magicians and many others connected with various clubs he belonged to.

He is survived by seven brothers who live on the east coast.

Jay Leslie