Stealing Magic (dir. Matthew Testa)

By: Adam Freed

There is a relatively small and tight knit community of global magicians, and as it turns out, this is a group of people that one is better off not messing with.  When it comes to piracy, that magic community has been deeply impacted by immoral entrepreneurs who steal and duplicate legitimate tricks and sell them online at discount prices.  While this may not seem like the most pressing issue facing the world today, to the men and women who rely on the sale of books, tricks and props to make a living, the issue of piracy prevention is paramount.  In Stealing Magic, a documentary that views more like a story of international espionage than the quest to thwart online pirates, magicians and co-owners of Vanishing Inc. Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay go to astonishing lengths to identify and track down a small team of cybercriminals taking a large bite out of their business model.

Gladwin and Jay begin their adventure with a simple email directly to the faceless operator of the Erdnase Magic Store, a discount digital retailer that outwardly seems to be on the up and up.  With the help of countless members of the magic community, including the world famous Penn & Teller, it becomes clear that Erdnase is an elaborate ruse, pirating countless forms of intellectual property for maximum profit.  As director Matthew Testa allows the film to unfold, the chase for Erdnase takes Andi and Joshua from the United States, to the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, France and eventually to Egypt.  Armed with a team of cyber security specialists, the duo of magicians race across the globe to protect their intellectual property and elimiate the threat of piracy that has labasted their tight community.

Despite all of the excitement of following an international mystery, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Stealing Magic is a story with very low stakes for anyone outside of the small community of magicians impacted by these crimes.  To his credit, Matthew Testa packs his film with about as much intrigue as is possible considering its relatively low impact when weighed against more pressing global events.  At just under 90 minutes, the small but mighty Stealing Magic clearly executes the plan, the turn and the prestige of documentary filmmaking.

Target Score 7.5/10 - Magicians Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay travel the world in search of shadowy operation stealing and reselling their tricks.  Matthew Testa’s Stealing Magic is a wonderfully paced documentary about cyber security, international law, and defending the small community to which one belongs. 

Stealing Magic was reviewed as part of Movie Archer's coverage of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.