clarification about the Malini Egg

I really didn't want to make a public statement about this. Our first instinct was to handle it privately, and that's exactly what we did. However, over the past several days, we've received calls and messages from friends and colleagues in the magic community who are confused about the appearance of another product being called a Malini Egg and have asked us what is going on. To clarify, there is no agreement or collaboration happening with respect to our Malini Egg. Rather than have people speculate or misunderstand the situation, I want to explain where Steve and I stand. 

Steve has been making the Malini Egg for many years. It was developed specifically to solve a problem magicians have had for generations with the traditional blown egg and the fragility of the shell. The entire reason we developed the Malini Egg was so magicians would no longer have to worry about the fragility and inconvenience of blown eggs. It is hard for us to understand why a friend would choose to offer the very thing we have spent the last seven years telling magicians they no longer need.

​Steve spent considerable time developing an egg with the proper appearance, weight, and durability for the Malini Egg Bag. Denny Haney and Scott Alexander worked our prototypes to death, and reported back with their suggested tweaks. Our Malini Egg was born from the expertise of respected pros! We are proud of it! Over the years, it has become one of our flagship products that we worked hard to ensure the name Malini Egg would become synonymous with Steve Myers Magic. 

We've heard traditional egg bag eggs referred to by many names—blown egg, fake egg, plastic egg, wooden egg, egg replica, Perfect Egg, Eggsactly, ceramic egg and others—but we had never encountered another manufacturer using Malini Egg as the product name for the egg itself. 

When we saw that Mike Kaminskas was releasing a blown egg under the name The Malini Egg Project, The Complete Guide to making Malini Eggs, with the finished egg being called an MK Malini Egg, I privately asked him why he had chosen that name. His response was that he has always referred to eggs used with the Malini Egg Bag as “Malini Eggs,” and that this was  a descriptor for what they are. He told us that he speaks highly of Steve's Malini Egg and directs people to our website in his book.

We appreciate that he says he was not trying to step on our toes, and we certainly aren't claiming ownership of the concept of an egg used with the Malini Egg Bag. What is difficult for us is the decision to use the exact product name that Steve has spent years establishing. I reminded Mike that “Malini Egg” is the name of our flagship product and that we worked hard to make sure it became synonymous with Steve Myers Magic... we had hoped that professional courtesy would lead to choosing a different name for this competing manufactured egg. Mike told us that the project would remain The Malini Egg Project, as it was already at the publisher. We obviously can't tell another creator what they can do. But we are also allowed to say honestly that we find the decision disappointing and, from our perspective, in poor taste.

Throughout the years, there have been plenty of opportunities to make something simply because we could, but we've tried to live by the idea that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. In a small community like magic, where many of us know one another personally and professionally, that distinction matters. Sometimes integrity means leaving a little money on the table because you don't want to step on someone else's toes.

We aren't interested in a public argument with Mike, and we're not asking anyone to take sides. We simply wanted to address the confusion surrounding the two products using the same name and why, despite our long history with Mike, Steve and I are disappointed by the decision. We can't control what another creator chooses to do but we can control how we conduct ourselves, and we'll continue to do that with the same respect, professional courtesy, and integrity we've always tried to bring to Steve Myers Magic.

Our Malini Egg Reviews are legit. Check 'em out below! 

The Malini Egg