201404 Mum

APRIL 2014

CHRISTOPHER CARTER

Page 36

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MAGIC - UNITY - MIGHT Editor

Michael Close

Editor EmeritusDavid Goodsell

Associate Editor W.S. Duncan

Proofreader & Copy EditorLindsay Smith

Art DirectorLisa Close

PublisherSociety of American Magicians,

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4 M-U-M Magazine - APRIL 2014

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APRIL 2014

M-U-M (ISSN 00475300 USPS 323580) is published monthly for $40 per year by The Society of American Magicians, 6838 N. Alpine Dr., Parker, CO 80134 . Periodical postage paid at Parker, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to M-U-M, c/o Manon Rodriguez, P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80134.

Volume 103 • Number 11

THIS MONTH’S FEATURES24 Illusions of Grandeur • by David Seebach26 I Left My Cards at Home • by Steve Marshall28 The Dotted Line • by Don Theo III32 Hit the Road • by Scott Alexander34 For Your Consideration • by George Parker36 COVER STORY • by Christian Painter40 From The Carter Repertoire • by Christopher Carter42 Nielsen Gallery • by Tom Ewing44 Messing With Your Mind • by Christopher Carter46 Not Just Kid Stuff • by Jim Kleefeld49 Tech Tricks • by Bruce Kalver50 The High Road • by Mick Ayres52 Mysteries of the Houdini Grave • by Dean Carnegie54 Ebook Nook: The Award-Winning Magic of John Cornelius 58 Cheats and Deceptions • by Antonio M. Cabral60 Informed Opinion • New Product Reviews 68 Salon de Magie • by Ken Klosterman69 Inside Straight • by Norman Beck70 Basil the Baffling • by Alan Wassilak70 The Dean’s Diary • by George Schindler

MAGAZINEM-U-M


cover story page 36

S.A.M. NEWS 6 From the Editor’s Desk 8 From the President’s Desk11 M-U-M Assembly News22 Good Cheer List23 Broken Wands31 Newsworthy69 Our Advertisers

42

52

49

26

Editor’s Desk

Last month I told you that Christian Painter was ending his mentalism column, Mental Breakdown, but will continue to con-tribute to the magazine with a different column that will begin in May. I am very happy to announce that Christopher Carter, the gentleman lighting up the front cover, will be taking over the mentalism column, and he is eminently qualified to do so.

If you don’t know who Christopher Carter is, don’t feel bad. Chris doesn’t spend a lot time at magic conventions or writing for magic publications; he’s too busy working as one of the up-per-echelon performers on the college circuit. Christian Painter suggested Chris to take over the mentalism column, and he also wrote this month’s cover story. In addition, Chris contributed three tricks; two can be found following the cover story, and the third is in his first column.

I am delighted that Christopher Carter has joined the M-U-M team, and I know you will find his column to be useful and in-formative.

Speaking of tricks (yes, I am the Prince of Segues), consider this scenario. You are invited to a small party at a friend’s house. The conversation turns to psychic phenomena. You offer to demonstrate a few interesting experiments. Using a borrowed deck of cards, a borrowed handkerchief, some borrowed writing materials, and a borrowed cat, you are able to perform a thirty-minute show that includes design duplication, the psychic sorting of cards from a genuinely shuffled deck, a manifestation of a ghost under a handkerchief, and a spooky rising card effect in which the selected cards rise from a glass. Everything you need to accomplish these effects can be carried in your pockets: a small stack of business cards, a peek wallet (if you want to do the trick with the cat), and two very small gaffs.

Here’s my question to you: Considering that all these effects can be done with a minimum of sleight-of-hand ability, how much would this set of effects be worth to you? Twenty-five dollars? Fifty dollars? With the way magic is marketed these days (and the plethora of one-trick DVDs that sell for thirty bucks), you’d pay a hundred bucks or so for this information.

Here’s the good news: You’ll find all these routines in this issue of M-U-M. Where are these effects in the magazine? I’m not going to tell you. Read and you’ll find them. I urge you to carefully read through each issue of M-U-M. In addition to practical advice that will make you a better magician and interesting discussions on magic theory, you’ll also find some great tricks.

And speaking of magic theory (the Prince strikes again), take a look at George Parker’s For Your Consideration column this month. The suggestion George offers may be a little difficult to wrap your head around, but I think I understand what he’s getting at. Stop for a moment, turn to George’s column (page 34), read through it once or twice, and then come back. I’ll wait.

I had to go through George’s column a couple of times before I began to understand what he is going for, and I think he’s on to something. His point is that when you want to bring something into existence (a magic show, a vacation, a book, or whatever) the

fact that you tend to visualize the entire thing can overwhelm you and render you incapable of action. You see the big picture and the goal seems unattainable. I have experienced this.

Instead of seeing the big picture, ask yourself what are the essential components of your desired goal. Then figure out a way to achieve a smaller version of that, a creation that still encom-passes the essential components you desire. In doing this you give yourself a feeling of accomplishment and this good feeling energizes you to continue the process.

For example, suppose you watch Mac King’s act (which Lisa, Ava, and I did last weekend). You see this seamless construction, with all the great magic and the myriad of jokes and callbacks, and you think, “I’d like to construct an act like that, but how in the world would I go about doing that?” The answer is, you can’t write an act like in one shot, and neither did Mac. It was the slow accrual of little bits and finesses and refinements over many years that got the act to that point. If you tried to write it all in one shot, you’d get frustrated and overwhelmed, and you’d give up.

You’d be better served by asking what components of a Mac-like act you’d like to include and then designing just one routine – a routine that contains those elements. This is doable, and if you can accomplish that, you will gain satisfaction and it will energize you to continue.

That’s my take on George’s article. I look forward to seeing how he applies this technique to a magic trick in his column next month.

RVP Eric DeCamps is doing a terrific job with his North Atlantic Region Newsletter. The Spring 2014 edition was eighteen pages long and contained articles on holiday events and Margaret Steele’s shows in China, a review of Nothing to Hide, and a trick from Steve Cohen. The articles on the Houdini grave site on M-U-M this month on page 52 came from this issue of the newsletter.

Compeer Dave Eisler emailed me with the suggestion that assembly secretaries include information on upcoming special events in their assembly reports. In this way, a compeer traveling in the neighborhood of an assembly could make plans to attend those events. I agree that this is a fine idea. However, don’t plug events that will happen within thirty days of submitting your report. The information will be outdated by the time the magazine reaches our members.

Michael with Mac King and his newest fan Ava Close


Michael Close

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Dal Sanders

President’s Desk

This month I am writing this article in a hotel in Tucson, Arizona. We have just finished the Spring National Council Meeting and I am happy to report that great progress was made in planning the future of The Society of American Magicians. There are many exciting things in the works, but before I mention any of them I would like to thank Tucson Assembly 136 for being such fantastic hosts.

I have a long history with Assembly 136. Twenty-five years ago I brought my illusion show to the Gaslight Theater in Tucson for a two-week run. The owners of the theater had just converted the old Jerry Lewis movie house into a theater, and we were to be the inaugural act. We arrived in Tucson a week early to hang curtains and lights. I did not reach out to local magicians before arriving and no one except the theater owners knew we were coming in early. Before the engine of our truck cooled, members of Assembly 136 were there to welcome us to town, to help us unload, and to take us to lunch. The theater extended our run for eight weeks and my cast and I took advantage of that time to build lifelong friendships with the Tucson magicians.

When I was asked where I would hold our Spring National Council Meeting I did not hesitate to suggest Tucson. Assembly President John Redmon volunteered to set up transportation for National Council Members between the airport and the hotel and everyone received gift bags when we checked into the hotel. They also treated the line officers to a wonderful dinner and I loved the way they split up and put different members among all of the thirty National Council Members so that we all got to know various assembly members. Thank you to all the members of Assembly 136 for making our visit fantastic.

I have often said that the Tucson Assembly is one of the friend-liest groups in the S.A.M. and they proved me right; but that’s not all they do right. The Tucson Assembly also mentors young magicians. They have an annual public show that they produce, but just because you are a member does not mean that you will get the chance perform on stage. The more experienced members work with the newer magicians to help them develop their act. Many young members are asked to work backstage or as ushers while they are developing. This spirit of mentoring and appren-ticeship is a wonderful way to grow as a magician.

We were also thrilled to be invited to Roland Sarlot and Susan Eyed’s wonderful show, Carnival of Illusion. This top-rated attraction is revitalizing magic by blending their international travel theme with all the charms of a vaudeville-inspired road show. Carnival of Illusion is a night of magic, mystery and well, oooh la la!

Magic is very popular in Tucson; we also got to visit with another magic club. The University of Arizona sponsors an in-dependent student magic club. The membership is diverse with a wide variety of skill sets. There are card people, coin people, stage magicians, and mentalists, and their abilities range from beginner to those with years of experience. You shouldn’t be surprised that they all work together and encourage each other to grow and improve their skills. There are over fifty members

of the group and they regularly have over thirty people attending the weekly meetings…yes you read that right, this university- sponsored magic club meets weekly.

I am happy to report that President-Elect Ice McDonald, S.A.M. Assembly 136 officers Michael DeSchalit and John Redmon, and I got to visit with this club to promote The Society of American Magicians. Thanks to Emory Williams for setting this visit up for us. Moving forward, Assembly 136 is going to “adopt” the University of Arizona Magic Club. It was refresh-ing to see this group of young people who were so excited about magic.

John Apperson is stepping down as Convention Chairman. He has a lot on his plate and he needs to take care of other issues in his life. John has literally turned our conventions around. It is no secret that the national S.A.M. conventions had been losing money before he took over. Under his leadership all of our conventions have been profitable. We are very sad to lose John as chairman but the good news is that John has been training his replacement. I appointed Mark Weidhaas as the new Convention Chairman and I am happy to report that the National Council ratified my appoint-ment. We feel confident that Mark is the one S.A.M. member with the experience and energy to fill John’s rather large shoes. I’m sure that all of you join me in thanking John for a job well done and congratulating Mark on his new position.

Many other important things happened at the National Council Meeting. First of all, we are developing a mutually beneficial re-lationship with a new television network that will make our film and tape library available to S.A.M. members over a variety of platforms. This same network will also make other magic-relat-ed broadcasts available to S.A.M. members. There will be much more information about this in the coming months.

In other National Council news, we are developing training modules and opportunities for officers of local assemblies. We hope to work with some of the biggest names in magic to accom-plish this. We are also moving ahead with our Mining for Gems video project and several other new benefits for S.A.M. members. This is a great time to be a member of the world’s oldest and most prestigious magic organization.

I was also happy to represent the S.A.M. in England at the Blackpool Magician’s Convention. This is an amazing event with a reported 3,800 registered magicians and over 150 dealers. This convention is amazing. When I was in England I had the great privilege of visiting the Magic Circle in London. I was proud to recognize a UK compeer and to award her with a Presidential Citation. Mandy Davis certainly deserves rec-ognition. She is the S.A.M. International Deputy for the United Kingdom, Liaison to the Magic Circle, and a National Council Member. She has also helped out the S.Y.M. by working with the kids on W.O.W. (Weekend of Wonder). I was able to take the stage at the Magic Circle to present this recognition before their weekly meeting. Please join with me and thank Mandy for all of the great work she does and congratulate her for receiving the Presidential Citation…the highest award offered by the S.A.M.

Mandy Davis receiving presidential citation


S.A.M. National Officers

Dean: George Schindler, 1735 East 26th St., Brooklyn, NY 11229, (718) 336-0605, Fax (718) 627-1397, [email protected]: Dal Sanders, 3316 Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75229 (214) 902-9200, [email protected] President Elect: Kenrick “ICE” McDonald, P.O. Box 341034, Los Angeles, CA 90034, (310) 559-8968, [email protected] Vice President: David Bowers, (717) 414-7574, [email protected] Vice President: Jeffrey Sikora, (402) 339-6726 [email protected]: Marlene Clark, 274 Church Street, #6B, Guilford, CT 06437, (203) 689-5730, Skype: marlene.clark, [email protected] Treasurer: Eric Lampert, (215) 939-5555, [email protected]

Regional Vice Presidents

New England: CT MA RI NH ME VTJoseph Caulfield (603) 654-6022, [email protected] North Atlantic: NY NJ Eric DeCamps, (718) 896-5861, [email protected] Mid Atlantic: PA DE MD VAWV DCPhil Milstead, (703) 481-5271, [email protected] South Atlantic: FL AL GA MS NC SCDebbie Leifer (404) [email protected] Central Plains: KY TN OH IN MISteven A. Spence, (317) 722-0429 [email protected] Midwest: IL MN WI MO ND NE KS SD IAShaun Rivera, (618) 781-8621 [email protected] South Central States: TX AR OK NM LAMichael Tallon, (210) [email protected] Southwest: CA AZ NV HIRon Ishimaru, (808) 428-6019, [email protected] Northwest: WA OR UT ID CO AK WY MTJames Russell, (360) 682-6648 [email protected] Canada: Rod Chow (604) [email protected] Society of Young Magicians Director: Jann Wherry Goodsell, 329 West 1750 North, Orem, Utah 84057 (801) 376-0353. [email protected]

Living Past National Presidents

Bradley M. Jacobs, Richard L. Gustafson, Roy A. Snyder, Bruce W. Fletcher, James E. Zachary, David R. Goodsell, Fr. Cyprian Murray, Michael D. Douglass, George Schindler, Dan Rodriguez, Dan Garrett, Donald F. Oltz Jr., Craig Dickson, Loren C. Lind, Gary D. Hughes, Harry Monti, Jann Wherry Goodsell, Warren J. Kaps, Ed Thomas, Jay Gorham, John Apperson, Richard M. Dooley, Andy Dallas, Maria Ibáñez, Bruce Kalver, Mike Miller, Mark Weidhaas, Vinny Grosso, J. Christopher Bontjes


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ASSEMBLY NEWSSociety of American Magicians Monthly News

APRIL 2014 Volume 103, Number 11

GO TO: WWW.MUM-MAGAZINE.COM and use the easy submission form to file your report

1BEN ZABIN RECEIVES PA 1

DAVID OLIVER SYM AWARD

NEW YORK, NY— The SAM PA 1 Magic Table meets at the Edison Café on 47th Street in Times Square. We start around 12:30 sharing magic. Many others gather at Café Rustico on 35th Street off Fifth Avenue for lunch and magic on Saturdays.Our monthly meeting was on

February 7th. First up was the presentation of the PA 1 SYM David Oliver Award to magician Ben Zabin by President David Adamovich. Ben got a great round of applause and later performed for the assembly. Also receiving presidential awards were Rene Clement and Paul Hsiao for their wonderful work on Magic Week, performing in a large show in Chinatown. Producer of this year’s annual show, PP Ken Ferst, told us about this year’s Salute to Magic. The show will be on May 17th at the Queens Theatre at the site of the old World’s Fairs. That history will be part of the six-person show as well as the wonderful Jay Scott Berry as the emcee and the closer, Jeff McBride.Then it was time for the after-

meeting event, which was a great lecture by Greg Wilson. His wit and smart effects were a delight. His pickpocket routine using PP Ken Schwabe as a “victim” was only topped by his chip on the shoulder workings with Richard Bossong for its fast pace, high energy, and sheer entertain-

ment. A great end to our monthly meeting.On Friday evening February

21st Doug Edwards presented the Workshop at the Gemini Dinner. We bring old effect to show Doug to stump him but it never happens. Doug did An Aldo Colombini effect as a tribute to his old friend, performing a wonderful rope effect Knotty Knot. He did a Dr. Jak’s routine and some amazing effects using “loops.” He performed these effects and then taught us all. His workshops are terrific.On Saturday, February 22, a

memorial for Georges Weill was held at the UN Chapel here in NYC. President Throwdini conducted the PA 1 Broken Wand Ceremony after asking all magicians from the S.A.M. and I.B.M. to stand. It was well attended. Past President Ken Schwabe did the actual breaking of the wand, saying a few words about his old friend. Behind them on the altar were George’s fifty-year certificate for member-ship in the Parent Assembly and the playing cards he last used. We will all miss him at our meetings and especially our workshops —Tom KlemParent Assembly 1 meets the first Friday of the month at Mount Sinai Hospital 1425 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Contact Tom Klem [email protected] (212) 725 5258 www.sampa1.com for more details.

2BAR-IMPROMPTU MAGIC

SAN FRANCISCO, CA— The theme of the night was bar or impromptu magic. Corky LaVallee began the performances with a teach-in of Charlie Frye’s ESPionage, a trick released by Card Shark. Corky asked Stu Bacon “first” to put down one card from a shuffled pile of ESP cards. Corky proceeded to match up each card that Stu turned over from Corky’s set of ESP cards. We all could have predicted how things were likely to end up, but Corky’s presentation wowed us throughout to make it less predict-able and very enjoyable. Tamaka presented three brass cylinders. We saw and “heard” a pellet

placed inside of one cylinder. Then Tamaka shuffled the cylinders (ala NY street hustle style) and asked someone to guess where the cylinder with the pellet had landed. Low and behold, we could never guess correctly. Each time they were picked up and shaken, we heard silence. Tamaka even-tually opened up all the cylinders and “shazam” (as Rob Shapiro cried out), each cylinder had a pellet inside.

Walt Johnson first demon-strated the way corks pinched between fingers and thumbs of both hands could pass through each other – great combination of bar/impromptu magic. Then Walt showed how to print business cards from blank cards using his “palm” printer. Walt’s finale revealed how to use a rubber band to pass between Terrie Cardoza’s clenched tight fingers with ease. Rich Seguine displayed the way three cups and some rolled up toilet paper could be utilized to perform Cup and Balls. His encore employed bottle caps shifting from one pile to another. Rob Shapiro confirmed dice had many magical uses. He had Terrie place three dice in a glass and then covered it with a napkin. Terrie added up the total of the dice displayed on the bottom of the glass and it matched Rob’s prediction each time Terrie opted to “roll the dice” into the glass. Hippo Lau preceded his magic

dollar levitation trick with a funny joke that really made us “believe” his trick. He left us laughing and amazed at the use of fairy dust. Stu’s first trick centered on a paper clock he drew that enabled him

to predict a card every time no matter where the clock started. Then Stu continued by showing us how a pair of Aces was able to find its mates. Corky concluded the evening with another variation of Stu’s mate finding card routine. —Rob ShapiroGolden Gate Assembly 2 meets first Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Community Room of Taraval Police Station, 2345 24th Avenue, San Francisco. Contact Tamaka [email protected] (415) 531-9332 https://www.facebook.com/groups/249018441875771/ for more details.

3MAGIC FROM M-U-M

CHICAGO, IL— After our January meeting was canceled due to severe weather, Assembly 3 roared back in February with “Magic from M-U-M” night. The evening started with a FaceTime call from our RVP, Shaun Rivera. Compeer Rivera shared with us several gems he found among the pages of M-U-M from the likes of Bob Farmer and Chris Mayhew, prompting several members to resolve to read through their back catalog of magazines.

The evening’s topic was inspired by and in tribute to Most Illustri-ous President Neil Tobin on the occasion of his appearance on the February 2014 cover of M-U-M. Neil himself presented an original routine based on a Milbourne Christopher effect he called Money Spell or Love Spell. Other presenters included Dave

Lyons and his Bank Night routine, Nathan Colwell and his Linking Rings, Gordon Gluff’s tribute


Ben Zabin receiving the PA#1 David Oliver Award from President Throwdini

Hippo Lau levitates a dollar

FaceTime with our RVP Shaun Rivera, teaching effects from

M-U-M


Assembly News

to Larry Jennings, and John Sturk’s 31-Day Coin Vanish (to be continued next meeting). We were excited to have two

new members sign up to join the assembly this meeting. We are fired up and energized, and looking forward to a big year for Assembly 3! —John SturkAssembly 3 meets the fourth Monday of each month at 7:30pm at the Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL. Contact John Sturk [email protected] (773) 6339219 www.magicalchicago.com for more details.

4ANNUAL AUCTION AND TWO EXCELLENT MINI-

LECTURES

PHILADELPHIA, PA— Our February meeting featured our annual auction in addition to two superb mini-lectures on close-up magic and silk magic. Prior to beginning the festivi-ties, Assembly 4 President Brian Hurlburt conducted a brief business meeting during which he announced the sad news of the recent passing of our friend Aldo Colombini who was beloved by so many. This wonderful man and his special magic will be deeply missed by all. Our hearts go out to Rachel; both she and Aldo will remain in our prayers.Following the business meeting,

our members were treated to two excellent mini-lectures. The first mini-lecture on silk magic was presented by George Hample and PNP Dick Gustafson. George taught everyone his handling of the Dye Tube as well as several fine effects using colored silks and a rolled up tube of paper. Dick then demonstrated such classics as Silk Through Wand, The Cords of Phantasia, and The Sympathetic Silks. The lecture was a whirlwind overview of silk magic presented by two of the finest practitioners of that genre of magic. The second mini-lecture was a spirited presen-tation on close-up magic presented by Eric Johnson and Jeff Carson.

Eric deftly executed an amazing Four Ace routine as well as a fine coin routine, both of which he taught to the membership. Jeff then did his own variation on Twisted Sister and demonstrated just how much fun one can get out of Mark Young’s Amazing Jumping Arrow. Both mini-lectures were full of practical, sure-fire material. After the mini-lectures, we had

our annual auction for which S.A.M. National Historian Tom Ewing ably served as the auction-eer. Tom, who recently started his own magic auction online with David Halverstadt, was the perfect man for the job. He not only provided detailed spot-on information for each lot, but also infused the entire process with his own unique sense of humor. Over the course of the evening, many great bargains were to be had including an original unused Joe Carson Zombie that flew away for only $12.00. A vintage U.F. Grant Passe Passe Champagne Bottle effect that was in mint condition was literally stolen for $10.00. Also, a solid gold set of unused walnut shells for the Shell Game valued at over $100.00 went for only $30.00. The bargains to be had were amazing and almost everyone walked away with something very special. —Peter CuddihyJames Wobensmith Assembly 4 meets third Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Bustleton Memorial Post, 810 (American Legion) 9151 Old Newtown Road. Contact () Information: www.sam4.org for more details. for more details.

6FRIGID WEATHER, HOT

MAGIC

BALTIMORE, MD— We had a large turnout with many guests for our February meeting, wedged in between the bouts of winter storms. Joe Harsanyi led off our performances with Fourtitude from Harry Lorayne’s Close-up Card Magic. We welcomed back guest Les Albert, who demon-strated his face-up classic force (to find the one red-backer in a blue deck) followed by a two-card match and a tricky Ace routine. Craig Feinstein showed us how to double your money with a paddle (“no tricky paddle moves; it uses mirrors”). He followed with a “close enough” card find. Jay Silverman performed a four-card match he learned from George Woo. Jeff Eline performed a stunning and mystifying rising card from within a silk. We welcomed Dennis French as a full member and he showed us a fine Chop Cup routine that he did

while in the Navy. Guest Jefferson Rose did one of the card routines he performs in a Springfield, VA, restaurant. Guest Jared Raitzyk demonstrated Chris Kenner’s Rising Card App on an iPhone. Prez Andy London (“sorry I’m late, just came from an animal rights bull roast”) used his lucky number (13) to find all four Aces, after which all the other cards turned blank. Three guests from the Johns

Hopkins University Magic Club (Mike Bledsoe, Trevor Plumer, and Ronann Carrero) showed us some fine card magic. Mike taught a nice fan flourish shuffle, Trevor did the Biddle Trick, and Ronann a nice card reveal. Howard Katz, who generously provides his Magic Warehouse as our venue, performed a “just learned” mental card reveal. Ralph Fowler performed his Haunted Matchbox-es (which he hand crafts). Dean Joe Bruno treated us to his second ever showing of an effect he’s been working on for six months in which four pocketed Kings turn one-by-one into the four Aces. He followed with his excellent improved version of A Royal Exchange (originally by Edward Victor, 1937). Mentalist Oneil Banks performed a two-deck card prediction in which one spectator predicted the card chosen by the other. Our closing act was Peter Wood, moving around a punched hole in a signed card. Huh? How’d he do that? As usual, there was a substan-

tial amount of card magic in the front room before the meeting started and still more magic in little groups after the meeting ended. If you’re in the area on first Thursdays come join the fun! —Eric HoffmanThe Kellar/Thurston Assembly 6 meets every first Thursday at 8:00 pm at the Magic Warehouse, 11419 Cronridge Drive suite #10 in Owings Mills, Maryland. 410-561-0777. Contact Andy London [email protected] or www.baltimoresam.com for more details.

8GREAT MENTALIST AT THE

GATEWAY

SAINT LOUIS, MO— On February 3, 2014, Nathan Kranzo gave us a great lecture. Nathan performed his stand-up coin magic, Mene Tekel effects, Tru-Test, and many more! We really enjoyed Nathan’s comedy magic and mind reading lecture and you will too.Just ten days later on the 13th

(lucky for us), Morgan Strebler came to visit our assembly. We were treated to a performance

by Morgan covering: Spectator Failure, Sympathetic Reaction, Thought Reading, Thought Transmission, Predictions, and Hypnotism! Jill Schmitt(Silly Jilly), Larry Lucy, Adam Putman, Columbus Smith, Greg Lewis, and Sandy Weis were willing partici-pants on stage.Morgan followed this up with a

rare lecture including a variety of his own effects: Liquid Metal, Molten, The Closer, and Super Comic Comic, to name a few. You too can see what it was like at Assembly8.com and when you visit St. Louis next, come on by and visit us too. We always welcome fellow magicians.See you all at the combined IBM/

SAM/FISM convention here in July! —Dan ToddAssembly 8 meets at Mount Tabor United Church of Christ, which is located at 6520 Arsenal in Saint Louis, Missouri 63139. Contact Dick Blowers [email protected] (213) 846-8468 http://Assembly8.com for more details.

13FOCUS ON YOUNG MAGICIANS CLUBS

DALLAS, TX— Vice President Frank Seltzer was out of town, so Mark Jensen took the role of acting vice president. The only visitor of the night was Kris Slocum, who was attending for the first time. Mark Jensen started the night by

showing a rare Jinx subscription renewal postcard. The story was that the customer would rub the back of the black cat on the card three times and send it in, without any message, and somehow the subscription would be renewed. Mark discussed the rarity of the cards, the history behind them, and some of the theories of how they worked.The club then watched a docu-

mentary directed by Shelley Jenkins on the Long Beach Mystics (thanks go out to Shelley for giving us permission to screen the film). The Mystics were perhaps one of the most success-ful young magician clubs in magic history. Many of the members of the Mystics went on to become some of the most influential per-formers in magic today. The magicians and jugglers inter-viewed thought that their time in the club was invaluable. Despite the unparalleled success of the Mystics, many of the members felt that it is highly unlikely in today’s environment that a similar club would ever be successful.But that didn’t stop the DMC

from having a discussion on how we as a club could get the Young Magician’s Club both revitalized

The Incomparable George Hample (left) and PNP Dick

Gustafson (right) Demonstrat-ing Silk Through Wand


Assembly News

and flourishing. Brainstorming included branding, electronic media including YouTube and Skype, and encouraging the kids by setting discrete performance goals (such as a yearly show). After the discussion and a break,

Derrell Allen stepped up to perform. Derrel was assisted by audience member Geneva, who was asked to provide her date of birth. Derrel then produced a small fortune teller calendar book, and turned to her birthday. The book described her personality and also gave the name of a playing card, the King of Clubs. Interestingly, when Geneva was asked to cut a deck of cards, she randomly cut to – you guessed it – the King of Clubs. Next up was Mike Williams.

Mike has been working on his pickpocketing skills, and wanted to demonstrate on visitor Kris. He asked Kris to place a deck of cards in his pocket, and then had the audience randomly select a card. Mike managed to secretly remove the deck, reverse the selected card, and replace it in Kris’s pocket without anyone observing.The Dallas Magic Club, Assembly 13, meets the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at Theatre 166, Crosspointe Community Center in Carrollton, Texas. Contact Reade Quinton [email protected] (972) 4000195 www.dallasmagic.org for more details.

16DAL SANDERS LECTURE

WORCESTER, MA— It has been a cold and snowy winter in Massachusetts. Pipes broke in the Magic Barn, causing Assembly 16 to move its meeting to Peter’s Raceway, a magical place of slot car racetracks and on the night of our January/February meetings a wonderful place to meet.During the January/February

meeting we had three terrific lectures. The first lecture was in conjunction with a visit from visit from President Dal Sanders. Dal showed us many wonderful chil-dren’s effects suitable for holiday school performances as well adult

functions. Dal was great. Our next lecturer was a very

pleasant surprise. Gregory Wilson dropped in on a snowy Sunday evening. The word was passed to the magic community, but the threat of snow kept many away. Those of us who braved the elements were rewarded with great conversation and terrific magic. The session lasted till midnight followed by a long snowy drive. Well worth it.The following evening was the

long awaited lecture by Kainoa Harbottle – this lecture had been cancelled because of snow. Unfor-tunately Kainoa did not get to visit the barn because the plumbing was not repaired. Kainoa has a very engaging personality and extraordinary skill. He showed us his Pendulum Hanging Coins, Flying Wombat, Deja Flew, Daley’s Conformed Twins, Trifecta, and Like Mike. A fast paced high octane entertaining lecture. Fantastic!!Well the snow still falls and

one more winter lecture to look forward to. For those in the area, come visit Assembly 16. —Joe BermanAssembly 16 meets on the first Monday of the month at the Magic Barn in Ashland, MA at 7:00 PM Contact Dennis Pimenta, [email protected] (508) 883-3575 sam16.com for more details.

17WINTER MAGIC

GATHERINGS

SPRINGFIED, MA— S.A.M. National President Dal Sanders arrived from sunny Dallas, TX, to snowy Florence, MA, to present P.J. Pinsonnault with a well deserved Presidential Citation. Congrats PJ! We appreciate all you do. Afterwards, Dal installed our new officers: President, Rich Gilbert; V. President, Len Nadeau; Secretary, Karen Gibson; Treasure, P.J. Pinsonnault; and Sergeant at Arms, Ed Kazar. Special guests, Past National President Rich Dooley, MI, Dan Sclare of Assembly 21, and Jonas Cain of Assembly 104 helped us celebrate. Peter Lenis did some walk-around magic, while Rich Gilbert got the food set up. Thanks guys. You did a fantastic job, as well as all the members who brought their favorite dishes.Next up was a silent auction and

raffle. Just about everyone went home with some new magic. Dean Tom Gentile emceed the event and introduced Dave Dimock, who dressed up as a professor giving us a lesson in number magic. Jonas Cain did an impromptu comical card routine, while a new student

of magic, Dylan Lasanti, wowed us with his comical version of the Professor’s Nightmare. Our own Jeff Pyzocha and his lovely assistant Lucy Godet closed the evening with a beautiful version of Snow Storm in China.Our monthly meeting had Bob

Caroll making us check our restau-rant bill totals. Somehow he had the right amount $39.12. PJ did his version of a Dave Copperfield Ace production. Ed Kazar used color-changing silks in three bags for a prediction. Tom Gentile fixed his wife’s Valentine necklace using Scott Corel’s Whimsical Wonder Bag. Latest member Jonathan Mauterer showed us his card skills as well as Joe Bedar working with a rainbow deck. Dylan also did his spin on the Cups and Balls. Late night lots of fun as always. —Karen GibsonDr. I.R. Calkins Assembly 17 meets the first Friday of every month at 7 pm at Rich Pinsonault’s RP Magic Shop: 69 East Street; Ludlow, MA Contact Rich Gilbert [email protected] (413) for more details.

19HOUSTON’S HOT

FEBRUARY MAGIC

HOUSTON, TX— Houston’s February meeting was filled with magic and fun. Our “teach-in” session was on packet tricks, but this month, we didn’t teach them, we performed them. A contest was held for the top three packet trick performances. Bob Smith was first, and had guest Kim Lampkin and Marti Stein help out as Michael Close’s Clones was performed. This “culture media” shock performance was a wild ride with Bob at the helm, and a good one. Randy Stulken had Scott Wells

select a city from a series of cards and was able to discern which city Scott had chosen. Dick Olson showed us how “easy” it was to read marked cards, as the backs and then faces of a series of playing cards changed in front of our eyes. Jamie Salinas held a Tarot card reading session with guest Kim Lampkin that had an unexpected ending that became the talk of the evening. Scott Wells involved a miniature Mona Lisa painting to reveal a card randomly chosen by a spectator.Dustin Grey was able to properly

discern the two cards removed from packets held by Shane Wilson and Scott Wells. Shane Wilson’s very nice Oil and Water routine was as smooth as ever. The winner was Bob Smith and his crazy pre-sentation. Scott Wells and Shane Wilson took second and third. The

donated prizes were great as well as the magic.Scott Wells began our perfor-

mances as Miles Root read a card prediction written on a card box flap. After Miles’s selection was seen not to match, the written pre-diction did, miraculously. Jamie Salinas correctly discerned guest Adrian’s car color, which he had not even driven to the meeting. JoHan McElroy had Marti Stein freely select a card from a pack. After much interaction, John pulled out a silk with the card printed in its center. David Hinken penetrated the pips of a card through a card America held in her hands. Jeff Lanes had a literal blockbust-

er start, a mystical card predic-tion middle, and a literal smoking finish to his nice presentation. Caesar Trujillo’s attempt to find guest Kim Lampkin’s chosen card resorted to magic as he changed the mistaken card for Kim’s chosen card, instantaneously and in full view of everyone. Bob Smith showed that Miles Root’s favorite miniature card cereal box selection was the only choice that had a blue back, all others being red backed. —Miles RootAssembly 19 meets the first Monday of every month at the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees Local 51 Meeting Hall, 3030 North Freeway, Houston, TX. A teaching lecture begins at 7:30 pm with the meeting beginning at 8:00 pm. Contact Miles Root [email protected] (281) 3347508 houstonmagic.com for more details.

21ROPES, STRINGS, AND

CORDS.

HARTFORD, CT— A short month – a short meeting. The theme was to do a trick or routine using a string, rope, or cord. Jason Abate started off with a good ring-on-string routine. As a bonus he treated us to a card trick: A blue-backed deck came out of a red card box. A selected card changed to a red back, and then the entire deck changed to red backs.

Jason Abate starts his routine

Mike Williams proves his pickpocket skills


Assembly News

Soll Levine bought a lot of flower magic recently and he showed us some of his acquisitions. One of his articulating flowers found a selected card. He demonstrated a blooming flower, and a drooping one, and one that could change color under a hanky. Lastly, he produced a bouquet from a temple screen. Jon Cap used a velvet cord and a borrowed wedding ring to do a ring/string routine, but an entirely different one from Jason’s. It was Ring Leader by Greg Wilson. —Dana T. RingAssembly 21 meets at Angelo’s on Main, 289 South Main Street, West Hartford Connecticut meets on second Mondays except December Contact Dana T. Ring [email protected] (860) 523-9888 for more details.

22ANNUAL CLOSE-UP

CONTEST

LOS ANGELES, CA— Attendees of the February 17th meeting of Assembly 22 were saddened to learn of the very recent and sudden passing of Aldo Colombini, a one-time Southern California resident and a periodic lecturer for our assembly. A short business meeting included the second reading and election into membership of Brian Regalbuto. Congratulations, Brian. The program for the evening was the annual close-up contest to vie for a coveted trophy won in years past by such as Dai Vernon and Albert Goshman. Producing the program were last year’s dual winners, Tom Meseroll and Henry Springer. Fourteen members participated in the show and contest.Opening the show was Michael

Mezmer with a unique and original storytelling presentation. Michael typically sets a mood and performs effects with a hint of the supernatural. Jim Militello next presented a nice set of card effects. Howard Hamburg, a Los Angeles magician with a preeminent repu-tation as a card worker around the Magic Castle, performed next. Howard did not disappoint. Act four was Bob Altman doing some four Ace card effects and a six quarter Coins Across routine. Bill Perron was next up using his magic ray gun to vanish a deck of cards while leaving a selected and signed card that had been buried in the deck. Our sixth performer was Matt Savin, who made a valiant attempt to find a selected card from a deck placed in a Telsa Energy Bag. Our final act before intermission was Mike Perovich. Mike performed a selection of unique magic, as always, that included a coin box described by

Professor Hoffmann. The beauti-fully made prop was constructed by Mike in his woodshop.John Engman opened the second

half of the show with Sympa-thetic Match Boxes, a Chop Cup routine and John Fedko’s Ultimate Ace Routine. Harrison Lampert was next with several nice card effects. Our next performer was Bob Bolivar, a frequent Magic Castle performer, who presented several nice card effects and a coin manipulation routine. New member Brian Regalbuto did a nice job performing a set of card effects. Hugo Avila followed, also doing some very nice card effects in preparation for his Magic Castle audition. The thirteenth performer was David Yee doing an impres-sive act with sponge balls, the Gypsy Thread, and an Ambitious Card routine. Closing the show was Bill Yamane who amazed everyone with his featured effect, Hitchcock, a Joshua Jay card trick with some real surprises. —Steven L. JenningsSouthern California Assembly 22 meets the third Monday each month at 8:00 PM, St. Thomas More Parish Hall, 2510 South Fremont Avenue, Alhambra, California Contact Ed Thomas [email protected] (213) 382-8504 for more details.

31MAGIC WINTER SPECTACULAR

INDIANAPOLIS, IN— This month the regularly scheduled meeting was replaced by our annual S.A.M./I.B.M. Magic Winter Spectacular. Producer compeer Barry Rice once again put together an outstanding show. Jamahl Keyes performed a so-phisticated stage magic set timed perfectly to music. Taylor Martin performed several of his fan favorite pieces as his 18th century alter ego, Rodney the Younger. Finally, the show was capped off by Ryan Siebert, performing some of his wonderful sleight-of-hand magical miracles. Those of us who braved the cold wintery elements had a wonderful time enjoying the warmth of some hot magic. —Steven A. SpenceAssembly 31 meets the first Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at Irvington United Methodist Church, 30 Audubon Rd., on the east side of the City unless otherwise announced. If the first Monday conflicts with a holiday weekend, we postpone the meeting one week. Contact Taylor Martin [email protected] (317) 432-1320 sam31.com for more details.

32MAGIC FUN FOR FEBRUARY

Lynchburg, VA— There was a good turnout at our Assembly’s February meeting; very good for the small Assembly that we are. President Patrick Hubble called the meeting to order and Associate Member Carl Hoegerl, visiting for the first time, was introduced to members. There was a discus-sion about an assembly objective of performing public shows in the coming year. Then it was on to the magic.There wasn’t the usual monthly

theme this time, but an open forum during which members shared their own choice of magic. Bob Wallin, in remembrance of Aldo Colombini, performed Never Say Dice, an effect with three cards changing according to three dice and a kicker ending by producing a royal flush. Bob also demonstrat-ed Out of There, an effect by Gary Plants.John Jennings shared Mental

Rescue a Vosburgh Lyons card effect from the book My Best by J. G. Thompson. Glen Rae, our assembly’s resident mentalist ex-traordinaire, determined the name of a “thought-of” movie from numerous titles listed on cards set out before a spectator.Mike Kinnaird performed with

a borrowed rubber band and demonstrated an invisible force by showing a ring moving up the band in defiance of gravity. Our young member, Trevor Albright, performed next and was able to determine three selected cards through one quick dealing-down of the deck. The entertainment for the evening finished as Bob Staton presented a cleverly done coin trick with a quarter and a penny.As a final note, thanks Carl for

finding us and we look forward to seeing you again at future meetings. This is a reminder that Assembly 32 welcomes all persons interested in magical entertain-ment and encourages compeers to contact us if there are questions or if directions are needed. —John JenningsAssembly 32 meets most months on the third Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at Tharp Funeral Home, 220 Breezewood Drive, Lynchburg, VA. Contact John Jennings [email protected] (434) 851-6240 for more details.

35A SERIOUS DISCOURSE

ON SILLY

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY— Our evening began with a jolly bit of good news (sorry, I just finished

watching an episode of The Avengers.) One of our members will be appearing at the Magic Castle in the coming weeks. We are certainly all waiting to hear what that was like, and any other magical news that he may have for us.Our speaker tonight was Mr.

David Kaye, otherwise known as Silly Billy. For those who may think that entertaining children can be just an afterthought, we learned that quite a bit of thought actually goes into enthralling the wee ones. He lectured on the different

types of routines there are for children, then went on to explain what that all entails. With video of him with an actual pint-sized audience, we could see just how this information can play out for real. A running gag, that for adults can be repetitious, becomes even funnier for children. He explained that action should

occur quite frequently to hold their attention. He broke down the number of different elements that can go into a routine, which are a lot more than you think. Knowledge is power, and with that reasoning, empowering the kids, whether they are actual as-sistants on stage, or just sitting in the audience, can make a world of difference in how they enjoy the show. They turn from being merely spectators to participants.Mr. Kaye went on to explain a

few different tricks, noting that kid’s magic can sometimes be a bit “proppy.” One effect, titled Sneaker Juice, would most likely be scoffed at by the Downton Abbey crowd, but it was funny nonetheless. Sometimes you just gotta slip on the prover-bial banana peel! Thank you Mr. Kaye for a definitely fun evening. —Darryl BielskiAssembly 35 meetings are held at the Milanese Restaurant in Poughkeepsie, NY. Typically, meetings are held every 2nd Tuesday of each month. Contact Joel Zaritsky [email protected] (845) 546-1559 www.sam35.com for more details.

37PLASTIC NIGHT HITS THE

MILE HIGH CITY

DENVER, CO— The Mile High Magicians Society decided to do something new for the month of February this year. President Matt Brandt decided on Plastic Night, because most magicians start out with these inexpensive magic tricks. So to celebrate these humble beginnings, all club members were asked to bring along their favorite piece of plastic


Assembly News

magic to perform. It gave a great chance for enthusiasts to try their hand at performing in front of the group.Treasurer Dave Elstun said it

reminded him of his favorite trick from years past that was tied into the television program from the 1960’s, My Favorite Martian. Uncle Martin’s spaceship would float magically up and down on a string and then stop on your command. An act that was mes-merizing and memorable for a child no doubt. Professional Mark Strivings had no trouble in mes-merizing young child Preston Housely with his favorite plastic magic, the Snapper, that bullet-shaped piece of plastic with the rubber bands that every beginner tends to avoid. It was actually sen-sational when performed well.The mesmerizing continued

as Gene Gordon took the lad’s hard earned quarter and made it disappear, only to have it reappear in a box tied up with rubber bands and string in a bag set to the side of the room. His own father, Rodney Housely, had the boy rolling in the isles with a comedy rendition of Pen through Frame. Between the three of them they had young Preston delighted and giggling all for $2.99. It had been many years for club member Glenn Prouix to try out his Shang-hi tube and he had a couple technical difficulties with it. But when it was up and running it was a plastic miracle to say the least.Professional comedy magician

and speaker Brad Montgomery provided a little coin and plastic combination while club members Marty Jewell, John Luong, and Dale Clyncke had a wonderful evening of laughter not to mention supplying their own plastic along the way. We saw Cups and Balls done with little plastic flower pots and pom-poms, not to mention a killer routine of one snazzy Hot Rod. The evening was best summed up by television science magic guru Steve Spangler who said as he pulled a bowl of plastic thumbs from an apparent paper bag, “I feel like this is a bad Zeezo’s dream.” —Connie ElstunAssembly meets the second

Thursday of the Month at Riverpointe Senior Center in Littleton Colorado. Contact Secretary Connie Elstun [email protected] (303) 9334118 www.milehighmagicians.com for more details.

47WHAT’S IN THAT JUNK

DRAWER?

ROCHESTER, NY— (The members of Assembly 47 would like to give their sincere condo-lences to Rachel Colombini for the sudden loss of Aldo. We made a club donation and hope other clubs follow suit.)After a brief discussion of

upcoming lectures and our close-up contest at the April meeting, we moved on to magic! The theme was to pull something out of your junk drawer and do it. What a cross section of magic! Jeff Blood performed a fine trick using a 52-on-1 card as a prediction and the vanishing deck, so popular several years ago. Why was that in the junk drawer? Professor Rem used what appeared to be gummy bear planes to show how one and then several became lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Joel Greenwich, our newest member, had a card selected and put back in a topsy-turvy shuffled deck. A picture was taken of a spectator holding it (with members in the shot, too) and it was found that only the selection was right side up. A triumphantly cheeky trick with a camera phone!Don Aman had several members

shuffle a deck and placed a pre-diction on top of it. The last member who shuffled opened the prediction and it matched the top card of the deck. Vern Massey, soon to be our newest member, performed the Crazy Cube from S.S. Adams fame. President JP Lacey performed Tenyo’s What’s Next with a very interesting patter theme, never really mentioning the dice aspect of it. Sante DiCarlo did a tribute to Aldo Colombini using jumbo cards with Aldo’s famous Pick Me, Pick Me Not. Check this out on the Internet! Finally, Mike Ihrig performed a Japanese Tenyo trick, Tenyo Mahono (Magic) Scratch Card. I forgot how to do it and was lucky to finish it! Hope the weather favors your magic. Spring will be here soon! —Mike IhrigAssembly 47 meets the third Tuesday September thru May at 7:00 PM in the St Joseph’s School, 39 Gebhardt Rd, Penfield, NY 14526. Contact Mike Ihrig [email protected] (585) 377-1566 www.sam47.com for more details.

49ANY TRICK NIGHT

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL— On Wednesday, February 12, 2014, Assembly 49 held its monthly meeting. The theme was Any Trick. After a moment of silence for the passing of Aldo Colombini, the meeting continued.Selected cards were selected on

a couple of occasions and, sur-prisingly, they were found. Henry Epstein found his spectator’s card by firing a gun at the pack being held by the spectator and the chosen card had a “bullet” hole in it. Sid Marcus found a chosen card in a picture frame previously shown with nothing in it.Al Callus did a card effect

wherein ten cards counted out by a spectator somehow wound up as nine; some of the cards were then tossed aside and there were still nine cards when the remainder was counted. Billy Byron told a story using cards. He called it The Jack Brothers. Four Jacks vanish from a “jail” cell which looked suspiciously like a plastic card box and reappeared one in each of four piles of cards, which also turn out to be not only the four suits but they were in numerical order.Marvin Freed performed a Three

Card Monte effect that started out as two red Aces and one black Ace and ended up vice-versa.Marvin Putterman predicted

six numbers written on previ-ously selected cards only using one or two numbers that were on the reverse side of the cards. Mark Horowitz demonstrated the Coloring Book effect, which was offered as a prize in our raffle. Kevin Chen tore a borrowed bill up and then restored it. Phil Labush turned five one-dollar bills into different denominations using real bills. Vinnie Rosenblu-th performed the classic Miser’s Dream and Coins Across. —Billy ByronAssembly 49 meets on the second Wednesday of each month at the Northwest Focal Point Senior Center, 6009 NW 10th. Street, Margate, FL. 33061 Contact Billy Byron [email protected] (954) 522-1466 www.fortlauderdalemagicsociety.con for more details.

52CAST A SHADOW OR

VALENTINE’S DAY

SAN ANTONIO, TX— February 6, 2014, Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 held its monthly meeting at LaMad-eleine Restaurant. President Don Moravits welcomed everyone and

also thanked everyone for braving the elements and coming out on such a cold night. In spite of the weather, we had fifteen in atten-dance, including members and wives.Tonight’s theme was Cast a

Shadow or Valentine’s Day. Starting off the performances was Don Moravits, who performed a card effect by Baskin Jones called Unbelievable. Ray Adams, with the help from his wife, Barbara, did a Scotch and Soda routine. Joe Libby had James Dusek assist him with a book test, and San Manfredo performed a nice Coin Penetration through a Brass Slug. Dwayne Stanton performed Pocket Change, and Michael Tallon fooled us with the ubiqui-tous Four King Trick. Ed Solomon told us a story about Cyrus Single-tree, and Doug Gorman closed with Triumph.Paul Mims delighted us all with a

marvelous fifteen-minute close-up show. He began with the passage of silver, a Coins Across routine employing the infamous Cross of India. He then produced four Aces ala John Scarne, and then used those Aces in his rendition of Hofzinser’s Aces. Next was a smooth and very deceptive per-formance of David Williamson’s Ring and Rope Routine. He closed with a wonderful Cups and Balls routine, strongly influenced by the work of Dai Vernon. Thanks, Paul, for a truly professional and very entertaining show.Door Prize winners were Ray

Adams, Joe Libby, and Dwayne Stanton. Ray won Aldo Colom-bini’s CD Rope In, Joe won a delicious box of Pecan Caramel Clusters, and Dwayne won Throw Streamers. Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month at La Madeleine Restaurant, located at 722 N.W. Loop 410. The restaurant is inside Loop 410 on the access road between Blanco Rd. and San Pedro. For more information, contact [email protected].

59TEACH-A-TRIK (OR TWO)

PORTLAND, OR— February’s meeting of Assembly 59 featured Bob (“Paddlemove”) Eaton, The Man With Over 7,000 Perfor-mances, displaying his collection of hand-crafted paddles and crafty hand paddle moves. Jay Freder-icks next taught a mentalism effect based on the dual-reality principle. Following the teach-in a brief

(very brief) business meeting took place. As composed and organized as ever, VP Brian Adams stood in for President Mel Anderson who

Mark Strivings mesmerizing young Preston Housely


Assembly News

was recuperating from shoulder surgery.Showtime featured Randy

Stumman doing a coin effect, Glen Bledsoe doing a mind-read-ing effect, and Tom Waldrop per-forming an effect using magical silkworms.We had five visitors, who I

believe we thoroughly entertained if not completely baffled. In all other ways a splendid and relaxing time was had by all. A good way to spend a rainy February evening. —Glen L. Bledsoe Assembly 59 meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month except Jul/Aug/Dec at The Beaverton Elks, 3500 SW 104th, Beaverton, OR 97005. Contact Glen L. Bledsoe [email protected] (503) 967-9151 http://www.sam59portland.org/ for more details.

76AN EVENING WITH MIO

NORTH MIAMI, FL— Twenty three members and guests attended our February meeting. After the business portion was concluded Pres. Roy Allen Fischer and Past Pres. Rick Del Vecchio presented the I.B.M. Ring 45 Magician of the Year award to Mio Rodriguez for his outstanding magical career. Emcee Ronsted brought Mio back to the stage to open the evening’s entertainment. Mio invited Daisi Hernandez to think of a card and then proceeded to pluck it from his pocket. He followed with a breathtaking rendition of ambitious signed card. Mio continued with Coins Across, Matrix, and concluded by finding Daisi’s signed card (10H) inside a bowl of candy.Our ring mentor Fantasio had

guest Alex pick a card (AH) and lose back into the deck. He produced a card (8H) from thin air and asked Alex to identify it. When that failed Fantasio snapped the card and the pips fell off revealing it to be the original card (AH). Mentalist Richard Mark had two volunteers, Oswaldo and Rubin, each take an unknown quantity of word/symbol cards and shuffle them. When asked to secretly withdraw one card Richard was able to predict the word “love” and the circle symbol. Richard repeated the effect with different cards chosen and concluded by divining the number of cards each volunteer held. Our newest junior member

Daniel Espinosa delighted us by having guest Alex pick a card (3S) and return it to the deck. Daniel held a flame under a blank piece of paper upon which the name of the card slowly appeared. Another

card (7C) was picked and lost in the deck. Daniel dropped the deck into a paper bag and thrust a knife through the bag capturing the chosen card on the blade. He concluded by placing a dime and a penny into Alex’s hand. When the hand reopened only the penny remained and the dime was found inside Mio Rodriguez’s pocket.Mio Rodriguez returned for an

encore by having Dick Tansey cut the deck several times and covering the resulting top card with his hand. Mio was able to divine that Dick had selected the (6D). Mio then finished with an outstanding book test with the help of Daniel Espinosa. The show was closed by Billy Byron with his hilarious rendition of lady’s nite out and finishing with three cups of plastic beads that mixed together and then magically separated. —Ron OlmstedAssembly 76 meets the first Thursday each month 7:30 PM at the South Miami Elk’s Lodge, 6304 SW 78th Str., South Miami, FL Contact Ron Olmsted [email protected] (305) 235-2272 for more details.

77STEELE: THE SHOW

(AND LECTURE)

MASSAPEQUA, NY— Despite the cold weather and the snow, the meeting went on this month with a great turnout for our lecture by Margaret Steele. Our esteemed member and RVP Eric DeCamps bestowed to Ms. Steele an Award of Excellence for her contributions she has given in the field of magic for the S.A.M. (pictured)Let me start this by saying we

were very pleased to have this wondrous visit from Margaret Steele with her discussion on the impact that the late, great Adelaide Herrmann and her life, which had a great and positive impact on future magicians both male and female. After many lecturers throughout the years, it was re-freshing to have Ms. Steele give an amazing lecture filled with insights, rare photos, and later

some of her work on video that, on a whole, was right up there with the level of a university seminar! One of the little known facts about Ms. Herrmann: she even knew the Houdinis. Of course Margaret finished her time with two of her favorite pieces: Her Linking Rings Act and her tribute to Tony Slydini: The Paper Balls and Box. For more information on Adelaide Herrmann (if you don’t own a time machine), is to have Margaret herself lecture for your club or order her wonderful book on the late Adelaide Herrmann’s life.Before closing, The Long Island

Mystics are very saddened by the loss of one of our S.A.M. brothers, Aldo Colombini. We had him and Rachael Wild Colombini here to give their “Second Farewell” lecture a few short months ago and we had an amazing time. One moment out of that happy time was when Aldo said, “Everyone is so sad about John Calvert passing away. My God, he was a 102! He lived a very full life.” We all laughed at his insight on what it was to live and to have a good life. Although much shorter than any of us wanted, Aldo did live an amazing and happy life. RIP, Aldo. —Lou JohnsonLong Island Mystics Assembly 77 meets at 7:30PM on the second Monday of the month at The Community United Methodist Church. Contact Lou Johnson [email protected] (516) 978-7735 www.limystics.org for more details.

88ROPE MAGIC

ANN ARBOR/YPSILANTI, MI— Our topic this month was Rope Magic! Marvin Mathena started us off with a gospel rope trick. Marvin showed us four ropes, yellow, red, black, and white, ex-plaining with the song: “Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world; Red, yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight.” Then he went on to add that sometimes people may think that one color may be more loved than the other, which would not be true, Marvin then tied all of the ropes together, explaining God made them all the same, as he wrapped the ropes around his hand and unwrapped them to show them all as one!Bill Brang performed Patriotic

Ropes, with red, white, and blue ropes joining together as one. Then Bill did the Linking Ropes, three ropes tied each in a circle, linking them together and taking them apart! Next up was Jim Placido with his great rope routine; I never get tired of this one! Jim

has one long rope, asking how many ends are on it, then shows it’s one circular rope with no ends, pulls out a short rope, to make a long rope with two ends, then three ends, then four. Showing two ropes of equal length, Jim pulls one end to make it back into a single long rope!Tony Saputo had a rope with four

knots on it, wrapped it around his hand, when he unwrapped it the knots were gone! We had a guest with us, Don, didn’t catch his last name, who also brought a Ring on a Rope trick, where he had a tied rope and put a solid metal ring on, then untied the rope, having a short rope, to show the ring on a continuous rope. Then Bill and Karl Rabe with a comedy rope act of a cut and restored rope trick. Jim Folkl did another cut and restored, showing a little different way, where he pulls the middle of the rope up with his scissors. Jim Ruth finished up with a Professors Nightmare, ending with one long rope! This was a very productive meeting; I’ll just tie it up here! —Randy A. SmithHank Moorehouse Assembly 88 meets second Wednesday at 7PM, Faith Lutheran Church, 1255 East Forest Ave, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Contact Randy A. Smith [email protected] (313) 562-3875 www.aamagic.org for more details.

89OFFICER INDUCTION

DINNER MEETING

HONOLULU, HI— The Jimmy Yoshida Aloha Assembly 89 held its annual officer induction dinner meeting on January 8. Offi-ciating the ceremonial changeover and installation of officers was Fred “Professor Fun” Ball, who has been doing that job for more years than anyone can remember. Outgoing President Glen Bailey welcomed new President Michael “Kekoa” Erickson. Other officers remained in their positions: V.P. Harvey Ouchi, Treasurer James Lee, Secretary Mike Lynch, and Sgt-at Arms Robert “Bob’s Pizza” Festa. Mahalo, Glen, for your dedicated service as President to the assembly and magic

Margaret Steele and Eric DeCamps

(photo credit Mike Maione)

Bill Brang performing Linking Ropes


Assembly News

community. President Kekoa works with John Hirokawa at The Magic of Polynesia; we are excited about the year ahead that he planned for us.In 2013, we were fortunate to

have lectures by Mark Mason, Kozmo, Losander, Jay Scott Berry, and David Ginn, who has been to Hawaii many times and joined us once again in January. At our installation dinner show,

performers made the evening in-teresting. Yona Chock, magician and storyteller, spun a Chinese fairy tale about a giant pearl and illustrated it with a large floating pearl a la Zombie Ball. James Lee performed his tried and true Linking Colored Ropes and Color Changing Discs. Veteran profes-sional magician, writer, creator, and reviewer for M-U-M, Curtis Kam, introduced a new type of Chinese Sticks constructed from two Kendama toys (the latest craze to hit Hawaii). Harvey Ouchi performed a Card to Pocket effect climaxed by a deck to pocket ending.Southwest Region VP Ron

Ishimaru performed an effect and reading with Tarot Cards based on Tony Chris’s The Path Taken and cold reading. Kekoa performed a unique and entertaining five-min-ute rope routine with influences from Tabary and Richard Sanders. He then concluded his perfor-mance with an elegant take on the vanishing Coke bottle routine with a surprise appearance of a full glass of wine at the end, influ-enced by Fielding West. In short, a good time was had by all and no one went home hungry.The Hawaii group meets on the

first Wednesday of every month. Please visit us if you are in town. —Mike LynchAssembly 89 meets 1st Wednesday of each month 7PM at Kalihi-Palama Library.

95CHEATER FLOOR

VANCOUVER, CANADA— The February, 2014 meeting was

held in the Cheater Floor at Rod Chow’s new office in Vancouver Chinatown. Lon Mandrake remarked that a previous meeting at Rod’s was in his World’s Narrowest Building and this time it was in his “Shortest Building.”Congratulations to

this year’s Assembly 95 award recipients: Dennis Hewson – Carl Hemeon Award of Excellence, and Tony

Chris Kazoleas – Mandrake Trophy for Outstanding Show-manship. Thank you to Tony for providing, setting up, and running all his professional staging, sound and lights for the fabulous Assembly 95 Magic Dinner Live 2014, emceed by Shawn Farquhar and starring the Victoria Magic Circle: Murray Hatfield (emcee), Eric Bedard, Dave Atwood, Shane King, and Chris Yuill, and for the standing ovation Victoria exchange show starring the S.A.M. #95 All Stars of Magic: Ray Roch (emcee), Rod Chow, Lon Mandrake, Henry Tom, Steve Dickson and Tony Chris.Rod awarded S.A.M. insignia

gifts of marked decks, cleaning cloths, and rabbit stress relievers to the top ticket sellers: Rod Chow, Lon Mandrake, Ray Roch, Steve Dickson, and Henry Tom. Lon also received a Wolf’s Magic trick for winning the special one week sales campaign.

After enjoying some delicious Chinatown food, the evening of travel-themed magic began. Ray Roch started off by sharing some travel knowledge on the proper use of a mic stand with his demonstration of Professor’s Nightmare. Steve Dickson showed his technique for counting the ropes, and then finished with a travel joke. Henry Tom said that he was just back from Hawaii, and then showed the travelling elastic bands. Rod instantly changed US to Canadian currency and

likewise with foreign currency. Jens Henriksen performed what he called a sawing a woman in half by using a torn and restored newspaper with the newspaper as the cabinet and the silk as woman. Juan Garcia had Ray Roch volunteer his finger to insert in Juan’s finger chopper, and Juan said if it does not work, Ray’s piece of finger would travel to the floor. Anthony Young showed travelling elastic bands on his fingers, and a floating US dollar bill. Lon received laughter for his senior memory joke. Tony showed a stabbed card trick that he learned while traveling to Ontario. —Rod ChowThe Carl Hemeon Assembly No. 95 meets the first Tuesday of each month at members’ homes. Contact Rod Chow [email protected] (604) 669-7777 www.sam95.com for more details.

104THE ONE THAT

GOT AWAY

WITCH CITY, SALEM, MA— The Wednesday, February 5th, meeting of Assembly 104 was destined for something. Perhaps it wasn’t greatness or lengthiness in the annals of our sometimes time-consuming indulgences. No, not even tedium for those non-paste-board lovers who fidget through card lectures. This one was destined for whiteout, El Blanco – snow. With New England weather continuing to deliver snowstorms

enough to freeze us into a permanent picture postcard, our February meeting had to be cancelled. We credit President Bill Jensen for the prudent decision to opt for safety and keep us all snug in our beds. It was yet another night when even the snowmen turned blue.While we continue

to swing our shovels and an unrelenting winter rolls on, there

remains good news on the magical front. With our planned dinner meeting at the Prince House being rescheduled and the March 5 meeting now slated for pot luck feasting, Cambridge luminary Steve Kradolfer has stepped up to the party plate. Steve, formerly booked for the Meeting that Wasn’t, has generously resched-uled to perform at our March meeting. Further good news comes from President Bill Jensen, recently sidelined by an ice fall. He plans to attend in March as does

104’s beloved teacher, Len Lazar, himself nursing health issues.Although not able to gather

together on February 5, Assembly 104 compeers remained magically active; a few kept gigs going despite the winter blasts. Vice President Ed Gardner, Sergeant-at-Arms J Hubbard, and Royal Sorrell all managed to make the snowy journey to Rochester, New York, to participate in Twist and Shout’s annual balloon extrava-ganza. Among the wonders J and Eddie reported were the balloon “fashion show” and the fifty-thousand balloon “Jack and the Beanstalk,” constructed by sev-enty-five twisters. Eddie also con-tributed that more snow fell during his seemingly longer return drive. It was a frustration brightened only by the sight of dogs alongside the streets of Connecticut being chipped off hydrants.Jim Loscutoff, our most daring

compeer, managed to turn his back altogether on our wintry misery, flying with wife Debbie to South America. Freed of bulky parka and mittens, with pockets stuffed with extra thumbs, Jim performed for market keepers and school children in Peru and Ecuador. He said the locals truly enjoyed his color changing cards, vanishing salt, and rubber band magic. Jim also reported spotting a “Magic Tree House” on the west side of the Amazon. Or was it just the water? —Bob ForrestAssembly 104 meets the first Wednesday of each month, September-June, 7 p.m., at the First Baptist Church of Salem, 292 Lafayette Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Contact Bob Forrest [email protected] (339) 227-0797 www.sam104.com for more details.

108WINTERTIME MAGIC

SOMERSET, PA— The Somerset assembly has had nice turn outs the past couple of months, which is very exciting. In January, our theme for both the SYM and SAM groups was new magic. There was a lot of new magic that was purchased for Christmas that made their debut.For the adults we had an addition-

al discussion on the importance of sound systems in our shows. We all had our sound systems with us and there was good discussion on MP3 players, music controls, etc. A lot was learned and ideas shared.We are also looking at venues

that may be interested in having our club put on a magic show. Our February meeting sadly was canceled because of a snowstorm;

Rod Chow’s Cheater Floor - (L-R) Jens Henriksen, Anthony Young, Steve Dickson,

Ray Roch, Dennis Hewson, Henry Tom, Juan Garcia, Lon Mandrake, Rod Chow and

Tony Chris Kazoleas

2014 S.A.M. Assembly 89 Officer, L-R,Sgt-at Arms Bob Festa, Treasurer James Lee, V.P. Harvey Ouchi, Pres

Michael Erickson, SWRVP Ron Ishimaru


Assembly News

we look forward to getting back together in March. We always welcome visitors to our meetings if you are ever in the area. —Dan MillerThe James Swoger Assembly 108 meets at 6:00 pm for the SYM and 7:00 pm for the adults every third Monday at Wheeler Bros. Inc. Contact Dan Miller [email protected] (814) 733-4978 for more details.

110PAUL DRAPER LECTURE

HARRISBURG, PA— On Thursday, February 13, 2014, four members and one guest braved a blizzard to attend a lecture by Paul Draper from Las Vegas. Paul had driven almost three hours through the storm to make it to our scheduled lecture, (the show must go on), so the least we could do was give him an audience, even if it was the smallest audience he will probably have on this lecture tour. As is his normal practice, Paul let the attendees select the topics for this lecture allowing each person to pick at least two topics to be discussed. Because half of the audience were profes-sional performers they opted to talk about a good mix of business and marketing techniques, the importance of perception in a client’s mind, and also the benefits of marketing effects, teaching videos, etc., to other performers and the realities of doing that.

We also discussed the realities of getting a show in a place like Las Vegas these days and the deals others have made to open shows there. Nothing was held back and Paul answered all questions confidently and very articulately. Because Paul Draper is primarily a mentalist, we also discussed the art of cold vs. hot reading, how to rehearse mentalism, and a few quick, yet simple and amazing, tricks to do on TV and radio. He also performed and explained several other effects that fried the brains of all in attendance. After seeing his lecture and meeting him, it is easy to see why Paul Draper is so successful. All in all

it was a great lecture and highly recommended.Joe Homecheck, SAM Assembly 110 meets 2nd Thursdays, 7:00pm, at John’s Diner, 146 Sheraton Drive, New Cumberland, PA 17070. Email: [email protected]

112ANNUAL BANQUET

PLEASANT HILL, CA— January’s annual Assembly 112 installation banquet was held in the Concord Elks Lodge to kick off the new year. The event was an enormous success thanks to the efforts of several members – most especially Bonnie Wright, who did much of the organizing and who arranged for the excellent catering. We were also pleased to see a number of Elks in the audience as well as members of the Oakland Magic Circle.Pre-show amusements included

contests, a silent auction for several sets of coins provided by James Lind, and a raffle for some fantastic items, many of which were donated by our good friend, Paul Gross, owner of the Hocus Pocus Magic Shop.First order of business was the

installation of the newly elected board members for 2014. Larry “Zappo” Wright took the reins from outgoing president Douglass Kovacich, who was later recog-nized with a plaque for his five consecutive years as assembly president. Dinner was then served, and afterwards it was time for the entertainment.Douglass the MagicMan started

the show with several tricks, including a bit of mind reading with jumbo cards and his famous Houdini-inspired handcuff escape. Following Douglass, magician Phil Ackerly, named Best Magician in the Bay Area five years in a row by Parents magazine, came to the stage to entertain the audience with his mixture of magic, mentalism, and comedy. In an amazing finale to his performance, Phil removed his outer clothing to reveal a mul-ticolored gym outfit that perfectly matched a drawing earlier colored in by an assistant from the audience, green socks and all.Festivities included the an-

nouncement of winners for the 2013 competitions held at various times during the year, including Erich Biggs, Ric and Kara Ewing, Douglass the MagicMan, Bill Marquardt, Zappo, Carole Yvonne Kula, Roy Porfido, Bob Holdridge, and a visitor from Assembly 72, Mary Mowder.Magician of the Year for 2014

went to Roy Porfido in recog-

nition of his dedication to the art of magic and his hard work throughout the previous year. Jerry Barrilleaux and Reggie, his wooden partner, were added to our assembly’s Wall of Fame. PNP Loren Lind was recognized for his many years of service with the bestowment of Honorary Lifetime Member status. Awards acknowledging twenty-five and fifty years of membership in the S.A.M. were given to Lance Snead and Roy Porfido, respectively. —Bill MarquardtDiablo Assembly #112 meets on the third Wednesday of every month at the VFW building in Pleasant Hill, California. Contact Larry Wright [email protected] (925) 685-5129 http://sam112.com/ for more details.

115NEW MEETING LOCATION

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA— Our February meeting opened with presentations of lapel pins and certificates of appreciation for the S.A.M. Veterans’ Entertainment Program for George Buckley, Wes Iseli, David Clauss, and David Feng. All four performed for veterans and staff at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond for National Magic Week.Sergeant at Arms Daniel Hall

held the “Coins” teach-in for our S.Y.M. members Ashley and Elizabeth Schmitz. Daniel gave hands on learning about the

French Drop, finger and classic palm, the Bobo switch, and some incredible retention subtleties, as well as performing his Chaotic Coins routine.Our business meeting started

with George Buckley present-ing the second draft of our new by-laws. The location of our future meetings was next. Everette Anderson has kindly volunteered the meeting room at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company for all future meetings. This was gladly seconded by all members.The theme for February was

Productions. Wes Iseli started us off by showing us his coin case, a fishing tackle box that holds his vast collection of coins. Wes then showed us an excellent Copper/Silver practice routine. Wes then set up his handmade table, made from a leaf bag holder from Lowes. Next, he showed us his handmade card press and followed with his card manipulation routine from his professional stage show. He shared his method for back palming and showed us his top hat set-up for his diminishing card routine, which he performed to a rousing applause. Tom Olshefski followed with his excellent inter-pretation of Joshua Jay’s Inferno and a wonderful explanation of magician’s choice. David Clauss followed with Toastmaster, his production of a glass of wine from an empty USPS Priority Mail envelope.Members then broke into

groups and worked on various card and coin routines as well as exploring the evenings routines and methods. An excellent night of entertainment and learning was enjoyed by all. —Bethany HallAssembly 115 meets on the first Friday of every month starting at 7:00 pm at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company Building at, 1150 Pepsi Place, Charlottesville, VA 22901. Contact George Buckley [email protected] (434) 409-2643 for more details.

118GRANITE STATE

CONJURORS

NASHUA, NH— New England snow has not slowed down the Granite State Conjurers. We have booked two upcoming lectures. On April 16, 2014, Sandy Rhodes will present his lecture, The Down Home Mother Earth Approach to Magic at 7:00 p.m. at Black Sword Estate. And on June 18, 2014, Craig Browning will give his lecture, Understanding the Difference between Mentalism and Magic at 7:00 p.m. at Black Sword Estate. For more informa-

Paul Draper lecture

Veteran’s Program Participants

Improbable ending to Phil Ackerly’s hilarious

performance


Assembly News

tion about either of these lectures, contact Assembly 118 at [email protected] 118 meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at Black Sword Estate, 126 Perham Corner Rd. Lyndeborough, NH 03082. Our venue rotates, so contact us first. Contact Robert Granville [email protected] (603) 505 8749 http://sam118.com for more details.

120A VARIETY OF MAGIC

CHAMPAIGN, IL— The January meeting opened with a discussion of membership benefits of both the I.B.M. and S.A.M. at their standard and their discount levels of membership.Jim Percy opened the meeting

with his version of Crazy Man’s Handcuffs. Chris Bontjes jumped in with his Jumping Rubber bands and wet our appetites with a Joker Sandwich. Roy Stoutenbor-ough showed a routine he calls I Forget. Professor Higgins took the stage with a Burning Bill, Bills Across, and showed us the results of his finger exercise by tearing a quarter in half, which would leave him with two-eighths, I believe. Mathew Hunter performed his Four Pile trick and Andy Dallas closed out the magic with Missing Think and a Matchless Matchbox. As usual, the discussion was more varied, entertaining, and informa-tive than I can do justice here. Ya gotta come to the meetings for the good stuff.See ya at the meeting.

—Ken BarhamAssembly 120, Andy Dallas Assembly meets the third Wednesday at 7pm, (except Nov. and Dec.) For location call Jim Percy at 217-494-2222 or Ken Barham Sec, 2318 Winchester Dr, Champaign, IL 61821. 217-841-5616 email: [email protected]

127ASSEMBLY 127 INSTALLS

OFFICERS AT ANNUAL DINNER

WALLINGFORD, CT— Our annual holiday Dinner and In-stallation of Officers was held on February 12 at the Playwright Pub Restaurant in Hamden, Con-necticut. After a delicious dinner, outgoing president Jeff Doskos welcomed members and guests, and reviewed the accomplish-ments of our assembly during 2013, especially in reaching out to the community. In April, several members of Assembly 127 did a charity show for “Healing

Newtown,” in Newtown, Con-necticut, after the December 2012 shooting tragedy. Jeff did walk-around magic for “Voices for Heroes” in Danbury, and in Hartford for the “Power of Peace” festival. Adam Parisi performed at “An Evening of Pink” for a cancer charity. We also had three lectures last year and contributed magic books to the Wallingford, Con-necticut, Library during Magic Week.We held a short business meeting

during dessert. We had a moment of silent prayer for the passing of Aldo Colombini. After a report from NEMCON Chairman Bill Hoagland, National S.A.M. Secretary Marlene Clark (a member of Assembly 127) swore in the 2014 Slate of Officers: President David Wyskiel; Vice-President Lisa Gagne; Treasurer Michael Gagne; and Secretary Adam Parisi.Dinner Chairman Bill Hoagland

introduced incoming president David Wyskiel, who provided the evening’s entertainment – “The Power of the Mind.” Dave’s assistant – “Haley Comet” – was blindfold and the pair did a comedy blindfold act with obvious corny code words to identify objects held by spectators. To involve everyone in the audience, each person was given a packet of four cards; after mixing the cards, all the spectators had the same suit card face up in their packet.

After a spectator signed a playing card, Dave caused the entire deck to appear inside a blown-up balloon. He then visually removed one card – the selected card – pen-etrating the balloon.Several routines Dave performed

involved outfitting an assistant with appropriate costumes. Mike Gagne played a Dickens character to Dave’s Scrooge in a wallet and bill trick; Frank Karrass was dressed as a snowman. Dave predicted which item of the costume would remain after three were removed by Frank’s wife,

Sharon. Adam Parisi, costumed as Superman, helped Dave with several rope routines. Dave even brought his own coat rack on which to hang the clothes! Wyskiel closed the show with a strong ESP routine involving five spectators, including our waitress, Chris!Our thanks to Dinner Chairman

Bill Hoagland, Dave Wyskiel, Jeff Doskos, and all who helped make our dinner a success.—Dick HodesAssembly 127 meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the First United Methodist Church, 941 Old Rock Hill Road, Wallingford, Conn. Contact Dick Hodes [email protected] (203) 287-1635 www.magicsam127.org for more details.

131MAGIC BY MEMBERS

DANBURY, CT— President Magic Mo sid not make this meeting. MO’s ankle and heel are still on the mend after a very bad break. Attending members signed get well cards for Magic Mo and Russ. The meeting came to order and a silent prayer was said by our members and guests for Aldo. RIP Master Magician, Friend, and Hu-manitarian.Bruillo Durand presented a three-

four card Monte effect with cards changing back to Queens and then Fours. Vice President Magic

Marty gave a few highlights of his Assembly 35, Al Baker Club’s lecturer Silly Billy. Empower your audience, adult or children, involve them in your Magic. The lecture was great; Silly Billy earned his lecture fee. V.P. Magic

Marty followed thru with a Silly Billy Hot Dog

pull out routine, a great sight gag and finally showed off his new poster and stand from Vista Print Poster Photo.Magic by members: Michael

Bochar presented a work in progress, first time performing, His true love, torn and restored vintage photo, with a wonderful heartfelt story. A great routine. Tony Spiro presented a ballooned twist really special three balloons into a motorcycle. Des surprised us with a different way to present an ABC effect using three blocks in an antique piece of magic. One

block vanishes and re-appears in a bag. Bongo the Silent Magician presented a number of circus photos. Tom Demoth Is a new guest to our club and performed a few card effects. —Magic Marty SteinbergAssembly 131 Danbury Top Hatters meet Methodist Church, Clapboard Ridge Rd, Danbury CT Contact Magic Marty [email protected] (845) 7978363 for more details.

150WHEN A MAGICIAN ACTS

FORT MYERS, FL— How miffed would you be if you sat through a two-hour lecture and watched the guy up front only demonstrate maybe two or three card tricks and a rope routine? Chances are you wouldn’t be terribly impressed – unless the lecturer was Tony Noice. He isn’t a “name” you know from

write-ups in the magic journals, or a pro making the club circuit with a table-full of props for sale. A member of the Fort Myers Magicians Association, Tony makes his living primarily as an actor and teacher of acting, but also as a magician at corporate gigs. Some twenty-five members

showed up to see Tony take a break from his instructor’s role at an Illinois college where he’s on the theater faculty. Almost before we knew it, Tony had everyone mumbling “buh-duh-guh” to loosen up our tongues and saying “good morning” to one another with different inflections to indicate various attitudes.The idea was to impress upon us

the truth of the familiar saying, “A magician is merely an actor playing the part of a magician.”

Magic Marty Poster a la Kellar

Assembly 127 2014 Slate of Officers from left: National S.A.M. Secretary Marlene Clark;

President David Wyskiel; Vice-President Lisa Gagne; Secretary Adam Parisi; Treasurer

Michael Gagne


Assembly News

So it’s necessary for anyone who can do “magic” to be convincing in his onstage role. That means having a reason in your mind for every action. About to do a card revelation? When you say such a simple thing as “Take a card,” you should be thinking, “because in a minute I’m going to do something amazing with it.” Noice explained that there should be real intention behind everything that’s said or done. Effective magic requires more than merely going through the sequence of moves needed for the trick.If a routine is learned from a

DVD, he stressed, the magician has to be careful not to lazily start imitating Bill Malone, say, or Tommy Wonder. Learn the moves, yes; but work out a presentation that suits your own personality He demonstrated with a performance of Mexican Poker, a ten-card deal that’s done by Harry Anderson and others. Noice’s version ends with the spectator having his choice of either one of two “Jonah” cards, so the magician wins in any case. All in all, it was a different and

thoroughly enjoyable evening – and the only thing offered for sale was Noice’s forty-five pages of lecture notes. Since they included detailed explanations of the various card and rope effects, they were snapped up at $5 each.Before the magic, a quick

virtually unanimous election found President Tony Dunn handing the 2014 gavel to Tom McVey. —Don DunnFMMA Assembly 150 meets at 7 pm. every 2nd Tuesday at Myerlee Manor on Winkler Rd., Fort Naples. Contact Richard Payne [email protected] (239) 963-9104 for more details.

172HAPPY NEW YEAR

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL— January for Port St. Lucie’s Donald E. Lea Assembly 172 started off with Jack Durjan’s recommenda-tion that future meetings start off with a thirty-minute workshop starting at 7:00 p.m. We all agree; it’s a great opportunity to exchange ideas, work on projects, and a great warm-up for the mayhem that follows (generally referred to as “The Business Meeting”). That being said (and “The

Business Meeting” being out of the way) it was time for some magic. James Offenhartz, our most recent inductee into the inner circle, led off the night’s entertainment with his personalized rendition of a classic card effect, Cops and Robbers. James followed with another card trick, and ended with a broken and restored toothpick

effect. Danny Eisen then asked yours

truly to assist with a “Heavy Pencil” routine that turned out to be just too cool. Nice job, Danny! Dan Warnke and Doug Latshaw collaborated on a card effect utilizing the 10/20 Force and then Doug explained just how it all fell in to place. The 10/20 Force, with which I was unfamiliar, turned out to be rather efficient in its workings and very practical. Thanks, Doug.Harley Salas, one of our guests

for the evening, presented several variations on the Ambitious Card, went on to present Pulse, and then came back with another Ambitious Card. Can’t wait to sign him up! The guy’s got talent! Matt Musgrave closed out the evening with an Out to Lunch variation utilizing his business card and then finished with a very clean Card Penetration.And so the evening ended with

everyone thinking to themselves: “That was a great meeting. Can’t wait till February.” Neither can I! See ya there! —Dean F. DevittAssembly 172 meets the fourth Tuesday of every month(except December) at 7:00pm at The Saint Lucie Lanes on US1 in Port St. Lucie Florida. Contact Dean F. Devitt at [email protected] or call (772) 332-8412 for more details.

181AN EVENING OF

NIGHTMARES

HIGHTSTOWN, NJ— Any professor would have a real nightmare watching this one. Mitch Geier starts his routine with a large spool of rope and asks a spectator to help him cut three equal pieces. Between the cutting and the by-play, Mitch sets himself up for the Professor’s Nightmare. After doing the standard handling and a couple of snip snips, Mitch ends up with three ropes of the same length, ungimmicked, and ready to hand out as a souvenir to the audience. This is the best version of the Professor’s Nightmare that I have ever seen.Our February meeting was

dedicated to this effect. Mitch, who developed his skills from years of performing comedy magic in Las Vegas, did a hands on, step-by-step workshop on the Professor’s Nightmare. A room full of magicians, each with three ropes in their hands, followed along. This particular workshop was videotaped and will be put on our assembly’s streaming video library. Our video library is a unique benefit and available to all of our assembly members for

online viewing.In the open magic portion of our

meeting, Scott Berlinger started off with the Butterfly Effect. Les the Mentalist did an effect showing the different thinking between the right and left sides of the brain. Our Rocco went up front with a hole in his pants that suddenly dis-appeared. He followed that with an image duplication effect and the Ian Rowland effect, Thetalia. Dean Hank Strasser followed the evening’s theme, which is not required during open magic, with a rope effect.

Reba showed an effect using the Five of Hearts as a locator card to find the selection. She was supported by both Les and Keith with variations on that presen-tation. President Stephan Sloan finished the night with two new effects he had purchased, Voucher and Dean Dill’s Beads. It was a good night with a lot to learn and a lot of magic to see. Moreover, that is what assembly meetings are for.Duane Laflin will be lecturing at

our April meeting which will be open to guests. Hope you can be there. —David ZborayAssembly 181 meets the first Thursday of every month at the First United Methodist Church, 187 Stockton Street, Hightstown, NJ 08520. Contact Stephan Sloan [email protected] (732) 757-5337 www.magicsam181.com/ for more details.

188UTAH CLUB SHOWS ITS

LOVE FOR MAGIC

OREM, UT— Our February theme was “Magic You Love” in recognition of Valentine’s Day, and the love of the art was fully expressed.Jason Carling started off the

night with some nice manipulation involving flowers, billiard balls, a little juggling, and a silk fountain to dove. In his hands, Tootsie Pops changed into a Sharpie pen, a cane changed to silks handker-chiefs, and a large silk and paper streamers were produced from three other handkerchiefs.Mont Dutson got us all choked

up as he “scarfed up a trick” with three silks in a tube with a clever ending: they came down “Tide.” He then had a spectator slide his business card into a fanned deck to select some cards. The card selected was correctly predicted on a clock printed on his business card. He thee made spots on his Delben Domino change only to end the “hole” thing in an amusing manner..Walter Webb changed things up

with a very sweet poem on a Val-entine’s theme he had memorized, actually the lyrics from a song from the Broadway musical Wicked. Visitor Jon Meservy showed his impressive card skills by performing Clutch by Oz Perleman. Steve Dawson vanished then reproduced a ketchup bottle, then another, then a ton of silks, followed by a giant two-foot tall ketchup bottle.Magical Dave Johnson performed

an excellent torn and restored newspaper while trying unsuc-cessfully to teach two spectators along the way. Theron Christensen performed a very different cup and ball routine using only two brass cups, ending with a sponge ball segment.The very inventive Curtis

Hickman showed his latest creation, a version of Out of This World using coins instead of cards, aided by a chess-themed story. Cameron Smith showed his performance expertise with a very novel Professor’s Nightmare routine with many clever new moves and audience participation. He really showed a deep under-standing of the principles involved. He then wowed the crowd with his amazing fork bending routine. All in all a great night of magic, and

we hope our very talented visitors will return and join our assembly. —Steve DawsonAssembly 188 meets the second Thursday of each month at the Courtyard Jamestown, 3352 North 100 East in Provo, Utah. Contact Brian South [email protected] (801) 916-2442 utahmagicclub.org for more details.

194A THANK YOU TO OUR

MONTHLY HOSTS

YONKERS, NY— Through the gracious hospitality of the Catholic Slovak Club in Yonkers, New York, we have free use of their hall for our monthly meetings. In return, we provide a performer for their Christmas party, their July picnic, and then a show for their adult members once a year. This was the night (February 19) to do just that and it was a blast! Fr. Brennan was the emcee and

Mitch Geier creating


Assembly News

opened with his presentation of Metamorpho. Jim Stranges was the first act and he began with a mental effect with multi-col-ored balls. Whichever color the spectator picked, he was able to match it. He followed with the “34” prediction.The emcee offered with the

Chinese Sticks. Next up was Frank Reyes with a stage size version of Clearly Mental, then brought gasps of wonder when he had two visitors shuffle and cut a set of Jumbo split cards resulting in both people holding matching halves of the same card.Ted Lee is a one-of-a-kind en-

tertainer who always seems to get “lost” while doing an effect, only to conclude with a surprise ending. So his Five Card Repeat with jumbo cards, tossing the throw-away cards into a box with three front sides (!), ended with not five cards but fifteen cards left, all tossed into the box which was promptly shown to be empty. Go figure!Fr. Brennan then shared his

version of Goshman’s Then There Were Four, then introduced our youngest member, “Charlini” who opened with the Needle thru Balloon, then a glass of water that turned into “Instant Snow,” and finally his excellent presentation of a signed card that vanishes from the deck to appear in the perform-er’s shoe. Charley is a natural and we enjoy watching him grow.The show concluded with

Andrew Beiber doing, among others, a brilliant book test followed by his timed straitjacket escape done to music with a count-down conclusion. And he made it!The members of both the

assembly and the host club agreed that it was of our best shows ever and well deserved by our hosts. —Fr. Dermot BrennanAssembly 194 meets on the third Wednesday of each month (except July and August) at 7:30 PM at the Slovak Catholic Club on Lockwood Avenue, Yonkers, NY. Contact Fr. Dermot Brennan [email protected] (718) 601-1030 for more details.

215MARC SALEM

LECTURE

LOUISVILLE, KY— The Louisville Magic Club met on February 18 for Marc Salem’s lecture “Why I Don’t Lecture to Magicians and Mentalists.” Marc is an award-winning mentalist who has performed on Broadway, at the Sidney opera house, and other places around the world. The TV show 60 Minutes did a segment on him in 2008 in which he nearly made a believer of Mike

Wallace. Marc’s promo material states that “you have a lecture like no other.” Unfortunately, that turned out to be too true for the wrong reasons. His bus trip from Memphis to Louisville was forty minutes late, the lecture got started half an hour late, and Marc was scrambling all evening to find his props and needed items from his suitcase and duffle bags with his back turned to his audience. In his own words, he was “dis-combobulated.” He did, however, graciously give free copies of his lecture notes to the thirty-five or so members in attendance. As for the lecture itself,

Marc shared his philosophy of mentalism and performed several effects, including the prediction of the weather using the weather-map page from USA Today, the prediction on a printed receipt of the cost of an item chosen and priced by the audience, a version of Bank Night using no gimmicks, and a couple of book tests (“the four-Ace trick of mentalists”). He closed his lecture by showing the fifteen-minute segment of his 60 Minutes performance and interview by Mike Wallace. No one wants to give negative reviews of lectures; but comments by club members as we left confirmed that this lecture was too long, too rambling, and lacking in much magic. Perhaps if Marc had taken an earlier bus from Memphis, this review might have been much more positive.Upcoming events include lectures

by Bruce Amato on March 18th and Eric Roumestan on March 31st. —Roger L. OmansonAssembly 215 meets at 7:00 p.m. on various dates, but usually the first Tuesday of each month, at the Kosair Community Center on Eastern Parkway. Contact Roger L. Omanson [email protected] (502) 296-6577 www.lmcmagic.com for more details.

266MAGICAL TREATS

LAKELAND, FL— Even though a bad storm threatened the area, the Lakeland wizards were out in force for another night of magic. President Jerry Kardos put us through our meeting with his usual efficiency. We discussed the Masters of Illusion show coming to town next week in addition to lecture options before starting the magic.Our “snowbird” member Larry

Rose started us off with his magical wallet that changed from ones, fives, tens, twenties, and fifties with a flick of the wrist. He then showed us a cute card effect in which kids were mixed up yet

still arrived on the right school bus. Marty Bristow next showed us his card through bill wallet. We worked on different methods for making it more deceptive and easier to work. Jerry was back with a display idea for the Houdini lock puzzles everyone seemed to have gotten for Christmas then showed us a neat effect where Marty’s card became scorched onto another card, including ac-companying mysterious smoke.Mike Peterson amused us with a

no-set-up version of the McDonald Aces with a borrowed deck that went smooth as silk.Clean-up batter was scribe Al

D’Alfonso with his history lesson on the bullet catch. The serious talk concluded with a real demon-stration with a marshmallow gun shot by Navy Vet Ed McGowan. Al caught Ed’s signed marshmal-low in his mouth to the amusement of the crowd. I think its safe to say the I-Hop hasn’t seen that tasty trick before. It’s also safe to say that time in Central Florida would be better with a trip to see the wacky wizards of Assembly 266. —Al D’AlfonsoJim Zachary Assembly 266 meets the second Wednesday of the month at 7PM at the Lakeland I-Hop at Rt 98 & I-4 Contact Al D’Alfonso [email protected] (321) 4373814 for more details.

277PMMC MEMBERS DIG OUT

FROM UNDER SNOW TO ATTEND MEETING!

STROUDSBURG, PA— The PMMC met again after everyone dug out after the big snowstorms that hit the northeast. We started our meeting with some clever close-up performances, and then some business, which included plans for our next telethon spotlight, and upcoming lectures and conventions. “Torn And Restored” was tonight’s theme. Jimmy Pagan was our first

performer and it was great to see him back. First Jimmy showed us his sponge ball routine, then he performed his Split Two dollar Bill effect, in which a two-dollar bill becomes two one-dollar bills, and then back. He then did a bit of Mentalism with El Numero.Jordan Benoit was up next and

took us through his Aero Dynamic and Multiplying Sponge Balls. This is Jordan’s own take on the sponge balls with a clever clown nose bit at the end of the routine. Great job!S. Patrick did his thing next and

showed us one of his creations, Safety Dominoes. S. then switched gears and performed He’s Not

There by Jamie Dawes. S. told a story about finding a strange picture in a home that always seemed to move. The picture was torn up and thrown out, but the pieces seemed to come back the next day. When the picture pieces were put back together, it was shown that one of the family members in the picture actually vanished. S. then told the rest of the story, which explained that the man who was missing actually did vanish and was never found.Joseph Raven is our psychic

detective and showed us a routine he calls Restoring Families. It is based on a Nick Trost card routine in which you take about ten cards, split them in half, mix them up, and have two spectators remember a piece. Then miraculously the pieces match.

The final spot on the bill belonged to Odes Odhner. Odes has been going back through the original Tarbell series for work on a current project. In the first volume of Tarbell, lesson 15, page 297 is the Torn and Restored Chinese Papers, or the Chinese Laundry Ticket. Odes wove a story about a man who was contemplating selling his soul to the devil by signing the contract. He thought better of it, tore up the paper, and threw it out. The mans son, eager to show his dad that he learned to write his name in school, in-nocently took the paper out of the trash, unrolled it, which magically was restored, and wrote his name on the contract with disastrous results. —S. PatrickThe PMMC, Assembly 277, meet every third Friday at the “Art Space Gallery” at 18 N. 7th St. Stroudsburg PA. 18360. We also hold a workshop meeting on the first Monday of each month. Visit - www.pmmc.webs.com for all the details. Contact S. Patrick [email protected] (570) 242-6821 www.pmmc.webs.com for more details.

291FIX A TRICK

LOS ANGELES, CA— In

The Mysterious Odes Odhner

Good Cheer ListPlease take a minute to spread a few words of cheer with a card or note to one of our less fortunate members. Send additions, changes, or deletions to: Anthony Antonelly, Chairman, Sick and Convalescent Committee, (215) 820-3192 ext. 1512. [email protected]

Roger Barr883 B Leverpool Circle, Manchester, NJ 08759

Daniel Cudennec “Dany Trick”225, Stang-ar-Veil-d’an-Traon, Mellac-29300, Quimperle, France

Dan A. Dorsey98 Woodvalley Dr. Fayetteville, GA 30215

Joseph H. (Ben) Grant400 Commonwealth Ave, Unit 9 Warwick, RI 02886

Charlie Gross16745 Gertrude Street, Omaha, NE 60136-3023

Roy Horn c/o Siegfried & Roy1639 N Valley Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89108

Bob King304 Suburban Court, Rochester, NY 14620

Stanley R. Kramien11205 SW Summerfield Dr. Apt 161Tigard, OR 97224-3391

Richard Laneau4020 55th St. N.St. Petersburg, FL 33709

George Gilbert Lott 1725 Great Hill Rd.Guilford, CT 06437

Frank J. McNaughton, Sr1926 Apple Street, Williamsport, PA 17701

James J. Morrisey24 Grove St.Wayland, MA 01788

Anthony Murphy11 Angel Rd., North Reading, MA 01864

Nahmen NissenPO Box 1856 Colfax, CA 95713-1856

Allen Okawa2101 Nuuanu Ave., Tower 1,#2203Honolulu, HI 96817

David Oliver141 Audaubon Rd. #201Weymouth, MA 02188

Larry Poague34221 West 90 CircleDesota, KS 66108

Jim Relyea241 W. Lakeshore Rockaway, NJ 07866

Harry Riser11755 N. Michigan Rd #313Zionsville, IN 46077

Pat Ryan43 Fairbanks Rd.Churchville, NY 14428

Matt SavinP.O. Box 7693Alhambra, CA 91802-7533

Sybill Simons65 West 95 St. Apt 3ANew York, NY 10025

Mario Susi6 Bristol Rd.W. Peabody, MA 01960

Jack White4288 Arguello St.San Diego, CA 92103

Jim Zachary2801 South Creek DriveMulberry, FL 33860


Assembly News

February we had a wonderful turnout for our Anniversary. Attending the meeting were members from the UCLA Magic Club and some of our S.Y.M members. The night began with a warm and heartfelt speech by our founder and secretary Les, ex-pressing warm sentiments towards the entire assembly and the people who make it happen, especially with all the strength, love and support from his wonderful wife Doris.We started our night with cel-

ebrating and announcing that Satori of S.Y.M was accepted into the McBride School of Magic on a partial scholarship. To help make the magic happen we were proud to award him with a little magic of our own to make this dream come true. Congratulations Satori! We then went full steam ahead with “Fix a Trick.” Everyone who performed was given gentle, but helpful input on how to perfect his or her future performances. The first to perform was Sam from the UCLA Magic Club. He showed us his needle swallowing dem-onstration. So unless you know how to do this, do not try this at home! This set the stage and made everyone else step up their bar. Next, Randall, also from the UCLA Magic Club, performed the thread through the needle.After all our needle tricks, we

were entertained by mentalism. Our former president Frank did card predictions on his magical tablet. Phil expanded on the elec-

tronics theme by using a phone to call a prediction line. For further predictions, Rual read the mind of Emma (SYM), by giving us predictions of her past, present, and future. Mike from UCLA Magic Club was reading the minds of Emma and Roy. For a change of pace, Christopher, with Dan’s assistance performed his own rendition of You Do as I Do. After, Emma of SYM performed the Color Block Escape. And the night concluded with Bill per-forming with his mystical ropes. —William Dow Jr.Assembly 291 meets on the second Tuesday of the month at the OPICA Adult Day Care Facility, 11759 Missouri Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90025, on the south side of the park. Please enter through the patio area on the north side of the building. Contact Les Cooper [email protected] (310) 473-1820 www.westsidewizards.org for more details.

292IMPRESSIVE IMPROMPTU

GREELEY, CO— During a brief February business meeting over lunch, three future meeting dates were changed: to April 19 for a lecture by Mark Strivings, to June 7, and to October 18. Under “Shows,” Lloyd Worley reported being booked to give a library show.The program theme was broadly

defined “Impromptu Magic.”

Teagan Brown opened, perform-ing three effects from Ellusionist: the Loyal (signed) Coin Vanish, and two ring routines by Justin Miller, Divorce and Lightspeed. Paul Noffsinger gave a fascinating presentation. He cut to the Aces, and then explained how. The long side of each Ace had been subtly shaved and was located by his thumbnail. He passed around his deck with its four almost-invisible examples of the precision work his new card cutter could do. Brian Hallisey did an impactful card routine (Wayne Dobson’s Devas-tation deck and wallet). Tim Pen-dergast recommended both Joshua Jay’s Magic: the Complete Course and the versatile iForce app for smart phones. Jim Pope presented two effects, a napkin penetration, and a nicely done Three Way Test one-ahead prediction effect from Mark Wilson’s Complete Book of Magic.In a change of pace, Ron Dutton

enthusiastically recommended the quality and wide range of prices on the brand-new Haversat & Ewing Gallerie magic auctions. He described the two principals and his recent experience buying from their inaugural auction.Jaret Anderson performed a

card-reversed-in-deck effect. James Lopez contributed two routines, a mathematical number prediction revealed on Teagan Brown’s cell phone, and a skillful performance of an impromptu Coins Across. Lew “The Great Loudini” Wymisner presented and

taught very well his combination of the Free Will billet effect and a European Prediction Book. Then he exhibited the breath-taking Tora Arm Chopper. Gary Hickox did a nifty Penetrating Straws.Alex Acosta closed with the

transposition wallet he uses in presenting his stunning business cards, which he designed himself. They are full color on a black field, and with his tuxedo jacket (over blue jeans) outlined in white to separate his image from the background. They picture him in front of flames, in dynamic, highly dramatic action. —Ron DuttonThe Dr. Ronald P. Dutton Assembly 292 usually meets at Kenny’s Steak House, 3502 West 10th Street (corner of 35th Avenue) at 11:00 A.M. (lunch optional), on the second Saturday of the month. Contact Jim Pope [email protected] (970) 339-3277 www.SAM292.com for more details.

Gary Hickox (left) burns Teagan Brown’s ring effect

GEORGES G. WEILL, PHD

Parent Assembly 1 mourns the passing of Georges Weill, who was a fifty-six-year member of the Society. Georges was born in Strasburg, France, on April 9, 1926. He received a degree in engineering from Ecole Polytechnique and later received his PhD in physics from Universite de Paris in 1955.

In 1960 Georges immigrated to the United States, where he received a doctorate in mathematics from UCLA. He spent his pro-fessional life in academia, doing research at Harvard and Yale. He then spent thirty-five years teaching at NYU Polytechnic, where he was named Professor Emeritus.

Throughout all his academic work, his per-formances of magic as “Magic Michael Edson” kept him active on the New York magic scene, where he attended all the magic clubs and lectures.

He was a mild mannered, soft spoken gentleman, who retained his French accent. Georges loved to cook and was adventurous; he collected DVDs and books on card magic. He died peacefully at his home in Roosevelt Island. A broken wand service was performed by MI David Adamovich at a memorial service in February.

–George Schindler


Broken Wands

http://www.themagicwarehouse.com

Fire! Fire!The subject of this month’s column is not a recommended ac-

quisition for the novice illusionist…or for just about any other il-lusionist, either. It’s not the danger element. It’s more the practical element, as you will understand as you read.

Way back in 1970 when I was building up my repertoire of stage illusions, it seemed only natural (!) that I would want a cremation effect. Abbott’s Magic, in Colon, Michigan, was constructing most of my props in those days, and their catalog had featured the item for decades, boasting they could supply the apparatus “just as Percy did for the Harry Thurston show!” (Remember that in the 1920s Howard Thurston was a more famous magician than Harry Houdini. Howard’s brother, Harry, however, did not have the same performing skills of his brother, but he had that magic Thurston name.) From vintage photos, it appears to me that spook show performer Bill Neff used the Abbott model, too.

I saved and then sent $525 to Abbott’s for the illusion, request-ing only that it be made long enough to accommodate the rather tall assistant I had at the time. Borrowing my dad’s station wagon some weeks later, I made the 250-mile (one way) drive to Colon to pick it up.

It was a regular “black beauty,” a lacquered plywood box on silver pipe legs with the indication of coffin handles stenciled on its sides. It came with a fireproof skeleton, constructed – mostly – out of durable asbestos with a skull fashioned from the life-size plastic kit that has been a hobby shop staple for decades. A little pan between the skeleton’s legs was for a mysterious powder Abbott’s called “Red Fire.” When ignited it burned like a highway flare and, I suspect, that’s exactly what it was, a ground-up flare.

The hinged sides and ends came off, the skeleton on its panel could be inverted for packing, and, of course, the pipe legs could be unscrewed. The lid had one-inch holes for smoke and flames to escape and there were multiple vertical slits on the long sides that would “glow” from the inferno within.

In addition to the “Red Fire,” we cut up old mattress pads and dipped them in something flammable (gasoline back then!), wrung them out, and then placed them about the skeleton. No one has ever doubted the reality of fire when I have presented this act. I’ve always employed plenty of flames.

A Game of CategoriesIf a Crystal Casket is a production and a Sword Box is a mu-

tilation and an Aga is a levitation and a Mascot Moth is a disap-pearance, what is Burned Alive? It’s a vanishing act, but you’d be better off with a DeKolta Chair or a Phantom Cage if you need someone to disappear. I learned early on that audience members expected the assistant to somehow reappear un-scorched, similar to appearing back in one piece after a Sawing illusion. If you un-derstand the working of the cremation act, you already know that she cannot pop up out of the casket. You have to strike the illusion for her to get out.

I liked the fact that she was gone. I usually put this at the end of a show (lots of leftover smoke you know) and then it was easy not to see that assistant again. This did bother some folks; I recall

more than a few youngsters worried that a person really had been burned up before their eyes. Perhaps it taught some not to play with matches.

This effect was used at every one of my university magic shows in the 1970s and it caused a bit of a stir one year. A new assistant in the show was aghast at the first dress rehearsal when we actually lit the fire. She hadn’t comprehended what we were staging. She voiced her deep feelings at the post-rehearsal meeting. Nobody supported her opinion and she became very angry, quitting on the spot, and stalking off without even removing her costume!

She then went on a campaign to warn the public about the content of my show; our major daily newspaper called to interview me. I explained I was doing nothing new; this was the illusion’s sixth consecutive year in the show. The campus newspaper also followed up on her tirade.

I learned a lesson: That was the first year that all our perfor-mances sold out. To this day I’ve looked for another gimmick to stir up a “tempest-in-a-teapot” controversy about my show.

A local casket company gave me four real coffin handles and we added them to the Abbott prop. They added dimension and looked better than the stenciled suggestions.

As you might imagine, all that burning was hard on the prop. Periodically the skull would explode, I assume from air expanding in its sealed interior. I would call Recil Bordner at Abbott’s and have them construct another “fireproof” skull for $25. And I had no case for it. So by late 1977 I realized that this should be one of the illusions that should be replaced with something a little more deluxe.

I contacted California’s Owen Magic Supreme and placed an order for their version that they called Burning Alive – Cremation. It represented a $4,000 investment for me plus the cost of a sturdy ATA case and air freight.

The unit I received was very similar to the Abbott model. The prop, though, was not painted. It was stained a rich color and had a nicely curved coffin-like top. That extra space in the lid concealed the Owen-supplied skeleton (another asbestos and rope-asbestos sculpture), which allowed the openings on the long sides to be large ovals. The spectators could now see the victim sliding into the casket. There was a sliding panel arrangement that masked the drop of the girl and the lowering of the skeleton. We no longer used “Red Fire.” Our fuel was now Coleman Lantern Fuel. It was more deceptive than my previous version and it looked really “classy.”

This illusion, with nicely designed wooden legs, comes apart efficiently and quickly and packs into a single ATA case. I’d guess the total weight to be about 200 pounds. I approached a local un-dertaker and bought a heavy vinyl, zippered, “body bag” from him for the skeleton. I do not recall what that item cost, but I do remember him asking me whether I wanted a new or used bag. I chose new. He might have been pulling my leg.

We all know now that asbestos is not exactly “user friendly.” However, the skeleton gets blackened pretty quickly from the flames; we have repainted ours dozens of times with cans of cheap spray paint. I’m convinced that those nasty particles of asbestos have been thoroughly sealed in layers of enamel.

And, of course, this is not an illusion we use very often.It’s a natural for Halloween shows, if you have a venue with a

curtain or a means of rolling the flaming illusion out of view to


by David Seebach

retrieve the assistant. The fire, although intense, only burns for seconds since the scraps of soaked mattress padding are quickly consumed; when they’re gone, there’s nothing left to burn. The person who prepares this illusion must squeeze the pads out so that there are no little streams or trails of flammable liquid. Es-sentially we have about a half-dozen “wicks.”

Owen’s Alan Zagorsky still offers this prop, but it now looks even more like an actual coffin. He has made it so no real fire is used. You’ve no doubt seen the torches that are a bit of wispy fabric, a couple of focused colored lights, and a fan. They look great, but I do like the act of having an actual flaming torch to ignite the coffin’s interior with flames leaping up. For a torch I bought a juggler’s prop designed for fire.

In the 1980s when I performed twice-nightly shows at Mil-waukee’s Summerfest, I featured my Burning Alive – Cremation at the end of the late show, which began at either 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. It was like a sideshow “blow off” feature. I issued a warning that it “wasn’t for everybody.” They had already seen my full show. Sometimes I’d see parents gather up youngsters and hustle them away, but most everybody remained. At the moment I lit the torch (with the assistant already inside the illusion), all the stage lighting would be turned off. These were outdoor shows so it was always dark. We were on a stage without curtains. Everything was masonry and cement. We had no fire worries.

The only illumination now was from the fire of the act. It was dramatic and sensational.

After the sides fell away and the audience saw the assistant’s supposed remains, we left the stage. Through an offstage micro-phone I thanked everyone and then suggested they “take one last look at the best barbecued ribs at Summerfest.” At that point we played Roy Rogers singing “Happy Trails.”

Michigan’s outré magician, Bob Kramer, was famous for this act. He had a fancy prop that employed a very deceptive base and he did the cremation everywhere. It must have been his signature effect. From time to time I’d be employed for a function that he’d previously appeared at. “Are you doing that fire trick?” I was always asked.

But, times have changed. I don’t think audiences have turned on this illusion, but few venues will permit a cigarette or a candle, much less a flaming coffin. We have never had a mishap, but you cannot forget that it’s a real fire and – for at least thirty to forty seconds – there’s a lot of it!

I have performed it with two assistants, one who gets in and the other who helps stage everything, but I prefer two outside assistants plus the “victim.” For years it was always at the end of the show, but we changed things at Halloween and put it in the opening sequence. It was effective in the opening and allowed me a very good laugh line. As the curtain fell, I spoke for the first time. “What were you expecting, a happy ending?”

Of course, you should have a fire extinguisher handy. We’ve never had to use one. No one has ever suffered a burn, although I’ve lost some hair on my hands and arms and suffered a singed eyebrow from the initial explosive eruption when I place the torch into the enclosed prop where volatile fumes had been accumulat-ing.

When the curtain comes down, or the prop is rolled off to an out-of-sight area, the tray on which the skeleton lies is lifted up and set down so the assistant can be helped out. And, you should help her since it’s very likely she would grab onto the prop to get up and much of it will have a sooty residue. A pair of pliers, or tongs, will be all that you need to lift up any remaining bits of

burning padding. Drop them in a bucket. Always wash the interior of the illusion before packing it up. Paint the skeleton with flat white paint and use some flat black on the skull’s eye sockets and nostrils.

A Funny FailureBack in about 1983 I was asked to appear in a New York City

fashion show for the hair industry. They demanded this illusion and wanted it performed with one of their hair models. The show was at a big Manhattan hotel in their ballroom; there were TV cameras everywhere and lots of special effects. The model for the illusion was quite afraid of the fire element. I had arrived in the Big Apple with my male assistant, none other than Brett Daniels. We set up the gear and walked the model, the producer, and the director through it. Everything seemed fine. They did my hair, too, and applied ghastly makeup to me. This was going to be some sort of “Bride of the Devil” scene. Guess who I played! I remember walking out of the hotel on Broadway before showtime with this gruesome countenance. But, it was New York; nobody noticed me.

As we neared the time for the sequence, they carpeted the stage with fog and we rolled the “gassed up” illusion to its position. Then all the lights went out due to some power failure in the ballroom. We were told to “freeze in place.” It took many minutes to get rolling again with the lights back on. The model implored me to keep talking to her (I had no lines and wasn’t miked). I did, softly saying, “Everything’s alright. You’re safe. Don’t worry.” The problem was that l-o-n-g wait. All the fuel had evaporated away and some of the CO2 fog had gotten into the illusion as well. When I lit the torch it sputtered a bit, but not much of anything ignited inside the illusion. I finally dropped the torch in so there’d be some fire. I recall Brett and I quickly packed up, found some Popeye’s chicken, and left Manhattan the same night, motoring back to Wisconsin.

This column won’t be useful to many readers, but I hope it offers an interesting lesson. It’s a sensational illusion that folks do talk about. I don’t think they figure it out. They’re stunned when she’s gone and doesn’t show back up.

If you’d like to add your own opinion, or memories of seeing someone perform this, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

David A Seebachwww.davidseebach.com

[email protected]


Burning Alive - 2003


By Steve Marshall

I Left My Cards at Home

FUKAI

His full name is Hiromasa Fukai, but most magicians know him simply as “Fukai,” the happy-go-lucky Japanese magician who is well known at magic conventions and gatherings around the world. Whether performing, lecturing, or demonstrating his original effects behind his dealer’s table, he exudes his brand of “happy magic” to all.

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Fukai’s love for magic began when he was just eight years old and his uncle made one of his school pencils disappear. When his uncle wouldn’t tell him where the pencil went, young Fukai decided to be patient and wait until he saw his uncle take off his jacket. As soon as the coast was clear he went and looked inside the jacket and dis-covered an elastic pull with a clip to hold a pencil. “I made my own gimmick, put it in my Japanese school uniform jacket, and wore it to school the next day. I made a pencil vanish and the kids exclaimed, ‘Wow, Fukai.’ It gave me a good feeling.”

The amazing thing about Fukai is that he still has the curiosity that he had as an eight-year-old boy. Whenever I am in Osaka, I love hanging out and going shopping with him. Although we have never been into a proper magic shop together he makes every shop seem like it has the potential to be a magic shop – especially a toy store, where he is constantly picking up toys (he loves elec-

tronic ones), trying to figure out ways that he can modify them to make them into a magic trick. One of his best selling items, a toy police car with flashing lights and loud siren sounds that go off when it is rolled over a selected playing card, started out in a toy store; after Fukai’s modifications, it became a product for magic shops.

Fukai is also well known for being one half of the award-winning magic team of “Fukai and Kimika.” Fukai and his lovely wife Kimika have presented their amazing parasol act around the world. They won second place in general magic at FISM in Madrid, Spain, in 1985, and have also appeared on numerous television shows, including the famous Paul Daniels Magic Show in England. At this time the London Times praised Fukai and Kimika as “an original magician who has never been seen before.”

Today Fukai has his own studio in Osaka where he teaches young, up-and-coming magicians and designs and creates his own original magic products. He is also well known these days as an advisor for magic conventions and shows around Asia. He is also a sought-after judge and advisor for the larger magic competitions.

As I write this Fukai is in China working on some new products. Fukai shows no signs of slowing down; he will continue to spread his brand of “happy magic” around the world for many years to come.

CASH CALLBY FUKAI

This is a fun and novel way to show both of your hands empty and then produce several pieces of paper money instantly without the use of any gimmicks.

To do the routine that follows you will need three pieces of paper currency that are about the same size; one piece should be from a different country than the other two. I will use a one-thousand yen (Japanese) bill and two twenty-dollar (US) bills.

Begin with the single, odd bill and fold it into a “Z” shape. Don’t do it proportion-ately; you want the two outer sections to be slightly longer than the middle section

so the edges will stick out a bit. Photo 1 shows the “Z” fold and Photo 2 shows how the edge sticks out, about the width of the border. (If you flip the bill over, the edge on the other side should stick out about the same width.)

Now the bill will be “Z” folded once again from top to bottom in the same fashion so that the top and bottom portions are slightly longer than the center portion (Photo 3). If you pick up the bill and examine it in this folded condition, you will discover that it is very easy to find the top two corners of the bill; if you pull them outwards at the same time, the bill will completely pop open.

Now place the two twenty-dollar bills together and fold them, as one, into the same style packet.

Place the two packets into your right hand in finger palm position, with the single folded bill on top and the doubly-folded bills underneath (Photo 4).

Photo 3

Photo credit: Sandy Chang

Photo 1

Photo 2


Bring your hands up with their backs toward the audience as you say, “I find it very interesting that in different countries and in different cultures around the world, there are different hand gestures to convey the meaning for money.”

Bring the left hand up to your left side, palm towards the audience; at the same time bring your right hand up and place the right fingertips (being careful not to flash the bills) behind your left hand. Touch the palm of your left hand with your right thumb (Photo 5). Say, “In Africa, the thumb scratches the palm of the hand to signify money.” (Suit actions to words here and move your thumb back and forth across your palm.)

“In Hong Kong, it is done like this.” Bring both of your hands out in front of you as in Photo 6 and run your thumbs

back and forth across the tops of your fin-gertips. “In Japan the hands are placed together like this.” Bring both your hands up with the palms pressed together as in Photo 7.

“But the most important thing is that

you get the money!” As you say these words, point your fingertips towards the audience, separating them a bit at the base of the palms. Insert your thumbs into your hands so that you can peel the single bill out (Photo 8). Find the corners and pop it open on the word “money.” (Photo 9 shows your view with the doubly-folded bills back in right finger palm position.) Drop the bill onto the table.

You can now bring your hands back together and bring the second packet into position as you say, “The great thing about knowing these international hand gestures is that you can get money

wherever you need it.” Open the double bill as one and say, “And as much as you need!” As you say this last line, slide the second bill up from behind the front one with your thumbs, showing you have just doubled your money! (Photos 10-12 show this last sequence.)

Note, when Fukai does this routine, he uses two fifty-dollar bills at the end. When he first opens the two fifties as one he says, “In America I can even get a hundred bucks!” When someone points out that it’s only a fifty, he spreads the two bills apart and says, “No, it’s a hundred!” (This is a very nice finale for the routine but, unfor-tunately, I could only find the two twenties here in Japan to take the photos!)

STEVE’S STUFF

I think that a lot of people will find uses for the way the money is folded, making it easy to open quickly. You could even start with a single “play-money” bill and then produce two real bills, or just use it as a means to produce a few bills, rapidly, one at a time. The thing I like most about this routine is the very logical way (demon-strating the hand gestures for money) that you are able to ostensibly show both hands empty without calling attention to the fact that you are doing so. Also, since there are no gimmicks involved, it lends itself greatly to impromptu performances. Have fun playing around with this one!

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THE EYES OF MARCH

Blocking. That’s a word and idea that we don’t often see in effect tutorials, yet it can be vital to making a mediocre routine into a memorable miracle.

Blocking is not just a football procedure, it is also a theatrical term. It basically means where you stand and at what time you and your fellow actors stand or move during a performance.

Many stage actors will not really learn their lines until they have gone through the blocking rehearsals, during which the director tells them to “cross stage left” or to “cheat to center.” These moments of movement during a scene make it much easier for the actors to learn the lines because they have tangible “anchors” spread about the stage. For example, they know that they need to say the line about Aunt Molly while they are walking toward the fireplace.

Blocking is also very important in sales situations. Let’s pretend you are attempting to sell a home security system to a young couple. You are in their home after doing an evaluation or estimate; when it is time to seal the deal all three of you gather and sit at the circular dining room table.

Here at the dining room table is where you are going to make the offer and (you hope) win the sale. As a wise salesperson, you will have them sitting side by side with you across the table.

Many tableside sales have been lost because the two spouses are seated across from each other with the salesperson inadvertently becoming the apex of the triangle. This creates the unfortunate “Ping Pong Scenario,” which means that while the salesperson is trying to maintain eye contact with both people, he is moving his head in a “no” direction.

One of the first lessons in sales is to build a “yes” momentum. Shaking your head in the up and down “yes” movement

as you ask them questions that you know they will answer “yes” to makes it easier for them to give you that final yes at the end. Swinging your head back and forth in a “no” motion doesn’t just cut down on the “yes” momentum you hope to create, it also causes you to miss out on the non-verbal facial expressions that your two prospective clients could be making outside of your field of vision. You may totally miss an eye roll or a smile, or even a thumbs-up gesture.

With all of this in mind, blocking should not be ignored as an important element in both theatre and sales. Therefore, as mystery artists who deal with an art that rests so much of its power on misdirection, blocking should be a vital part of our process of creating effects.

In a theatre production, one character is told to go one way and stand somewhere, while another character stays put. Maybe a third character goes from standing in front of a chair to sitting down upon it. Blocking isn’t just about moving across the stage. It can also be about different levels while standing in the same spot. Maybe an actor will be asked to stand straight up out of his or her chair at a moment in the script. A blocking direction could also be something as simple as leaning over a table with the palms placed openly upon it.

As mystery artists, we are usually blocking for one. That is to say, in scripting and blocking, we only really consider where we are going to cross the stage, or turn to the right, or gesture, or point to a prop or area of focus.

Most magic and mentalism perfor-mances involve having volunteers or spectators from the audience join the performer on stage. The participants’ stage movements should be an important part of the performer’s blocking, because with appropriate instruction and management, they can become ersatz actors following your stage direction in real time, thereby creating the stage picture that best delivers the final moment and message of your effect.

We have all seen a stage or parlor effect performed by one of our fellow brethren during which we thought, “Ah, that was

nice, but it would look so much better if that spectator was a little more to the right and the other spectator was just a little more center stage.”

In addition to scripting and our own personal stage movements, little things like proper stage placements of our new friends can transform a cute routine into a miracle.

I would like to offer some simple stage blocking nomenclature that I hope will be of benefit to you whether you are performing a Cards Across routine for your host and hostess or meeting with a C.E.O. and event organizer while offering your services for their upcoming holiday party.

Stage Left: A common stage direction is for the performer to “cross stage left.” This simply means that wherever you are on stage, you walk to your left. “Extreme stage left” would be the very left edge of the performance space.

Stage Right: The same thing but in the opposite direction.

Upstage: This refers to the back of the stage, or towards the back curtain.

Downstage: Again, this is the opposite direction, so you would move towards the audience, or toward the front of the stage, close to the audience.

Here is some fun trivia that will help you to remember Upstage/Downstage. The theater stages in the beginning of the twentieth century were “raked,” meaning they sloped downwards from the back of the stage to the front. This gave the audience a better view of the entire stage. And as great of an idea as it was, the older or more portly the performer was the more difficult it became to saunter nonchalantly around on what could be used these days as a skateboard ramp. In fact, the idea of the raked stage totally killed that wonderful underground play Granny’s Special Chair and the Lovely Family of Legless Chipmunks.

Somewhere along the way, some


By Don Theo III

The Dotted Line

brilliant stage architect came up with the idea of raking the audience members’ seats and leaving the stage flat. And there you have the origin of stadium seating. (My friend Mick Ayres told me that card magicians will often “rake the table” by using a couple of books to raise the back legs a little; this allows the audience to easily identify cards lying flat on the surface.)

While the terms I’ve included are quite rudimentary, one can probably sense that they can provide the performer with pretty specific movement architecture. An example would be “The actor says x line and then crosses up stage left.” Set pieces and design can offer additional assistance to make the movements more precise. For instance, after a particular moment, a performer is directed to “cross up stage left to the bookshelf.”

There are legions of books on the subject of stagecraft and books on such a subject should be an important part of any performer’s library—especially if you are directing yourself or if you are blocking an intimate performance.

There are a two other pieces of blocking verbiage to briefly mention. These are not used much in modern theatre, but will come in handy with what we do.

House Left: Think of it this way, it’s to the left from the audience’s point of view (and thus is the same as Stage Right).

House Right: To the right from the audience’s point of view.

It’s rare for theatre actors to concern themselves with “house” directions because they normally remain on stage, well in defense of the fourth wall. However, as variety performers, we often do find ourselves offstage and among the audience members, so these terms are worth noting.

This information applies to all in this business; the performer who stands beside a restaurant table has to block his movements, even though his feet remain stationary. A good knowledge of tradi-tional stage direction vocabulary serves as an effective shorthand when blocking out performances.

Now let us put this information to use.

CAT’S EYE

I have both good and bad news for

you. The good news is that this effect is powerful, because it builds on something your guests already believe in before you have even introduced it to them. The bad news is, you won’t be able to do it at every booking – but you will be glad to have it in your arsenal. This is ideal for private house parties or for when an acquaintance asks you to do something.

Gathered around with a gaggle of attentive companions, the conversation lends itself to the powerful psychic abilities shared between pets and their owners. While talking about the connection between pets and their owners, you hand a pen and pad to the owner of an animal. I find this works best with cats and cat owners. Ask her to think of something she can draw that might have some significance to “Millie” (which, for explanation purposes, is the name of the helper’s cat).

The pet owner is asked to make the drawing so that nobody else can see the image, and then to crumple it up before placing it in a pocket on her person.

It is clear that there is no way anybody but the original artist can know what has been drawn. The pet owner/artist is asked to take the feline into a separate room, unfurl the pocketed paper, and show it to Millie, making sure she gets a good five seconds of eye contact with the image.

While she is doing so, you tell a couple of quick stories about dogs, parrots, and such to the rest of those assembled. It’s a great idea to ask those around you to tell a story of their own pet/owner eerie experiences. Trust me; if they have a pet, then they have a story.

After a few minutes, Millie and the human reenter the room. Ask the owner to hold Millie up so that you can make eye contact with her. After about fifteen seconds (seen the Notes at the end of this write-up) of pure silence, you pick up a piece of paper and draw an image, which you then fold or crumple up and set aside.

The pet owner is asked to bring her drawing out of her pocket and open it up. Your own drawing is opened up by one of the other spectators; they are shown to match perfectly.

First, a brief method description, then a little bit of extra ninja work.

The method employs the use of an impression device.

Put yourself in the shoes of a willing participant or volunteer. If you draw

something, put it in your pocket, and then, after a few seconds of hemming and hawing, a performer duplicates your drawing, are you going to think it was a psychic experience? Maybe, but most likely you will think that in some way the performer was able to see what you drew. However, if there is this big, wide presentational chasm that involves a cat placed in isolation, then the heat is drawn away from the procedure.

There are many great impression devices that can be used. Likewise, many other “peek” methods can be employed. Personally, I choose to use an impression device because I never make physical contact with the original drawing. My favorite device is John Riggs’s Beautiful Butterfly Notepad, which is an innocuous memo pad. When handled well, it escapes any notion of suspicion.

There are several DIY impression devices out there that you can find. The main thing to keep in mind is that it should in no way look like a prop. So don’t pull it out of a velour bag or have it bedazzled with plastic store gems.

The rest, as they say, is acting – and blocking.

NINJA TIPS

This is a great example of using your spectators as willing actors who adhere to your stage direction. You have Millie and the artist exit stage left. You remain with the rest of the spectators in the audience. This is a good time to engage them by asking them to tell about strange experiences they have had with their pets. If they are not too talkative, you will find a good resource for material at the end of this article. Either way, you have plenty of time, thanks to your blocking, to take another piece of paper from the pad while getting the peek you need to complete the effect. This is where personal blocking comes into play. No need to rush it. (Remember, you are the director.)

To add a level of intrigue and mystery to the routine, before Millie is sent off with her keeper, it’s fun to ask questions that make it seem as though you are doing a psychological reading on the feline before sending it away. Fun questions I like to use are: “Is Millie active or is she more laid back? Does she prefer chicken or tuna? When was the last time she dismissed a male suitor? How old is she? How long


has she had insomnia?” You can play these questions seriously or for comic relief, based on your character and the venue.

Here’s something that a mentor of mine brought to my attention. The pen that you use for the drawings can be one of the common disposable ballpoint/biro pens. It’s an easy thing to keep the cap (with a little bit of loose catnip within it) on the non-writing end. Upon leaving the engagement, find an opportunity to uncap the top and sprinkle the catnip into a corner. Well after your departure, you may get a phone call asking what you did to their previously calm kitty cat. (Based on personal experience, this works about three times out of five, so you probably

should not try it.)Obviously, you do not have to use a

cat. I’ve used iguanas, dogs, goldfish, and an ex-wife. Another thing I’ve been doing lately is asking the artist/pet owner to hold the animal up to a mirror and show it the mirror image. Of course when I do this, I draw a reverse of the image for the reveal.

Whether or not you ever use Cat’s Eye as originally conceived, I hope this helps to give you inspiration in how blocking, whether traditional or tangential, can help to add countless levels to your next experience in performance.

Notes: One last thing, for the brave. Before even picking up a pen, I often spend

a good ninety seconds staring into the cat’s eyes after asking for silence from everyone present. This is a moment worth building. They are thinking, “There is no way he is actually doing this.”

And then you do.If you are looking for some strong

evidentiary anecdotes to push the conversation along, there are some very intriguing pet-psychic anecdotes within the works of Rupert Sheldrake, especially his book Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home. This book is a treasure trove of short case studies of animals that seem to have exhibited psychic experiences between themselves and their owners.


The Dotted Line

NEED TO WRITE AN ASSEMBLY REPORT? We Made Your Job a Little Easier

Go to www.mum-magazine.com and click on “Easy Report Submission.” You’ll be taken to a page with a form that makes submitting your assembly report a breeze. Simply fill in the required fields and paste in your report from your word processor. Upload a photo and a caption if are submitting one. Then hit “Submit Form.” You’re done, and your report comes to us in format that makes our job a lot easier, too.

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Newsworthy Updates From oUr s.a.m. members

North Atlantic Award of Excellence Presented to Compeer Alan “Ace” Greenberg

On February 11, 2014, distinguished compeer Alan “Ace” Greenberg was presented with the North Atlantic Region Award of Excellence by RVP Eric DeCamps. The award was given in grateful appreciation of his forty-three years of service to The Society of American Magicians, his advancement of the Art of Magic for his twenty years of publishing the most highly respected books in the field that document for future generations the work of many of magic’s greatest artists, and for his innumerable philanthropic endeavors.

Congratulations to Alan “Ace” Greenberg for exemplifying the S.A.M. mission statement and spirit.

Exposed & Fearless

PNP Vinny Grosso previewed his new show Exposed & Fearless in Saratoga, New York, on March 3, 2014. The show is based on his book project of the same name that he successfully launched through Kickstarter.com.

Exposed & Fearless offers a different slant on a magic performance. The routines are based on friends of Vinny who really do some amazing things – not “tricks” at all. The show also explores common fears and how they can be used to motivate rather than deter from

accomplishing something really great.The New York City premiere on March 21, 2014 at the

Gene Frankel Theatre was sold out through Kickstarter; two additional shows were added on March 22, 2014. To learn more about the book and the show go to www.exposedandfearless.com.

Photo Credit: Mr. D Photography/Krest Winchester


http://www.theoryandartofmagic.com

DISAPPEARING LUGGAGE

This has probably happened to every performer who travels by air. You get off the plane and head down to baggage claim. All the passengers on your flight get their bags except for you. Your bag is lost somewhere in the land of misplaced luggage. Your show is in eight hours and you have no props. What are you going to do now?

There have been two times in my career when I have arrived at my destina-tion and my show equipment did not. The first time this happened to me was when I was working for Norwegian Cruise Lines in Hawaii. I got to the ship and, although my clothes bag had arrived, my show stuff did not. It was one of my first times working for this particular cruise line and I wanted to make a good impression, so I was in a panic. Luckily, my clothes arrived so I didn’t have to worry about that part. I just had to come up with a show – but not just a show, an entertaining and varied forty-five-minute performance that would leave a good impression. On cruise ships, you live or die by the passenger comment cards. So I had to deliver a good show.

The second time it happened was in Italy. Jenny and I went to do a show on Princess Cruise Lines and none of our checked baggage showed up. We waited at the airport for our bags to come in until we could wait no longer and finally had to go to the ship. We were in Livorno, Italy, with no clothes but the ones on our backs, and no props to do a show. The next day we had to search around the small Italian town where we ported to find clothes to wear. This was not an easy task since European sizes are much different than US sizes. We grabbed the essentials. I bought a black jacket, dress shoes, a little black dress for Jenny and the necessary toiletries and make-up to clean ourselves up and get us “stage ready.” I wasn’t as freaked out about the act because this was the second time

this had happened and (having learned from my experience with Norwegian in Hawaii) I had the jump on putting together a guerrilla magic show. I’ll tell you what I did so if you find yourself in this situation on the road, maybe you can use these ideas for yourself.

THE SCAVENGER HUNT

My hunting and foraging began. The first priority was to get my hands on a few decks of cards. If all else failed, I knew I could do forty-five minutes with a deck of cards. If I used varied tricks like Six Card Repeat, Cards Across, Torn and Restored Card, card in mouth, multiple selection, and Ambitious Card, it would at least be a decent show. But this was a big stage with a thousand people; since I’m not Ricky Jay, an “all card show” would probably have played flat. I began to think about what really entertaining routines I had in my repertoire that I could construct “on the fly” with things I found in my surround-ings.

A trip to the medical center got me some flesh-colored medical tape where, when combined with some heavy duty aluminum foil from the ship’s galley, made for a rather crude but effective thumb tip for the Cigarette in Coat Routine. A rubber glove served as a rubber cover for my glass production I do at the end of the routine. I pull a full glass of water out of the sleeve, which makes a nice finish to the Cigarette in Coat.

The onboard liquor store was able to loan me a Crown Royal Bag, the front desk gave me some envelopes, and the ship's galley produced a lemon and a table knife, so I was able to do the Steve Spill version of the Bill in Lemon combined with Seabrooke’s Bank Night. This became the heart of the show, because I knew I could get a lot of time out of the comedy byplay with the spectator. This Bill in Lemon bit eventually evolved into my Final Cut routine.

I also used the envelopes from the front desk and two souvenir decks of playing cards to construct a version of Zen’s Cards Across. This routine became a regular part of my show and a few years later I

marketed it as Super Fly.With a linen table napkin, a twisted wire

coat hanger, and a giant ball of aluminum foil I was able to construct a rather nice Zombie ball. Since I had my music tracks with me, I could do my Zombie routine. A trip to the coffee shop was able to provide me with two glasses that I modified with a pair of scissors borrowed from the front desk. With the soundtrack I had and these cups I was able to perform my Shoe Business routine.

Thanks to Bob Cassidy’s Memorized Deck routine, I was able to play a really big stand-up mentalism memory experi-ment segment with cards. This type of trick with its build and pacing always gets a good reaction and made a nice closer to the show.

PUTTING IT OUT THERE

I figured I might as well tell the truth and get a little automatic sympathy from the audience. I walked out on stage and proceeded to tell them that my stuff had not arrived and that I couldn’t do any magic for them. They laughed and thought I was kidding. I had to work to convince them that this wasn’t a set up. I then pulled out three oranges and said, “Instead of magic, I’ll be doing some juggling.” I proceeded to juggle the three oranges and said, “Let’s just try some magic with things I can borrow from you guys.” I was off and running. I borrowed a jacket, a shoe, and some money; it looked like this was the way the show was supposed to go. They thought it was all part of the act. I couldn’t believe how much reaction I was getting with hardly any props at all. And at the end of the show I received a standing ovation.

I learned a valuable lesson out of these two experiences. Always bring a change of clothes and toiletries in your carry-on baggage, and even though you may not be able to carry all your props for your show on the plane in the main cabin, you should carry some things with you that you can use to bust out a forty-five-minute show if need be. This is why I now carry what I call my “emergency show kit.” Check out next month’s column to find out what’s in it.


With Scott Alexander, Puck, Jenny Alexander, and Adam Ace

Hit The Road

http://www.bobkohlermagic.com

TheSurvivalVersion®A Concept for Your Magic (Part 1)

[This column is an adaptation of my essay about TheSurvivalVersion® that appeared as chapter 16 of Gift Magic: Performances that Leave People with a Souvenir, edited by Lawrence Hass, Theory and Art of Magic Press, 2010, pages 135-141.]

IntroductionI am lazy. I like to binge watch

my favorite TV shows with a nice cup of hot tea and cookies. That’s highly inconvenient, since I also have a strong desire to perform at a high level. And that’s not going to happen without turning the TV off and taking action. I know I’m not the only one who suffers from this type of procrastination. In the early ‘90s, this really started to bother me and I developed a strategy that helped me to overcome my laziness. I called it TheSurvivalVersion. It will help you to dream as if anything is possible, which will get you highly excited. You won’t compromise that vision by dialing it down. Instead, you will retain the essence and become highly inventive in order to execute an essential version of your ultimate vision with whatever is available to you now.

I will first explain the general idea. After that I will go into applying the strategy to magic. Next month, in part two, I will offer you a description and some illustrations of my SurvivalVersion of the Torn and Restored Card plot.

The ConceptMany people don’t dare to dream up

their lives, and so they cannot live their dreams. I’m not talking about huge dreams, like putting a man on Saturn or anything like that. I’m talking about events you wholeheartedly want to happen in your life. We often shut down the process of freely fantasizing about what we would love to see

happen. Even before we allow ourselves to envision what we truly want to happen, we start to worry about what we would need to make it come true. We start to get worked up about a lack of knowledge, skills, or talent. Or we’re afraid that we may not have the funds, time, or energy to achieve our goals. All of these things are only a means to an end. TheSurvivalVersion stimulates you to focus on the end result and act on it instantly without worrying about the ideal conditions. It combines two powerful creative principles:

Urgency is the mother of all invention.Limitation is the mother of all

inventiveness.TheSurvivalVersion forces you to stick

to your essential vision and make it come true using what’s already there. Here are the steps you take:

1) Vision. Imagine having a hundred billion dollars, or living in a world where money is no issue whatsoever. Or imagine walking through a magical garden where every fantasy immediately materializes. Then create what I’ve started to call “a valuable memory of your own future.” This means that you fantasize about a moment in time in the future for which you truly long, for something that you really want to happen. Create a vivid picture in your mind. If you don’t feel an inner urgency, adapt your vision. Delete anything you don’t want to be part of it. Add anything that makes it more interesting and exciting.

2) Essence. In your mind, distill the essential ingredients in this movie or picture. What aspects must be present? What properties cannot be omitted? These essentials can be material in nature such as a specific object, a color, or a shape. But also think of other kinds of properties such as a certain atmosphere, a specific person, an emotion, or anything you feel cannot be left out. Limit it to five or seven items or you will lose focus.

3) Action – TheSurvivalVersion. Create a micro-version of this vision in your actual life. Include all of the ingredients that you discovered in Step 2. Try not to spend money. Try to do it immediately. Look around you and force yourself to use what is already there. Be inventive. Improvise.

Find a way to prototype your own future into your present life.

4) Learn. What worked? What didn’t? Did the action change your vision? Start planning the next action including everything you learned.

Two ExamplesExample 1: Suppose you crave for

a vacation. Start imagining the ideal vacation. Maybe you imagine going to Barbados. You see yourself having great dinners, meeting interesting people, having a couple of days at the beach, reading a good book, keeping your own schedule. Once you have done that, look at these pictures in your mind and ask yourself: What cannot be omitted? What elements do I really need to be there for it to be the ideal vacation? Maybe you feel that having time on your hands is essential, and also reading a good book. Maybe you think that wearing khaki shorts will add substantially to your overall experience. Now create a SurvivalVersion of that vacation. Plan a day and a night off, and if you cannot do that, plan half a day and a night. Put on your shorts, pick up a good book, and turn off your cell phone, computer, and anything else that could possibly interfere with your free space.

This may very well satisfy you. Your vision of spending a whole vacation may have just symbolized your need for some time off. Or maybe it’s just a pre-phase of really spending a couple of weeks in Barbados.

Example 2: Someone told me, “I want to spend more time with my kids.” I said, “Pretend you have a zillion dollars. What would you love to do with them?” After a while he said, “I would like to spend one night in the Sahara with them. I did it once. Spectacular.”

I asked, “What is essential in this image?” He said, “My kids need to be there; the sand and the starry night; our family atmosphere of playfulness. Oh, and a few minutes of deep silence. I remember that being very impressive.”

Now he needed to create a SurvivalVersion keeping these elements in place, so I asked him, “What could


By George Parker

For Your Consideration

you do over the next few days?” He answered, “Well, I suppose I could go to the beach.” I started to limit him, “But what if I wouldn’t allow you to leave your house?” “I could do something around the sandbox.” I pushed him even further, “And what if you had to create this experience in your house?” He paused and then said, “I could pick up some sand at Home Depot, put up the Christmas lights, and create the right atmosphere for the kids.”

I told him, “Don’t think this is too weird. You will have achieved your initial goal in a very memorable way. And you can always decide to take it to the next level. Or use this technique to actually do something fun with your kids regularly.”

DiscussionA SurvivalVersion may seem trivial at

first view. “I’m not going to pretend I’m in the Sahara while I’m in my sandbox. How childish!” Or, “I really need my vacation and I’m not going to take a day off and pretend I’m in Barbados!” You must understand that TheSurvivalVersion allows you to think big and take action without compromising your vision. It helps you to get real with what you truly desire. That usually generates much more energy than sitting around whining about what you can’t do.

Creation and ReactionTo clarify this just a bit more, consider

the difference between a reactive state of mind and a creative state of mind. “Reaction” and “Creation” have the exact same letters. But the slight difference in the order of the letters amounts to an enormous difference in how we live and act.

For example, a reactive sailor will first listen to the weather forecast; then based upon what he hears he will then determine his goals. But a creative sailor will envision his goal first, then listen to the weather forecast because it will provide him with information he needs to determine his strategy.

In a reactive state of mind we look at the world as a collection of unchangeable facts that have to be coped with as they come. But in a creative state of mind we see the world as the ever-transforming result of our individual and collective ideas and actions.

A reactive mind looks at one’s life and perceives facts. A creative mind looks at one’s life and sees possibilities. A

reactive mind generates ideas about the future based on past and current reality. A creative mind generates ideas based on what it wants to be real. And it trusts that those very visions will start a learning process that will make those visions come true. Both types of awareness look at the same world but have a completely different experience of it.

In a reactive state of mind you will always need compromises because you are very attached to current reality. But in a creative state of mind you will keep inventing new realities, including rein-venting yourself, until it coincides with your vision.

TheSurvivalVersion of something, of course, finds its roots in the creative state of mind.

Applying TheSurvivalVersion to Your Magic

I first published TheSurvivalVersion concept in my Big Book of Creativity (published by Archipel, 2004); it is also discussed in The Creation Game (2008), a card game I created to help people shape their lives in the way they want. But I’ve been applying it to my magic from the very beginning. Here is the application:

1) Vision. Visualize the ideal routine or show for you. Imagine what kind of magic you would perform if there were no limits, no technical problems, and no budget limitations. This doesn’t mean to imagine yourself as a real magician; I suppose you could go for that kind of a grand fantasy, but for me, that’s not much of a creative trigger. Instead, I try to think smaller and more specific; for example, I want to mess with the minds of my audience in a playful way. Or I want to create a suspenseful act, or do a hilarious routine and juxtapose it with a creepy one. Or I want to invent a David Lynch kind of storyline. Visualize whatever you like, but keep fantasizing until you are truly excited about it. It can be a routine, a whole show, a single effect, an outfit, a prop, or a method.

2) Essence. Just as a true alchemist, distill the essential ingredients. What is essential in this routine, effect, or show that you have envisioned? This is not an easy question to answer. The nature of the essential ingredients may vary. And there will be a different set of essentials in every project. Also, after having done a SurvivalVersion, your idea of what

is essential will develop. When I came up with my first theater show, The Fifth Element, the effects, props, music, and lighting were not essential. However, the non-linear structure was, as well as the goal that it would be a one-man show. In another project I’m currently developing, the challenge is to use one deck of cards; every effect should have a different premise and use the cards in a different way; and I shall use progressively fewer cards.

Here is a list of some considerations that may help you determine what is essential:

• the way it affects the audience (emotion-ally, mentally, physically)

• a specific prop or quality of a prop (weight, size, shape, etc.)

• the number of people for whom you should be able to perform it

• a method you really want to use• sound and music• a stage picture• a certain category of effects (produc-

tions, vanishes, transformations, etc.). You can use the works of Sam Sharpe or Dariel Fitzkee as guides.

• a specific story you want to tell

3) Action – TheSurvivalVersion. Focus on the essential aspects of your vision and create something you can do/perform within twenty-four hours. For The Fifth Element I did a card routine that followed the non-linear structure I had envisioned. Further, I used a bunch of effects from my existing repertoire, but I disrupted their previous structure. And for the “all card” show, I created a short routine including several different premises with cards. When you are stuck and start to rethink the whole thing, be aware that this is an often-used and well-camouflaged procrastination strategy. It appears you are moving forward but most of the time you are not. Doing is a great way of thinking. Once you have created your first SurvivalVersion you’ll see why.

4) Learn. You will get reactions and new thoughts based on Step 3. Use this feedback and everything you learned to take your act closer to your vision. If everything went well, rehearse your act until it overlaps with your vision. If there were parts that didn’t work out as you hoped, refine or redefine your vision. Or refine/redefine your next action.

Next month I will describe an illustrated SurvivalVersion of the Torn and Restored Card.


A few years back, my wife and I were sitting in a hip, stylish theater in Chicago, waiting for the show to begin. The show was produced by and starred Chicago mentalist Christopher Carter. The stage was filled with a sprinkling of interesting props; posters of various mentalists through the ages were hung behind, like a backdrop to the show. Christopher entered the

performing area and orchestrated a fast-paced, multi-phased mind reading revelation that used various people from the audience. At its conclusion, he held the audience in the palm of his hand.

The show was a whirlwind of impressive feats. Throughout the show he used the posters as a road map as he explained the history of mentalism. His command of the stage and his well placed humorous quips endeared him to the audience. As the show progressed, something went awry. A spectator, an elderly man, seemed unsure of the card he selected. Christopher tried to salvage the man’s memory, but to no avail. Would this piece end in failure?

Christopher smiled and reached inside his jacket and pulled out a stack of envelopes. Assuring the man and the audience that reading minds is not an exact science, he continued to


CHRISTOPHER CARTER Messes with Your Mind

By Christian Painter

work with the befuddled gentleman. Christopher kept the moment light; if he was feeling any pressure it never showed on his face. He joked with the man; unexpectedly, what looked like failure ended with booming applause – a demonstration of a professional at work.

The show concluded with a skillful blindfold act. Christo-pher stood in the middle of the stage; a strong beam of light from above encircled his body. He eyes had been covered with silver dollars, tape, and a blindfold. His fingers crunched up paper and his mind probed the thoughts of the audience. My wife and I could hear the audible gasps from the people around us as he revealed their hidden secrets. At the show we attended the audience gave him a standing ovation. But that was not the end.

Afterwards, Christopher had a question-and-answer session with the audience. More than half of the crowd stayed for the intriguing after-show. Christopher explained to the audience that his interest in all things mind reading came from his youth and watching his uncle playing cards:

“I would stay up late to watch my uncle play poker; to put it bluntly, he stunk! When he tried to bluff he would become extremely nervous and twist his wedding band. When I returned home, I described this to my mother. She, a therapist, explained that what I was seeing was ‘body language’ at work, and she gave me some books on the subject. Here was born my lifelong interest in psychology and human behavior, which later led to an interest in hypnosis, and eventually my interest in mentalism.”

People peppered Christopher with all kinds of questions and he expertly answered each one without committing to any false notions; yet, he kept alive the mystery of what he just ac-complished. It was very enjoyable to watch. At the time, my wife and I did not know Christopher personally, so we simply left without talking with him. However, we fully enjoyed the show.

A couple of years later, while working the college market, we did get to meet and become friends with this dynamic performer, mainly because he is a juggernaut in the college entertainment field. He has won numerous awards in his field and is considered one of the busiest acts in the college market. He logs in over one hundred and fifty shows a year just in the colleges alone. This does not include his corporate, speaking, and theater engagements. However, how this all began might surprise you.

“Like nearly everybody of my generation, my interest in magic was sparked by a TV Magic Set that came as a birthday gift around the age of ten,” he recalled. “I was hooked. My major passion as a teen was sleight of hand. I took the Chavez course via correspondence and also was passionate about close-up card magic. When I was in seventh grade my parents took me to see The Amazing Kreskin. He lived up to his billing, but I didn’t think about mentalism for a long time after that. My primary influence in the field of mentalism was Glenn Falkenstein, whose blindfold act inspired me to develop my own.

“Certain that I wanted to become a professional magician, I took a double major in theater and business in college. Near the end of my senior year, however, I started to have cold feet about going pro, so I applied for a PhD program in Theater History and Criticism, a track that would eventually lead to teaching theater at the university level. I spent the next four years pretending to be a scholar.

“It became clear early on that academia wasn’t the life for

me. I enjoyed being a graduate student, and my grades were good, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I began developing my close-up magic and my stage show. My close-up repertoire was primarily card magic. During this period I developed and published a routine called Cold Fusion, which became the inspiration for Doc Eason’s The Anniversary Waltz. My stage show, however, was a mix of magic, mentalism, and hypnosis.

“In 1990, weeks after finishing my course work for my doctorate, my wife and I packed up and moved to Chicago. I had no intention of finishing my dissertation. My only intent was to go into magic.

“At first I performed close-up in restaurants and did my mentalism show for social events, primarily sweet sixteen parties and bar mitzvahs. This went on for three years, by which point it had become clear to me that I much preferred stage performance to close-up; I made the decision to move into mentalism and hypnosis exclusively.

“At first, succeeding as a mentalist was extremely difficult. I did reasonably well with social events, but was too young to be taken seriously as a corporate performer. So I put my greater emphasis on the hypnosis show, and I kept very busy in the fair and festival market. But my passion was mentalism; in 1994, I made the decision to try to break into the college campus market.”

This career move was about to change his life. Christopher struggled the first year. Going it alone and booking your own shows is difficult work, especially at a young age. During his second year working the college market he was picked up by a small agency. This helped him get more traction in the market. He was also was starting to get noticed by other colleges and


other agencies. In his third year, he caught the eye of a major agency. Under the larger agency he began to move at light speed. He went from doing thirty shows a year to over one hundred and fifty shows a year.

College campuses are a niche market, much like cruises. The people who specialize in them tend to be not very well known to the rest of the magic world. Added to this is the fact that Christopher was simply too busy during those years to participate in any fraternal organizations; as far as magicians were concerned, he had dropped off the radar.

However, he didn’t fall off the radar of the entertainment world. In 1999 and 2000 he made a series of appearances on daytime television shows, including The Martin Short Show and five appearances on the syndicated Donny and Marie Show. He also began to be nominated yearly for awards within the campus market. Over the next several years, he received the Campus Activities Award for Entertainer of the Year, Best Male Artist, Best Performing Artist, and Best Novelty Artist. Some of these he received multiple times. In the campus market, each campus rates the artists who have performed. Christopher has been consistently ranked among the top five novelty acts for eighteen years.

For those unfamiliar with the college market, or for performers who want to break into that market, the impression may be that it is all glamour and spotlights. I asked Christopher to discuss the realities of this career choice. “Many performers who think about getting into the college market imagine it to be a glamorous field, where every night they will be performing in a beautiful theater,” he replied. “That does happen – occasionally. Most of the time, the venue will be a ballroom within the student union. Sometimes the venue will be a cafeteria or a gymnasium. Sometimes the audience will be in front of you, but sometimes you may be nearly surrounded.

“What I have learned from the diversity of performing situ-ations is to be flexible. I have staged my show so that I can do it surrounded if necessary, and one-handed if I need to use a handheld mic with no stand. I have also learned to stage my show so that I can expand to fill almost any available space.

“Flexibility is important for another reason. College shows are mostly booked and planned by a committee of students. Not being professionals, they can easily be overwhelmed when an act has a lot of technical requirements. My approach has been to keep things as simple as possible and to always make sure they understand that I can work with whatever they have.

“As far as making a mentalism show play for a large audience, there isn’t only one secret. Many years ago, a friend told me that the problem with mentalism is that there isn’t anything to look at. Around this same time, Jerry Seinfeld was selling out huge theaters with his standup comedy performances. I recall thinking, ‘I bet Seinfeld’s audiences don’t complain that the problem with standup comedy is that there’s nothing to look at.’ So, while spectacle can be nice, the notion that you require it to play to a large audience is just silly.

“What you need, above all, is clarity. The audience has to be able to understand exactly what is happening, even if they can’t see it. I try to write my script as if I’m writing for radio. My goal is to have every audience member be able to follow the effects, even if their eyes are closed. I want them to be able to see the show in their mind. This means that the effects must be simple and direct, and that the language must be precise. It’s important to be both seen and heard, but if it came down to a choice between the two, it’s more important for me to be heard.”

Because of his vast experience with the college market, I wondered if Christopher had any insights about college students as an audience. “One of the great pleasures of performing for students is that, unlike audiences at corporate events, they are at your show because they want to be there,” he replied. “One of the great challenges, though, is that they have a shorter attention span than older audiences. As a result, my show has become faster-paced than most mentalism shows. I also tend to be lighter and funnier than most mentalists. I’m not a comedian, but I’m far from a mysterious or serious presence onstage.

“College students seem to have a built-in ability to sense pretense. If they think you are trying to be somebody you are not, or trying to act like one of them, they’ll turn on you. Because of this, I never use any stock lines or material, and I make it clear that I understand, like, and respect young people, but I don’t try to be one of them.

“In creating college shows, I find that I can be a lot more theatrical than I can for corporate shows. College students are willing to go on whatever journey I feel like taking them on. Also, the humor can be a lot edgier for a college crowd than for a corporate group.

“On the other hand, college students seem to be almost incapable of appreciating more subtle material. It’s common, for example, for a mentalist to deliberately ‘get close’ rather than dead on when revealing a thought. Supposedly this makes you more believable. I find that it works for corporate groups, but many times college students simply think you got it wrong.

“However, the single biggest challenge in working for college students is creating an authentic performing persona. If your character is at all phony, if it looks to them like you’re


trying to be something you’re not, they’ll rebel. In particular, if you’re an older performer, you can’t act as if you’re trying to be one of the students. You can’t use their slang, or dress in their style of clothes. At the same time, they have to believe that you understand and respect their culture.”

As with any working pro, along with finesse and polish that are acquired there are also stories from the trenches. I asked Chris if he had any particular favorites. “The craziest things that have happened to me onstage revolve around the mind reading segment of my act. People secretly write down personal details about their lives and I figure out what they’re thinking of. This is a classic mentalism effect, but I have a unique spin on it. Anyhow, it always amazes me how personal people are willing to get with their information. I know it’s because they don’t think I’m going to figure it out. One time I accidentally exposed that a guy was cheating on his girlfriend. I didn’t mean to, but it ended up with both women aware of his cheating and the guy running out of the room.

“There have also been some rather touching experiences. I once had a guy use my mindreading act as an opportunity to propose to his girlfriend. He had written down, ‘I’m going to propose.’ Without going into detail about how I knew that (I have my own methods for this), I responded by having him stand up and turn to his girlfriend. I said to her, ‘I can tell you two have a really close relationship. He has something really important he wants to say to you right now.’ Happily, she said yes.”

After two decades of dominating the college market, Christopher is ready to branch out, from performing to speaking. “I developed a lecture program for college campuses called ‘Student Body Language.’ In the wired world that young people inhabit, nonverbal communication skills are becoming increasing difficult to acquire. My program exposes college students to the importance of nonverbal communication and teaches them how to use body language to achieve success in their academic and social lives. My speaking engagements now account for around a fifth of my presentations.”

Christopher Carter is a thinker. I’ve had many fascinating conversations with Christopher over the years, ranging from character development, show structure, billet work, to the best vacation spots, best whiskey or scotch, and the best movies to watch. You can bet that he will always have an angle that you didn’t think about, which is why I wanted him to take over the mentalism column in M-U-M. It took some arm twisting, but I think you will enjoy the many years of his experience and the clarity of his thinking.


Christopher Carter on Stage Mentalism

and the College MarketAll good mentalism is character based, so under-

standing your character is by far the most important thing in creating a stage mentalism show. Since the best characters are simply extensions of the perform-er’s authentic personality, establishing your character means understanding yourself, which is probably the most difficult thing of all to accomplish.

Obviously, anyone planning on performing pro-fessionally should have a good grounding in the classic mentalism texts, which including Annemann’s Practical Mental Effects, Corinda’s Thirteen Steps to Mentalism, Bascom Jones’s Magick, Bruce Bern-stein’s Unreal, and Bob Cassidy’s Art of Mentalism.

Competition in the college market is ferocious, but that’s probably true for every market. What makes the college market unique, in my experience, is that the buyers have seen all your competitors. The members of the student activities committees go to conferences where they watch scores of acts showcase. As a result, they know the key material in almost everybody’s show. To succeed, you have to offer something they haven’t seen before. You can’t go in with stock material and patter and expect to get anywhere.

I have three suggestions. First, study what material your competition is using, and then use anything but those routines. I wish I had done that earlier in my career; things would have progressed much faster. Second, see your primary job as being the personal entertainer for the committee that hires you. If they like you, they’ll have you back. Third, be so easy to work with they wouldn’t think of hiring anybody else.

As far as marketing your show, the best marketing is always word of mouth. Luckily, student activities advisors talk to each other frequently about who they’ve had on campus and who was good; if you consistently get great reviews, the word will spread.

Beyond that, attending conferences is the most effective form of promotion. There are two major as-sociations in the campus market: NACA and APCA. Both of these associations hold a series of conferenc-es during which student activities committees can watch acts showcase; they can also meet the acts in a tradeshow environment.

Having a good agent is also very important. It’s extremely difficult to both tour and do the hard work of selling yourself. I’ve been with one of the top agencies in the business for most of my career.

You should be aware that the conferences have a real meat-market atmosphere. Word of mouth and my agents’ marketing efforts have meant that I don’t have to go to the conferences very often. I’ve been very lucky in that regard.

GeoPsychoI first published this in the Linking Ring

in 1993, although I had been doing it for quite a few years before that. The effect is a design duplication in which nothing is ever drawn. Instead, the design is merely thought of. At its core is an elaborate psychological force that occurs over two stages, resulting in a drawing so detailed that the psychological methods behind its force are well hidden.

One virtue of this force is that it is, for all intents, foolproof. It has never failed me in performance, and I have used it thousands of times. Consequently, it can be effective both in real-time or as a pre-show tool. I’ll describe its use in real-time.

I take a small stack of business cards (roughly twenty-five) and draw geometric shapes on them. I use as many different shapes as I can think of, including paral-lelograms, hexagons, rectangles, conic sections, parabolas, and some I don’t even know the names of. Most important, I draw a square on one card and an equilat-eral triangle (with sides of the same length as the sides of the square) on another. I then stack the cards with the square on top, the triangle beneath, and all the rest below that. I should also mention that I draw all the cards by hand, very roughly. I don’t like them to look pre-printed.

Pulling out the stack, I approach part of the audience and demonstrate that I’ve drawn every geometric shape I could think of on the back of my business cards. Spreading the cards, I ask an audience member to touch one. I break the stack at that location and allow her to peek at, and concentrate on, the image she selected. In reality, I have forced the image of the square via an “under the spread” force. For those not familiar with card sleights, it goes like this: As I spread the cards from my left hand to my right, I start by dealing off the top card (the square). The next card goes on top of it, but separated a little bit. All the remaining cards are spread beneath this second card, in such a way that the square remains beneath the spread. When a card in the spread is touched, it is a simple matter to break the stack at that point, and square all the cards in the right hand, allowing the square to remain under-neath the entire stock. Then I lift the cards in the right hand face on to the audience, showing the square. If this doesn’t make sense, just ask somebody who does card tricks to show you the force. It’s really

simple! Having asked her to concentrate on the image she has touched, I repeat the procedure, this time forcing the triangle.

An important point is that I don’t just show the images to the one person who touches the business cards; I actually show them to the portion of the audience in the general vicinity of my helper. Having done so, I say to the group, “You’re con-centrating on some random shapes. Can any of you put them together so they make a picture of something? Something rec-ognizable!” Inevitably the first person to nod will have created a picture of a house. Usually it isn’t necessary to even say “something recognizable.” Just look for the first person to respond without hesita-tion. That’s the house!

I have the person who has responded stand up, and I ask her to look at me and imagine that there is a huge piece of paper suspended in midair between the two of us. She is to mentally draw her picture, just as if she were a five year old making a drawing for her mommy’s refrigerator. But, I tell her, add detail! Flesh it out. Add whatever detail is necessary to make it a whole scene in her imagination. Picking up a dry-erase board, I watch her eyes and begin to draw, describing at the same time what I am drawing. First, I draw a horizon-tal line across the bottom (this will eventu-ally be the ground). Then I draw the peak of the roof. Next, I draw a path leading up the house, and then windows and a door. (With these, I say, “What are these, eyes? No, I know what they are.”) Then I say, “I see a sort of fluid shape off to the side. What’s this? A tree?” and “What’s this on top? Wispy. Is that smoke?”

As I said, I am describing elements of the drawing as I make it, and as I look into the helper’s eyes, but I don’t show the drawing to the audience yet. While all this is happening, I am getting constant confir-mation from the helper. Finally, I ask her to describe to the audience the drawing she’s made in her mind, using as much detail as possible. Usually she will say, “I drew a house, with two windows, a door, a walkway up to the front, and a chimney on top.” She will almost always forget to mention the tree. At this point I will say, “But you really were thinking of more than that, weren’t you? Off to the side, didn’t you picture a tree?” She will say yes, at which point I turn the drawing around, showing that it matches her description perfectly.

A final note is that, when I have her stand up and picture her drawing, I will often state, “If I asked you to draw

something, just off the top of your head, you might come up with something like a smiley face or a stick figure. But you’ve created an image based on random associ-ation, so there’s nothing psychological or predictable about it.” And then I silently laugh my ass off!

That’s the nuts and bolts of it, next come the variations.

Variation 1: In one-on-one situations, I will often hand a spectator a small pad, have her hold it toward herself, and ask her to draw a simple geometric shape. If by pencil reading I see she has drawn a square, I ask her to make another. This time if I see she has drawn a triangle, I will continue with the GeoPsycho force. Otherwise, I’ll just reveal her shapes.

Variation 2: I draw the shapes with marker on an 8½ by 11 piece of paper, and then I fold each sheet into fourths. I place the square and the triangle in one side of a clear plastic change bag, and all the rest of the geometric shapes (drawn on similar-sized paper) in the other side. I bring two people onstage, explaining that each of the sheets has a different geometric shape drawn on it, and the audience will decide, via process of elimination, which they get. Going through the audience, I ask people to remove sheets, ensuring that they all take from the side of the bag that doesn’t have the square or triangle. Going back up on stage, I have my two helpers each take one for him/herself, which of course will mean that they end up with the square and the triangle. I tell the audience to open their sheets and show them around, explain-ing that they have a random assortment of shapes. Turning my back, I ask the onstage helpers to show theirs to the audience, asking the audience to make a picture by combining the two shapes. From here I continue to do the GeoPsycho force, and I end by revealing my “divination” of the picture the entire audience is thinking of.

Variation 3: From a stack, I hand a blank business card to an onstage helper, asking her to make a drawing. The remaining cards are set for GeoPsycho, so I go into the audience and do the force on another helper. Returning to the stage (with the stack in hand) I take out my Sight Unseen Case and I return the helper’s card (with the drawing face down, of course) into the case. In reality, I am holding the case on top of the GeoPsycho stack and I secretly steal the helper’s card back out onto the top of the GeoPsycho stack. I place a rubber band around the case and ask her to hold it up to the light to verify that it is quite impos-


F r o m t h e C a r t e r r e p e r t o i r e

sible to see through the case. While she is doing this, my left hand (which is upstage at this point and is holding the cards) drops to my side; I secretly flip the top card face up. As I go to my breast pocket to get some markers I peek at this card. I leave the cards in the pocket and bring out the markers. Handing her a drawing pad and a marker, we stand back to back and do a standard drawing dupe. I then turn to the person in the audience who is thinking of the house and duplicate her “thought-of” drawing as well.

Sometimes (more often than you might expect) the two people will come up with the same drawings. This is a gift, because it can be built up to incredible effect.

Three MonkeysEffect: Three audience members are

recruited and seated in chairs. They are asked to close their eyes. The mentalist taps each man on the head and gives each a number. To each number he delivers a different instruction.

To number one he says, “When I say go, you are to cover your eyes with your hands.” To number two he says, “When I say go, you are to cover your mouth with your hands.” And to number three, he says “When I say go you are to cover your ears with your hands.” As he says these things, the mentalist places signs on easels behind each of the volunteers. The first reads, ap-propriately, “See No Evil.” The second, of course, reads, “Speak No Evil,” and the third reads, “Hear No Evil.”

After the instructions are given, the mentalist addresses the audience, explain-ing that each person now has in his head a mental image of a particular action. His goal, the mentalist declares, is to transfer that mental image from one mind to another. The mentalist next mixes up the signs on the easels behind the volunteers. Each sign ends up in a fresh location, and more important, since the volunteers’ eyes are closed, there is no way they could know the new locations of the signs. Incred-ibly, when the mentalist says, “Go,” each volunteer performs the action appropriate for the new sign behind him.

Underlying Method: When the volun-teers are given numbers, the audience is led to believe that each is given a different number than he really has.

This effect was inspired by Luke Jermay’s Touching on Hoy. In that effect, three volunteers are seated and asked to close their eyes. During this process

the mentalist secretly touches two of the volunteers on the shoulder. Once their eyes are closed, the mentalist moves to volunteer number one and quite visibly taps him on the shoulder, saying “The person I touched, you are number one.” The language he uses is ambiguous, causing not only the person who is being openly tapped to believe he has been des-ignated number one, but also the other two volunteers, who were secretly tapped, to believe the same thing.

Luke’s effect is quite lovely, and (more important for my purposes) it suggested the possibility of mislabeling each volunteer so that each one believed he had been assigned a number different from what the audience believes he was assigned.

Working: The three chairs should be placed no more than about six inches apart. As the volunteers are seated, the mentalist stands before them holding up his hand. “Focus your eyes on the tip of my finger,” he says. “Take in a deep, gentle breath of air. Hold it. And as my finger drops, close your eyes.”

Stepping behind the chairs, the mentalist stands behind the volunteer in position three. (Assuming that the stage-right chair is position one, the middle chair is position two, and the stage-left chair is position three.) The mentalist stands in profile, facing to stage right. His left hand hangs casually by his side, while he gestures with his right. His left hand is also, conveniently, directly behind the back of the man in chair three.

The mentalist speaks, “From now on, pay attention to what you feel, because I will be giving you very specific instruc-tions.” As he says this, he simply extends his left middle finger and pokes the man in chair three in the back.

This poking action is done very quickly, and no sooner is it completed, than the mentalist moves over to a spot behind position number one and seems to tap that person on the head. He declares, “For example, the person I touched, you will be person number one. Remember that. Now here’s your mission. When I say ‘go’ I want you to place both hands directly over your eyes. Wait for me to say go, but for now, spend a little time visualizing yourself carrying out this action.” In reality the tap on spectator one is a bluff. Extending his index and middle fingers, the mentalist brings his hand down behind the head of this volunteer, but stops his fingers about two inches away from actual contact. He then immediately lifts his hand. The

illusion is convincing, and it appears to the audience that that person has been desig-nated “number one.”

The mentalist immediately turns toward the person in position two. This brings the mentalist’s right hand, now hanging by his side, directly behind the man in position number one. With his left hand, he bluff-taps the man in position two, but this time he also uses his right hand to secretly touch the man in position one. The wording this second time is a bit different from the first. He says, “The person I am touching now, you will be number two. Remember that. And this is your job: When I say ‘go’ you are to place both hands over your ears. For now, picture yourself doing this. See it vividly in your mind.”

From here the mentalist moves in the direction of position three and repeats the identical bluff-tap procedure, but this time secretly tapping the man in position two. The mentalist states, “The person I am touching now, you are number three. When I say ‘go,’ I want you to place both hands over your mouth. Right now visualize this. See yourself with both hands over your mouth.”

In the eyes of the audience, each volunteer has been given a number appropriate to the chair he is seated in, and also an instruction appropriate to the sign behind him. In reality the volunteers have been labeled 2, 3, and 1, from the audience’s point of view. The effect will be brought to a conclusion by moving the signage to the correct location.

Pointing to the signs, the mentalist says, “Each person now has a specific action to perform. At this moment that action exists only as a mental image. What if I could wipe that image from one person’s mind, and transfer it to another. Let’s take this one, and try to move it over here.” Here the mentalist moves the “See No Evil” sign to the easel at position three, and trades it for the “Speak No Evil” sign. Holding that sign, he says, “Now let’s take this one, and move it here.” Suiting action to words, he places that sign in position two, and picks up the “Hear No Evil” sign. Continuing, he says, “And let’s erase this memory and try to move it here,” as he places that sign in position one.

The mentalist says, “Go!” The spectators perform the gestures they have been told to perform, but these gestures now match the position of the mixed-up signs, thus bringing the effect to a successful conclusion.

© 2014 Christopher Carter


The Nielsen Gallery


Dimensions: Half-sheet - 23” x 33.25” • Lithographer: Kinc Lito, BudapestArtist: János Sebes • Date: 1936 • Nielsen Rating: Rare

Rodolfo - Skull and Eyes

Magicians everywhere have at some time faced uncertainty and fear when stepping through the curtain to perform magic. How much harder must it have been for Rodolfo, the subject of this month’s column? His was the Iron Curtain.

Rodolfo was the stage name taken by Rezso Gacs, who was born in Budapest, Hungary (home of Houdini), on May 16, 1911. According to brief biographies of him, he was born the son of a typesetter. There is no account of which magic trick lit the spark that ignited a lifetime career in magic, but it happened when he was thirteen and was reportedly performed by a Chinese bead vendor.

Rodolfo mastered that elementary trick and while performing it for his boyhood friends, he was observed by the Hungarian actor Arpad Odry, who also happened to be the president of the Hungarian Magicians Association. He took the young boy on as a pupil and trained him in the art of magic.

His magic career began in 1930 when he appeared at the Municipal Grand Circus in Budapest; reports of his talent spread. His performing proceeded without interruption until he was drafted for military service in 1940. Soviet Union forces drove the Nazis out of Hungary at the end of the war and occupied Eastern Europe. In 1956, a spontaneous, month-long nationwide revolt against the People’s Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies broke out. After many clashes and deaths and the promised withdrawal of Soviet troops, the Politburo changed its mind and crushed the revolution. Hundreds were killed and many fled the country, but not Rodolfo, who continued to perform both within his country and across Europe. During World War II he performed for injured soldiers in army hospitals. After the war he worked as a teacher and professor in a school for the performing arts.

Behind the so-called “Iron Curtain,” performers were not allowed to individually book themselves. They had to do so through a government representative, who also gave them their dates and pay. Thus any act, whether in a circus or theater, was booked through, and payment made to, a communist government agency. The agency then parceled out to the acts an amount of money they felt was necessary for the performer’s needs. Such was the world in which Rodolfo operated.

Rodolfo never appeared in the United States, but if he had, the Hungarian government would have taxed him ten percent of his earnings. He did entertain audiences in

London, Lausanne, Paris, and Berlin. In 1957 he appeared in the Boxing Day Party on England’s BBC. Assisting him backstage was his most famous pupil and fellow Hungarian, George Kovari, who trained under Rodolfo. His opening effect was the Ribbon Fountain, in which hundreds of feet of colored ribbon cascade down on to the stage from a previously empty container.

According to Kovari, Rodolfo was a hard taskmaster when it came to learning magic. He insisted that Kovari copy his moves exactly saying, “If there was a better way of doing it, he, Rodolfo, would have found it himself!”

Dr. John Henry Grossman, magic historian and long-time columnist for M-U-M, visited with Rodolfo in Hungary during a trip through Europe. He and his wife were feted at the Budapest Association of Hungary Magicians at the Actors Club. Later Rodolfo took the Grossmans to the Jewish Hall of Records, where one of the crumbling books contained the handwritten record of the birth of Erich Weiss in 1874. This was at a time when historians were still trying to disprove Houdini’s claim of being born in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Rodolfo performed mentalism, stage magic, and pickpocketing; he would go through the audience shaking hands and greeting people and then proceed back on stage with the watches, wallets, and jewelry of audience members.

Due to his extensive language abilities he was able to present his program in eight different languages, and so was very popular with audiences throughout Europe. He wrote several books on magic, produced and sold several magic sets for children, including ones featuring trick cards bearing his photo, appeared on various television programs, and in 1962 was elected president of the Hungarian union for performers/artistes. His obituary noted that in a country where magic is considered a second grade art, he achieved every award ever given to any entertainer.

Even at the age of seventy Rodolfo still practiced four hours each day in front of a six-foot mirror, making sure his moves were flawless and invisible. He simply never stopped practicing. His creed was, “The artist who is satisfied with himself is not an artist anymore. He is dead.” Rodolfo died January 26, 1987, at seventy-five years of age.

—Tom Ewing

WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Mentalists constantly ask people if they want to change their minds. This is annoying, because changing one’s mind usually has nothing to do with either the premise or the outcome of the effect. But if the premise is “mind control,” if you’re trying to demonstrate your ability to guide or influence a participant’s decisions, how much more effective would it be if you could predict not only the final decision, but the one the person originally made?

To promote my college performances, I will do “teasers” in the dining hall; I go table to table performing close-up mentalism. Some students will inevitably end up latching onto me, following me around, in the hopes of seeing the same effects over and over. Here is a fun wrinkle specifically designed to mess with these hangers-on.

Most magicians will know the Ultra Mental Deck as The Invisible Deck. It’s such a standard effect that I’m almost ashamed that I use it. But if you take away the schlocky jokes, the effect is a powerful piece of mentalism. I want to stress that I do not use Don Alan’s presentation. Instead, I present the effect as subliminal persuasion.

I tell the students that when I left the previous table I turned a card face down in the pack. My goal is to influence them to come up with that card. I have one person decide whether the card will be red or black; another then decides the suit. I tell the last person that he will decide on and name the value. However, he has the opportunity to change his mind. In other words, if he chooses not to stick with his card, he may change it to another of the same suit.

He changes his mind and tells me the new card. I reiterate his choices and say to him, “Do you think you made these

choices because you wanted to, or because I wanted you to?”

Regardless of his answer, I spread through the deck and show that one card is face down. Up until now, things have progressed according to the standard presentation, but here the effect takes a new turn.

Addressing the followers, who may have seen me perform the standard version of the effect at other tables, I say, “You won’t be surprised if I have successfully influenced his choice, but let me show you how much control I have over him. Notice that the face-up card right next to the face-down card was his first choice.” Pointing to that card, it was, indeed, his first choice.

“But he didn’t stick with that. Instead he changed his mind.” When flipped over, the face-down card is seen to be his second, final choice. Apparently, I have influenced both his choices and the fact that he would change his mind.

The effect is strong for the people who see it for the first time, but it’s devastating for those who’ve seen it repeatedly. They go back to their original tables and spread the word about what they’ve just witnessed.

I have a confession to make. As impressive as that scenario is, it rarely works out that way. What I’ve described is a “best case” scenario. I’m describing it to make a point: some of the best mentalism capitalizes on events that happen only by chance. One of the most important skills a mentalist can have is the ability to not only turn chance into magic, but also to tip the odds so that otherwise chance events happen more frequently.

You won’t get the above scenario all of the time, or even most of the time, but you will get it far more often than you expect. When you do, you can make a real reputation.

First you’ll have to change the standard setup of the Ultra Mental Deck. Normally, the cards in the Ultra Mental Deck are paired so that they total thirteen. In the new setup, pairs will still total thirteen, but they will be matched with the same suit. Hearts will go with Hearts, Spades with Spades,

Clubs with Clubs, and Diamonds with Diamonds. This is easier to remember, and it allows for an occasional miracle.

When I tell the spectator that he will be able to change his mind, I actually limit the options to any card of the same suit. If, for example, he chooses the Four of Hearts, I say, “You can keep the Four of Hearts if you want. But if you want, you can change it to any of the other Hearts.”

The next problem is coaxing the person to change his mind. My work on this was inspired by watching a DVD of Chan Canasta. There are a few strategies I use to get a person to switch, but the most important ploy is to imply that I could easily have anticipated or forced his choice. If I do that with a male, he will frequently change his mind.

Also, if there are two males at a table and it looks like there will be some rivalry between them, I’ll say to one, “You will choose the value of our target,” and then to the other, “Once he does, you get to change his mind. In other words, if you don’t like the card he comes up with, we’ll forget it; you can change it to one you like better.” This strategy will result in a change of mind quite frequently.

If he changes his mind to a card that will hit my target of thirteen (that is, the value of the first choice plus the value of the second choice add to thirteen), I simply say, “Are you satisfied? Then that’s your final choice?” If I do that, he will almost always stand pat.

Here’s the weird part that I can’t explain. On those occasions when a person changes his mind, he will change it to a reciprocal card (that is, one completing the total of thirteen) an astonishing number of times. I find that slightly less than half of the times in which a person switches, he will do so to total thirteen. There is undoubtedly some psychological explanation for this, though I don’t know what it is. The only thing that matters is that when it happens, it’s miracle time! When it doesn’t, well, the Ultra Mental Deck is still a damn good trick.


By Christopher Carter

Messing With Your Mind

http://www.hermeticpress.com

Not Just Kid StuffBy Jim Kleefeld

KEEP CLEAR STORYLINES

Would you sit down to dinner and eat a bowl of parsley? No? How about a bowl of salt? Or a plate of curry? I’ve seen some magic shows that put me in mind of that scenario, and it’s all about Bits of Business.

As a magician, your first step was to learn a few tricks. Then you bought some props and read the instructions. Eventu-ally you learned hundreds or thousands of tricks. At some point, particularly if you read, watched, and studied, you heard the veterans tell you that it’s not the magic that counts, it’s the entertainment. And then you heard lots of show magicians go on about how much laughter and response they get out of those precious and all-important “Bits of Business.” Did you add BoB to your act? Probably so. Those veteran performers were right. Their Bits of Business gave their show character and style and added many laugh points. A good performer who gets them rolling in the aisles with Bits of Business is a joy to watch.

But many performers just keep adding those BoB until there is no time left for magic and nothing left to add to. They show their audience an all-blank Coloring Book. Then they bring up a helper and do three handshake gags, a trapdoor joke, twice miscall his name, ask if he is married, hand him some Vanishing Crayons, then a Break-away Wand, then some Nesting Wands, then the Break-away Fan…whew! By the time they get back to the Coloring Book, nobody remembers if it was blank or colored to begin with. These are the guys who will proudly tell you they get fifteen minutes out of a Coloring Book. Yes, they do, but it is an act with way too much business and not much magic. Their show is made up of all added spice but no main dish. It’s a dinner of parsley.

So despite the plethora of magic magazine articles extolling the virtues of those valuable Bits of Business, and despite all of the well-intentioned pleas that

entertainment is tantamount, many good routines get waylaid by extras added in the name of “it gets a good response.” Maybe it is time to analyze exactly what stays in your show and what would be better left out. While a great many standard Bits of Business are funny, often they derail the effect train. The sidetracks that you pursue shift people away from your destination. Preventing the inevitable wreck often comes down to one simple plan: Keep Clear Storylines.

For each effect, try to establish a direct line through the beginning, middle, and end of the effect’s plot. This does not mean that you quit using Bits of Business to enhance your routines. It does not mean that you must sacrifice funny extras in order to present nothing but straightfor-ward magic, nor that you have to throw away all of your BoB and work with nothing but the primary props of a given trick. In order to keep your storylines clear, you simply need to decide whether any given Bit of Business will enhance or detract from the main sequence. In that mode, you must examine not just the classic gags you have used to embellish the routine, but the trick itself.

Start by examining the core effect. Think about a good routine you do in your basic show. Can you describe it in one sentence? “A red silk vanishes and reappears tied between two blue silks.” “Four solid steel rings link and unlink with each other apparently at will.” “A nested cylinder and box are both shown empty, and many silks are produced from within.” “A book is shown to have all blank pages, then all picture pages, and then all colored pages.” Each of these is a plot for an effect. Their plots are simple and direct. After watching each effect, an audience member can easily describe what happened and why it was magical. This should be true for every effect in your show.

When you keep your storylines clear for each trick in your show, you make the effect linear, thus easier to follow, thus more magical. You can add Bits of Business to the routine, but only if it enhances the effect and does not detract from the audience’s ability to follow the event. This premise is particularly true for children’s shows because of the nature

of childish thinking. As I mentioned last month, children do not think in the same way adults do. First, their brains are not fully formed and developed, so there are less neural connections. Second, their ex-periences are limited, so they do not have the necessary background to see things in a universal light.

Children slowly develop a sense of time and sequence through natural events and predictable care-giving. Typically, following a family schedule, they wake up in the morning, have three sequential meals, and sleep at night. Added regular events become habitual and a part of their sense of passing time. In the morning they get dressed. Lunch is mid-day. Afternoon means playing outdoors. A snack comes at 3:00, and a story is read at bedtime. By age four, they have begun to recognize chunks of time and account for its passing or future with increasing language skills. “This afternoon we will play outdoors after snack time.” “Tomorrow we go to see grandma.” “Last summer we went to the zoo.” They begin to understand time through sequences of events.

Another common way that children learn about the sequence of events is through stories. In most schools and many homes, adults read books to children. Kids become familiar with stories and the sequence of beginning, middle, and end. A logical sequence is comfortable and expected. You bring your magic show into this natural and universal world of linear time and, in most cases, you bring along the same familiar and comfortable sequence. As a children’s magician, you are a story-teller. Showing the red and blue silks is the beginning of your story. Vanishing the red silk is the middle of the story. Reproduc-ing it marks the end. Because most magic is visual and shows change, it fits in with the realm of stories. When you disrupt the storyline or plot with too many extras, you have lost the connection between the beginning and the end.

Some time ago I watched a friend’s magic show on video. He had recorded a performance specifically to send me for evaluation and coaching. In one routine, he displayed red, white, and blue silks and a change bag. He offered to change the silks into a flag and then brought up a helper.


Setting the props aside, he shook hands with the helper and repeatedly bent the boy’s elbow as if the handshaking was to continue. Then he asked the boy’s name. He turned to the audience and announced that the boy would be doing magic, but he announced the boy’s name incorrectly. The audience corrected him. He returned to the boy and asked him to repeat his name. He repeated his announcement about doing the trick, but said the wrong name again. Then he moved the boy to the other side of the stage and asked him to hold a silk, but he dropped it on the floor before the boy could grasp it. He repeated that. Then he placed the silk on top of the boy’s head. I would use up all of my allotted column space if I continued to describe the rest of the antics, but you get the idea. Colors were mis-called, silks went in and out of the bag several times, and flags came out in mixed-up colors. Lots of funny business occurred, but very little magic. Ironi-cally, the Mis-Made Flag is a routine with built-in magical tangents that actually work, so the added bits were unnecessary. Magically changing three scarves to a mis-colored flag is a funny extra bit, but it is in keeping with the original premise of trying to make the silks into a genuine flag.

The point of this story is that when that magician asked for my critique of his show, he mentioned that I probably would not have any notes on his Mis-Made Flag routine because he knew it was solid. He has been using it for years and he gets “lots of reaction.” I did hear reactions, but they did not sound positive to me. What I heard was a lot of simple screaming, plus some kids yelling that he had screwed up, one voice stating that he was stupid, and even a loud “get on with it.” The reaction was indeed loud and vociferous. But noise is not appreciation. Although they might not have been able to verbalize it, a portion of the audience lost track of what was happening. The routine would have been much better if he had been able to keep his storyline clear.

I’ve written in a previous column about engaging children, and how important it is to allow them to interact. If you go back and reread that piece, you will see that despite its many interactions, the routine with six cloth bags follows a straightfor-ward story line. Engaging children by sidetracking with Bits of Business that do not assist the plot will not help you or your routines. Consider the endgame for each of your routines individually. What is the denouement of the piece? It should be a

singular magical event. Your audience can laugh, wonder, and be amazed, but only if they get the point of your presentation. Without a focus to your effect, all you get is noise.

It is not difficult to keep clear storylines, but you must use some discipline. First, review the entire effect as it is designed. Some tricks, while baffling to magicians, are simply too complex for the audience to appreciate. Some are poorly designed with a meandering plot. Take the classic Dove Pan baking trick. You put several ingredients into a pan, light it, cap it with a lid, and presto! A cake appears. The in-gredients should be logical and show a linear process that leads to the production. Now, what happens if you add some more ingredients, then stir them with a magic wand that breaks apart? It may be funny in the moment, but the incongruity breaks the plot. If this is a quick bit and you im-mediately add more ingredients, you have brought the plot back on track. But if you continue to stop and start the process by producing a baker’s hat, showing a bag that changes into an apron, and vanishing your can of “vanilla,” very soon, there is no plot left to follow. Your audience will have lost track of the plot. You can produce a cake at the end, but the impact becomes muddled, perhaps even lost.

So decide whether each action in your routine is necessary or distracting. If, in your Run, Rabbit Run routine, you decided it would be fun to have the little guy vanish a foam carrot while going between houses, rethink that. If you present a Multiplying Bananas segment right in the middle of your Farmyard Frolics presentation, try another way. Yes, you can keep many of your beloved BoB, and still use them to engage children. But move them to the front or between effects. Cut a few if you have many.

Here are some examples of standard BoB. Rather than place these bits into the middle of trick plots, separate each one out as a mini-bit in its own right. These pre-sentational suggestions will show how to arrange them in order to keep clear story-lines.

Breakaway Wand or Multiplying Wands (Figure 1): Ask a helper to come forward. Tell her you will need her to help you with some magic, and ask if she has ever used a real magic wand before. Whatever she says, bring out the wand, display it proudly, and announce that it is an expensive and valuable tool you reserve for special volunteers. As you start to hand

it to the helper, let it break. Repeat that once. Then put it away and retrieve the trick’s props.

Golden Fun Shears (Figure 2): Hand your helper child some regular scissors. Have him cut the rope where you need it. Restore the rope and get him a round of applause. Before he leaves, mention that he must be good with scissors, so maybe he can help you with a pair that has been causing you trouble. Bring out the Golden Fun Shears and have them stick closed, stick open, and fall apart. Get the boy to agree that these scissors do cause trouble. Vanish them magically.

Handshake Gags (Figure 3): Ask if the audience wants to see one of their own perform some magic. Choose someone to come forward. Make a polite introduction and do your handshake gag. Do it three times and then drop it. Introduce your


Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

next effect, display the necessary props, and let the child help make the magic happen. Either do a different handshake gag with every helper, or don’t do another handshake gag in the show. Pick a good one and let it stand on its own; more than one iteration of the same gag wastes time and loses the attention of the audience.

Feather Duster (Figure 4): Bring out a closed Die Box or Square Circle. Blow some dust off of it. Produce a feather duster and dust the prop. Ask a child up to help you get the trick ready. Dust the child’s arms, head, underarms, and knees.

Send him back to his seat with the duster inadvertently stuck to his back. Bring him back up, dust the prop one more time, and then vanish the duster. Find it on your own back and vanish it again. Now you can

introduce the prop and proceed with the trick.

Puppet (Figure 5): Use your puppet as a variety act break. Finish and close out one magic routine. Introduce the puppet as a friend or companion. Give a few solid minutes of great comedy dialogue. Have him participate in a self-contained trick or routine, such as the Stiff Rope. Close the effect and put away the puppet’s magic

prop. Return the puppet to his “quarters” and introduce a new effect.

There are lots of great Bits of Business in kid show magic: verbal, non-verbal, situ-ational, common props, outrageous props, children’s name gags, and more. Please don’t take my inclusion of these specific effects and BoB as the best or only ones to use. In fact, some are becoming outdated or overused, and you may not want to put any of them in your show. But consider these as well-known examples and apply the sug-gestions above to your own BoB. Rethink what types of entertainment extras you use and where you put them in your show. Remember that each trick is like a story and that you need to keep a clear line from beginning to middle to end.

Like parsley, salt, and curry, Bits of Business are added ingredients. They are the seasonings that make an entree of magic more interesting, desirable, and tasty. Too little makes for bland fare. Too much prevents anyone from enjoying the dish. But you can season your show properly if you work to Keep Clear Story-lines.


Figure 4 Figure 5

Not Just Kid Stuff

http://enjoythemystery.com


Make Me Float!

If you ever saw the shows of S.A.M. Ambassadors David Copperfield or Lance Burton in Las Vegas, you may have had a picture taken of yourself being levitated by the master magicians. Of course it was just an optical illusion souvenir photo. The illusion was accom-plished by use of a sideways cutout of the performer and turning the photo sideways after it was taken. If you want to see the workings, go to:

ht t p://www.deceptology.com/2012/10/fake-floating-magic-by-david-copperfield.html

It’s a great way to get people to spread the word about your show and to remember your name. You know that if they take the photo, they will spread it on social media. If you do a lot of public shows, it may be worth investing in this cool gimmick.

I found a company that makes great personal cutouts in any size; their pricing is not out of line for most magicians. For around $100 you can have a clone of yourself. The company, www.partystandups.com, will take the photo that you send and create a cut-out standup from it. They have lots of options, such as cardboard or plastic, matte finish, and variable produc-tion time. It usually takes about a week to get it.

While you are there, look around at their other unique products, such as eight-foot wall fabric graphics or custom standups.

Deceptive Fun

While you are looking at the David Copperfield floating, have a look around deceptology.com and put in the search term “magic.” They have lots of interesting articles that are magic related.

Okay, Make My Pencil Float!

If you’ve ever seen the Levitating Pencil toy but didn’t want to spend the money on it, an amazing scientist from India, Arvind Gupta, has figured out a way to make one in minutes

with recycled products and some ring magnets. It’s a nice thing to keep in your magic room or office. An old flip-flop sandal, a broken CD, a pencil, and some ceramic ring magnets help the pencil float. The complete instructions are here: www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys/levitation.html.

A creative magician can turn the pencil into a lady and the floor magnets into a couch to have a traditional magic levita-tion. This is a fun project, not just for you, but also for your kids. If you decide to try this, I’d love to see some photos of your efforts.

The Matrix Force

The first time I saw a forcing matrix was in an old Walter Gibson book. I know that you’ve seen these before. You show a 5 x 5 square of numbers. Circle a number and then cross off the numbers in the same row and column. Circle another number and continue until there are no numbers to pick. Add together all the circled numbers and that

will be your forced number. The matrix in the photo forces the number 57.

The website deceptionary.com has a beautifully simple method to create your own forcing matrix. Follow their simple instructions and you will be able to do this in a matter of minutes. I laugh at how easy it is to make. Tons of uses for this including book tests, predictions, and object choices. The link to creating your own forcing matrixes is: www.deceptionary.com/aboutmatrices.html

Time to Fool the Magician

I know how this works. I think I do. Well, maybe. Here’s a trick that will fool many of you. You’ve seen David Blaine riffle through the cards asking a spectator to remember one. Then he tells the spectator the card. He does it really well. He’s the best at this effect that I’ve ever seen. This app does it better! The app flips through a virtual

deck as you remember a card. Then it tells you the card. Mind Reader is fun to play with. When was the last time you were fooled? There are many apps called Mind Reader so be sure to download the one with the logo shown. Thanks to Facebook friend Marvin Silbermintz for turning me on to this. I can’t stop playing with it. Mind Reader is available on the iTunes App Store for free.

Bruce is always on the lookout for computer magic, iPhone/ iPod Touch apps, and tech toys that can be used in magic applications. If you have any suggestions for future columns, write to Bruce at [email protected].

David floats Erica Larsen

CONNECTING

In a perfect world, every new magician would be mentored by an experienced entertainer until that youngster had a general but healthy knowledge of the various branches stretching out from the tree of magic. In a more perfect world, the enthusiasts would be assigned a qualified veteran who would advise on the nuances of effective performing. In the most perfect world, a cranky old taskmaster would lock the novice in a room with some props, paper, pencil – and perhaps a sandwich – and refuse freedom until it was learned that a conjurer only becomes worthy of the stage through the hard work of study, practice, scripting, rehearsal, and finally, performance itself. Until those dues are paid, that little upstart is just faking it.

Yes, I am joking – a little. Still, there’s a huge ring of truth in the idea.

There isn’t a dancer, singer, actor, or musician worth his or her salt who steps on stage without devoting hours and hours to that same hard work. If they did not, then the lack of preparation would be obvious. Magicians, however, seem to believe they are the exception to this rule. Our stores and dealer’s rooms are packed with effects boasting of simplicity and how owning the prop will make you a star. Are we so foolish to believe there is such a thing as talent in a box? Acceptance from an audience does not come because a magician knows a secret or three. It comes because a magician has put in the time and work required to present that secret in a way that connects with the guests on an emotional level. As a conjurer, you must tweak the audience’s imagination with an unbelievable proposal, show them proof of your claim, make it relevant to their lives, and give them a reason to believe. That is what fills their eyes with amazement and their minds with wonder. That is what

makes you a magician and entertainer. That is what earns you a spot on the stage.

When creating your own effects or adapting an existing presentation to your stage character, the goal is to make a connection. The conjuring market is already flooded with far too many effects and magicians that seem to serve no other purpose except to declare, “Look at what I can do.” To be fair, there is a definite place for those effects when the performer needs to make a surprising, quick impression – perhaps as an opening statement. However, to actually connect with people requires far more than one flashy stunt after another. That is not performing; it is demonstrating. There is nothing wrong with demonstrating magic as long as you are standing behind a counter. However, our discussion today is about respecting the people who have, in one form or another, paid for the show.

So then, how does a conjurer connect with the guests? Begin by adopting a character role that is identifiable to the audience. This isn’t to say your character has to be immediately familiar, but it must be clear within the first few moments of your show. The identity of your character will help you choose effects for your act that build upon one another in logical ways until you reach the strongest, climactic finale. For now, just choose to be warm, friendly, and egoless while we explore a simple example of connecting with the audience.

The parlor conjurer unseals a new deck of cards and shuffles it while reminisc-ing about how we have all, at one point or another in our lives, made a game of trying to cut to specific cards. By way of illustra-tion, the performer looks at the face-down deck, ponders it for a moment, and says the word, “Red.” He then successfully cuts to a red card. This is repeated twice more and each time the named color is the correct one, even though the performer is making random cuts. Every guest’s reaction to the first card is, “So what? Take a wild

guess and anyone is right half the time.” Their reaction to the second card is less indifferent, “Hmm – this guy is lucky.” Their reaction to the third card is far more focused, “Wait a minute. How is he doing that?” The deck is shuffled again, this time by one of the guests. The performer boldly declares, “Black, red, red, red, black.” The guest deals five cards face up to the table and each color is in the correct order.

In this simple example the conjurer has, with little effort, hit the audience’s nostalgic buttons, tweaked their curiosity, drawn them in closer, and left them baffled. The method is basic. When a fresh deck is opened the cards are grouped in their respective suits. Split the deck near the center and table shuffle the halves together once. The pack now has the red cards in the top half and the black cards in the bottom – so cutting to any red or black card is easy. Once the first phase is done, give the deck a few more table shuffles; then pick the deck up and give it a quick overhand shuffle as well. As you do, run the first five cards off the face of the deck and note the color order. Jog the fifth card and continue to overhand shuffle. Look up at your guest and ask, “Do you know how shuffle cards like this?” Square the deck and use the jogged card to easily palm off the top five cards. Hand the deck to your guest for shuffling. When the deck is replaced on the table, shift it closer to the center and replace the packet as you do. Again, ponder the deck then name the five colors in order. The guest deals the cards face up one by one to show the accuracy of your declaration.

As a stand-alone magic effect, this presentation is not exactly miraculous. However, it does add considerable punch to the theatrical atmosphere in the room, and it makes a statement about who you are. Your character is revealed as a charming fellow who has learned he can do something clever and has discovered how to exploit this “thing” in surprising


The High Roadscript writing, character

development, and act construction for the modern conjuror

By Mick Ayres

ways. A little humility can go a long way towards endearing you to an audience.

Now is a good time to reinforce this small connection. What if you were to somehow transfer this ability of yours to the guests? What if they could divide the colors of the deck themselves? A presentation like that would exploit your established theme. Blending the minor effect seamlessly into the stronger effect creates a grander showpiece presentation that transforms a baffling mystery into an emotional experience for everyone in the room. This isn’t just people sitting around watching some guy do a card trick anymore. Now this is personal. This is theatre.

Obviously, Paul Curry’s classic effect Out Of This World would meet our needs; however, Curry’s effect (and its myriad variations) requires the pack to be prearranged. Unfortunately, our pack has been shuffled several times already. Furthermore, a presentation of Out Of This World separates all the red cards from the black cards in the deck. We only need the guest to separate enough cards to prove our point.

Here is a solution that features a shuffled deck, no sleights, and no switches.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Pick up the deck and say, “I have learned that trusting my instincts is easier said than done. However – if you’ll pardon another cliché – practice makes perfect. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent saying ‘red’ and ‘black’ before I relaxed and started getting more hits than not. The truth is anyone can do this with practice. To be honest, some cards work better than others. I’ll get them for you.”

As you look through the deck, pause when you come to the first red/black pair of cards and remove all the cards before this pair. Now find the next red/black pair and remove all the cards between these two pairs. Keep going and remove any cards that interrupt the repeating red/black pattern. On average, you will remove about twenty cards or so and leave behind half a pack alternating in red/black order; this is more than enough to meet our needs. The guest’s attention will be on the

growing pile on the table as they wonder what is special about those cards; it won’t be on the remainder of the deck. For now, discard these remaining cards by placing them face up off to one side of the table.

Hand the pile of “practice” cards to your guest with instructions to shuffle them face down. Remove the top card of the pile and hold it up so your guest cannot see the face but everyone else can. Say, “First, take a deep breath and relax your mind. I chose you for this because I felt there were a couple of people in the room who would be good at this and you are one of them. Trust me, trust yourself, and trust the audience. We all want you to succeed, okay? This card is either red or black. Trust your instincts and call it as you will.”

Since this is a 50/50 proposition, your guest is going to be right half the time. The results are often surprising. I once had a fellow guess correctly on nine consecutive cards before he missed one; even I was wondering if he had some kind of “gift.” Be encouraging with every hit. Discard the misses with little comment because this is just a practice run after all. If the guest gets far more wrong than right, you can still salvage it by saying, “I’m still impressed, because instincts are tricky things. But now that you know feelings can lie sometimes, you know what to do.”

Assemble all the special cards together and give them to the guest. Ask her to mix them again and drop them face up on top of the remainder of the deck. While she is shuffling, glance at the stacked portion and remember the color of the top card. Once she has assembled the deck, turn the whole deck face down and shift it to a spot on her side of the table.

Say, “Let’s exploit your instincts even further. We need someone else who can do this, too. Trust yourself and select someone you think can do the job.” The new guest is brought up and introduced. Look at this gentleman and say, “Since you are new to this, we’ll simplify the experiment even further. Choose red or black.” The color black is chosen. Say, “That is the only color you will focus on. She will focus only on red.”

Remember the color of the card you noted a moment ago? A card of the opposite color is now on top of the deck. Look at the guest who chose that color and say, “We’ll

begin with you. Listen carefully. Stare at the top card of the deck for a moment. If you think it is your color, remove the card and put it face down in front of you. If you are not sure, don’t worry; just make a discard pile right here.” Point to any spot on the table. “Keep the cards face down so your decisions – right or wrong – will not distract you.” Wait until this guest makes a decision and moves the top card.

Address the other guest and say, “You will now do the same thing for your color. Go back and forth, each of you taking a turn.” During this process, comment and speculate about their choices. Since the colors alternate in the upper half of the pack, each guest will only handle cards of their chosen color.

When the personal piles and the discard pile all have six or seven cards in them, stop everything and say, “That’s enough to know whether this is working or not. First, let’s see these cards no one wanted.” The discard pile is shown as a random assortment of red and black cards. Drop these cards face down on top of the balance of the deck.

Look at the new guest and ask, “Remind us of the color you chose to focus on and show us your selections.” All his cards match the chosen color. Get excited because this is a powerful and surprising moment for him. Address the first guest and say, “Wow, think of the odds! How did you do with the other color?” These cards are also direct hits.

Spread the deck face up on the table to show a well-mixed pack of cards.

You have delivered a baffling presentation that defines your character and connects intimately with your guests by exploiting a bit of nostalgia and empowering them far beyond their expectations – and no one had to pick a card.

Welcome to My World copyright 2006 by Mick Ayres. Inspiration credits to Lewis Jones’s Curry for Three published in Seventh Heaven. Mick welcomes input and dialogue and can be reached at www.mickayreswares.com.


With the passing of another anniversary of the death of Harry Houdini, I thought I’d share some interesting information about his gravesite. His grave has been in the news most recently due to the wonderful work of Dick Brooks’s and Dorothy Diedrich’s Houdini Museum located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The museum took on the responsibility to restore the Houdini bust at the gravesite.

Let’s take a trip back in time. It’s 1885 and Houdini’s half brother Armin/Herman has died of tuberculosis. Young Erich offered up his entire life’s savings ($10) towards his half-broth-er’s funeral. Herman had a typically shaped tombstone with a rounded top. Seven years later, in 1892, Houdini’s father dies and is buried next to Herman in the Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York. The father was given a tall, pillar-shaped tombstone; to the right is Herman’s tombstone (Photo 1).

In 1913, Houdini’s mother Cecelia Weiss passes away. Those familiar with the Houdini story know how this affected him and altered the course of his life. Cecelia was also buried in this plot and her name was added to the large pillar tombstone.

Houdini was devastated by the loss of his mother. He visited the grave often and eventually came upon an idea of buying a larger family plot and erecting a monument to the Weiss family. This was called the “exedra,” which literally means resting place. The design was done by noted architect Oscar Teale, who was also an amateur magician and friend of Houdini’s. The final cost of the monument was $40,000; it

was installed at Machpelah Cemetery on October 1, 1916

(Photo 2).Oscar Teale later served as the fourth president of The

Society of American Magicians and wrote a book called Higher Magic. It was rumored that Oscar Teale was also Houdini’s ghost writer on a number of projects including A Magician Among the Spirits.

An interesting addition to the exedra was the inclusion on each side of the monument of part of the original Weiss Grave. On the far left is the gravestone face for Cecelia Weiss. On the far right is the gravestone face for his father Mayer Samuel Weiss. (See the map of the cemetery on the next page for details.)

Another unique feature is the emblem of the Society of American Magicians which is in the center of the monument just below the bust of Houdini. Harry Houdini served as president of the Society for several years and was the current president when he died in 1926. I can’t help but wonder if the emblem was added after Houdini’s death. It wouldn’t make sense to have it on there in 1916 when the monument was erected. Photo 2 shows Houdini sitting on the exedra as it was being built, and no circular hole is there for the emblem. So it was likely added later.

Houdini had his family moved to the new site and made arrangements for the rest of his family to be buried there upon their individual deaths. However, the only spouse who was accorded a grave was Bess Houdini. Her name was added to Houdini’s gravestone, but in fact, she is not there. Because

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Photo by Dick Brooks

Mysteries of the Houdini Grave By Dean Carnegie


Bess was Catholic and Machpelah is a Jewish cemetery, she is buried in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York, about thirty-five miles north of Machpelah.

Houdini did not want his brother Leopold buried there because of the personal feud they were having. But apparently, Leopold is there, though his gravestone is not. Houdini’s sister Gladys is also buried there, but her gravestone is missing as well. Those two stones were taken out after being vandalized.

There are nine members of the Weiss family buried in that plot: Mayer Samuel (father, 1829-1892), Cecelia (mother, 1841-1913), Herman (1863-1885), William (brother, 1872-1925), Houdini (1874-1926), Nathan (1870-1927), Theo/Dash Hardeen (brother, 1876-1945), C. Gladys Weiss (sister, 1882-1959), and finally Dr. Leopold Weiss (1879-1962).

But there is a tenth person buried in the cemetery who is never mentioned. Perhaps people have forgotten about her. Hannah Steiner, Cecelia’s mother is buried there. Houdini had her disinterred and then placed next to Cecelia sometime between 1913-1916 as a “birthday gift” to his mother. Strange, sure, but this was Houdini. There is a gravestone there that reads “Grandmother 1821-1887.” This was Houdini’s maternal grandmother. She is between one of the marble benches and Herman’s grave.

It is reported that Houdini paid for perpetual care of his family plot, but there are no records to support this claim. Assembly 1 took on the duty of overseer of the plot while the national organization financed the upkeep.

But for reasons that remain “cloudy,” it was stopped in 2006. However, others, like the Houdini Museum, contributed

greatly to the gravesite and are responsible for the restoration of the bust, which now adorns the site once again.

I do have a fear that Machpelah may someday end up like Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. That is why I am very pleased that the National Council decided to reestablish funding for the maintenance of the gravesite.

There is no doubt that the S.A.M. and the general magic community owes a great debt to the most iconic magician of all time to care for his grave.

S.A.M. National Council Unanimously Votes to Maintain the Weiss/Houdini Gravesite By Eric DeCamps

At the 2013 autumn meeting, the S.A.M. National Council unanimously voted to provide financial funding for the mainte-nance of the Houdini gravesite. Our national organization had provided the financial backing to maintain the gravesite in the past. However, that was mistakenly stopped in 2006. Thankful-ly, the association for the cemetery still provided select services to maintain the plot without compensation.

Interestingly enough, during his lifetime Houdini privately funded the cleaning and restoration of many gravesites of notable magicians throughout the world. It is only fitting that the S.A.M. take the responsibility of maintaining his gravesite, especially since Houdini is single-handedly responsible for expanding the S.A.M. from a local club of magicians in New York City into a strong and vibrant national organization of magicians.

In addition, the Weiss/Houdini gravesite is the only gravesite known to significantly display our S.A.M. Logo and Seal, further proving Houdini’s commitment to the S.A.M., even after his death.

This recommitment by the S.A.M. to the Weiss/Houdini gravesite would have not been possible if it weren’t for two people who showed the same tenacity as Houdini did when he helped expand the S.A.M.: Dick Brooks and Dorothy Dietrich. With unrelenting passion they brought this issue to the forefront of our national organization. We also need to thank S.A.M. National 1st Vice-President David Bowers for taking the baton from Dick and Dorothy and bringing it to the National Council’s attention. And a special thank you to Most Illustrious Dal Sanders for his spirited backing of this important issue.

I would be remiss if I did not thank our Most Illustrious for naming me chairman of the newly formed National Houdini Gravesite Committee. I am fortunate to have the following compeers who have agreed to serve with me on the committee: Joseph Devlin, Thomas Solomon, William Gleason, Joseph Caulfield, Kathy Caulfield, Charles Siebert, and Peter DeLuca.

An important thing that we all have to keep in mind, and it is paramount to Machpelah Cemetery, is maintaining the sanctity and dignity of the entire cemetery. While the Weiss/Houdini gravesite is very important to us, the entire cemetery and the thousands buried there are just as important to the Machpelah Association. We need to keep that in mind whenever we visit the gravesite.

I see this new obligation taken on by our National Council as a genuine humanitarian effort to preserve not only the legacy of Houdini, but our legacy as an organization as well. It will be a real “mitzvah” for the generations of magicians to come. I am honored and very proud to be part of this new chapter in the history of the S.A.M.

Here’s an aerial map of the Houdini gravesite in Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York. It’s based on my visit to the

site. - Tom Interval, Interval Magic (San Diego, CA). The photo of the Houdini exedra (seen at bottom of the illustra-

tion): Ron Chicken, Houdini Museum (Scranton, PA)



I met John Cornelius in 1976; we both worked close-up at the I.B.M. convention in Evansville, Indiana. This was the first magic convention I had ever performed at, and also the first one I had ever attended. My participation was due to the efforts of Indiana magicians Ray Mangel and Bob Hurt. The other four close-up workers were Steve Dacri, Ken de Courcy, Rick Johnsson, and Scotty York.

One of the real joys of this convention was hanging out with Cornelius; the magic he created was unlike any I had seen at the time (or have seen since). At this particular convention he was frying everyone with a demonstration of what he called a “slow coin.” This was his presentation for doing the muscle pass. No one had seen anything like this. I immediately went home and began practicing. A month later, I saw John again at the Midwest Magic Jubilee in Kansas City. (At this convention I met John Carney, Roger Klause, and Larry Jennings.) John took me aside and said, “Here’s something cool.” He proceeded to show me “the coin that falls up.” He had taken the muscle pass, turned it ninety degrees, and blew everybody away with it. Now, of course, this is consid-ered a standard thing, but forty years ago the ability to shoot a half dollar into the air was something special.

John created and sold some wonderful effects over the years. You can still find some of them at his website (www.johncornelius.com/magic.html). Unfortunately, he has been ripped off mercilessly; consequently, John has stepped back from the magic world. This is the magic world’s loss. However, he does show up at conventions occasionally, although it seems he rarely stays for an entire convention.

The Award-Winning Magic of John Cornelius is a big collec-tion of most of John’s creative output up to the time of publication (2001). In it you’ll find the complete workings of John’s Fickle Nickel (used by Doug Henning to open one of his TV specials), the Cornelius Card System, the Oh Calcutta Shuffle, the Winter Change, Spring Set, and his entire award-winning FISM card act. One routine that is near and dear to me is My Lady’s Ring, which I morphed into a routine that I called You Axed for It.

The effects excerpted for this month’s Ebook Nook will give some insight into John’s offbeat creativity. If you ignored this book when it first came out, you should definitely get the ebook. Some wonderful magic awaits you there.

My thanks to L&L Publishing for allowing these excerpts to appear in M-U-M. —Michael Close

ARMED & READYThere was a brief time, when a gallon of gasoline cost less

than a day’s wages, during which it seemed everyone spent much

of their time balancing coins on their elbows. The challenge was, ostensibly, to bring the arm down and catch the coins in midair. Increasing the number of coins in the stack made the feat pro-portionally more difficult, until at last it became nearly impos-sible to balance the coins at all, let alone catch them. The greater challenge may have been to avoid looking foolish while doing it, but finally the fad subsided, along with disco, wide lapels, and good customer service.

Roger Klause, ever eager to throw the boys for a loop, began doing the stunt on occasion – except with a minor variation: After adeptly catching the coins, which clinked solidly as he snatched them from the air, he opened his hand to show it completely empty. The coins had vanished! His presentation has necessarily changed with the times, evolving from “Have you tried the stunt where...?” to “Remember when people used to...?”

This is John’s variation on Roger’s effect – one of transforma-tion instead of a vanish. Here, when you catch the quarters in the air, you open your hand to reveal a cluster of pennies instead. The effect is strong and sure to surprise.

To prepare, obtain three quarters and three pennies, some ma-gician’s wax, and an instant bonding glue, such as Krazy Glue. On two of the quarters, place a small dab of magicians’ wax on one side. Put these quarters, separated, in your right trouser pocket. Now take the third quarter and glue it to your left arm just above your elbow (Figure 1). Use a very small amount of glue and no one gets hurt. Don’t worry; it can be removed later with nail polish remover or some acetone-based solvent. (If you happen to have skin allergies to these chemical compounds, please don’t send us your medical bills.) The pennies go in your left pants pocket. Roll your sleeves down, button your cuffs, and you’re ready.

Later, when you’re hanging around (preferably next to a sign that says “No Loitering”), tell your prospective audience that you would like to show them an amazing stunt. Unbutton your cuffs and roll both sleeves up one turn only. Push your right sleeve up past your elbow; your left arm won’t come into play until later.

Place each hand into your pants pockets, searching for change. Take all three pennies in your left hand, holding them loosely in finger palm. As this hand comes out, your right hand brings one of the quarters into view. Take this coin at your left fingertips as you raise your right arm in “cocked” position (Figure 2). Place the quarter on your arm just above your elbow.

When ready, snap your right arm out, catching the coin in the air. The best way to ensure success is to spring from the knees slightly just before the snap. This will cause the coin to move upward a little, suspending it in the air long enough for you to make your catch.

EBOOK NOOKExcerpt From: The Award-Winning Magicof John CorneliusWritten By: Lance PierceDescription: Ebook, 194 pagesAvailable From: www.llepub.com

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Say, “I can even do it left-handed!” Take the quarter again with your left fingers and use your right hand to push (not roll) your left sleeve up past your elbow. Turn to your left slightly and take the quarter with your right hand as you bring your left arm up. As it rises, your right hand comes to meet it, to prevent the quarter already there from coming into view too early. Pretend to place the quarter on your arm and bring your hand away, showing the glued quarter instead. The waxed quarter is concealed in your relaxed right hand and your left arm appears ready to catch the coin on its elbow.

Say, “I’ll even make it more difficult.” Reach in your pocket with your right hand and apparently remove another quarter, really bringing forth the one hidden in your hand. Place this coin onto the quarter on your elbow, firmly fixing the two with the wax. Reach in your pocket again and bring out the third quarter, placing it delicately on the stack. As you do, press the coins together so all

three now bond to each other.

Spring and snap your left arm out as if catching the coins. The pennies in your hand create the perfect sound of catching the coins. Bring your

right hand in front of you, palm up, and pour the pennies from your otherwise empty left hand. At this point, since your right side mainly faces the audience, you can turn the left hand over to show both sides (Figure 3). You will find that your arm will not turn nearly as much as your hand, and the quarters will remain safely concealed behind. To end, lower your left arm, which will allow your sleeve to fall down, covering the quarters. Button your cuffs again and you have all the time in the world to clean up later at your convenience.

D’ARTAGNAN’S RELEASEIn this routine, a cocktail sword is threaded onto a straw,

which a spectator holds from both ends. Another spectator holds the sword. Nevertheless, the objects penetrate each other and are magically released!

You will need an opaque handkerchief, a cocktail straw, and two cocktail swords. Because you want this to appear as impromptu as possible, when everyone at your table has received their drink orders, you have already obtained two cocktail swords by some devious manner. One goes in a conve-nient pocket, with your handkerchief. Prepare the other by breaking the guard between your fingers, creating a slit in the plastic handle (Figure 1). This can be done furtively at the table, or you can retire for a moment to the restroom to “set the gaff.” Once the work is in the sword, casually place it on the table in front of you

and continue your social interaction.When you feel the time is right, ask for the loan of your friend’s

cocktail straw. Looking around the table, set your attention on your sword, pick it up, and thread the straw through its handle. The minute fracture in the handle is practi-cally invisible and will escape notice. Ask your friend to hold the straw by its end, trapping the sword on it (Figure 2).

Reach in your pocket for your handkerchief, finger-palming the other sword in the process (if you’ve forgotten your hand-kerchief, a cocktail napkin is an acceptable substitute). Open the handkerchief and drape it over the sword and straw, leaving the spectator’s hands uncovered (Figure 3). Say, “Now we know that the sword is firmly linked to the straw...” Reach under the hand-kerchief with both hands and tug lightly on the prepared sword as you put the shaft of the other sword through its handle (Figure 4, in which the handkerchief is removed for clarity). The spectator holding the straw understands that you are doing this only to emphasize the condition of the sword and straw. Immediately bring both hands from beneath the handker-chief, showing them empty. The swords remain securely settled together beneath the cloth. Finish your sentence by saying, “...and there is no way it can escape unharmed as long as you keep a tight hold on the ends.”

Move one hand beneath the handker-chief again and grasp the hilt of the unpre-pared sword. With the thumb and fingers of your other hand, locate the point of this sword through the cloth and ask another spectator to pinch it firmly here. (Figure 5 shows what the spectators see; Figure 6 shows the actual situation with the handkerchief removed.) Take both of your hands away. Ask the spectator to pull gently on the sword to make sure

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it’s still linked.When you’ve built sufficient drama, reach under the handker-

chief with both hands, grasp the guard of the prepared sword, and open its fracture just far enough to pass over the straw. As soon as it is free, finger-palm the gimmick as you take the handkerchief away. One spectator is holding only the straw, the other the hand-kerchief and the sword, with no clue about how the penetration took place. Either pocket the gimmick along with your handker-chief or lap it at a relaxed moment.

Walter Wilson contributed a method for the exact reverse of this effect, putting a sword onto a straw, in a Linking Ring parade (Cocktail Sword and Straw, November 1982, page 58). Combining the two could make for an effective routine and may establish a well-deserved reputation among your peers.

IMPROMPTU GHOST TRAPHere is an odd effect: The materialization of something solid

– we’re not sure what – inside the folds of a handkerchief. Yet, when the cloth is opened, there is nothing there. This is an (appar-ently) impromptu version of Glorpy, the Gerkulating Ghost, first marketed in 1963, and still available from dealers under various names. For an interesting history of this effect and its various permutations, see Max Maven’s article “A Brief History of ‘It’” in the May 2000 issue of MAGIC magazine.

First, go to your local hardware store (a phrase that could have become a subtitle of John’s lectures as well as this book) and purchase some Romex 12/2 electrical wire. This is a thick gauge wire in a protective coating; you only need about a three-inch length. When you have

the appropriate piece, take a pair of needle-nosed pliers, pull the copper wire out of the sleeve, and throw it away. It’s the thick sleeve you want, and this sleeve is the modus for the effect. John has found that aquarium or surgical tubing will also work well (Figure 1).

Sit at a table with a tablecloth (to keep things from sliding around later). With the gimmick finger-palmed in your right hand (Figure 2), borrow a handkerchief from a kind spectator and offer to show him a ghost. “You see,” you say, “there are always ghosts in the air ev-erywhere you go; they’re made of ectoplasm. The easiest way to catch one is to form a ghost trap.” Lay the cloth flat on the table, one corner nearest you, so you’re looking at a diamond-shaped polygon before you. Grasp this near corner with your right hand, folding it over and toward the center. Set the corner down in the middle of the hanky, allowing the gimmick to fall from your hand onto the hanky as you do.

With your left hand, fold the left corner over and onto the center, momentarily covering your right hand, which you im-

mediately withdraw. This prevents the spectators from seeing the object you’ve placed there. Fold the right corner over next, followed by the far corner.

“Now that we have the trap, all we need is to gather some ectoplasm.” Lift the top layers of the cloth with your left hand. Reach into the air with your right hand, showing it empty, and pretend to grab some ectoplasm and place it within the folds of the handkerchief. Repeat this action two or three times. On one of your trips into the handker-chief, bend the gimmick in half at its middle (Figure 3). Hold it down like this, as your left hand takes over outside the cloth and holds the gimmick so you can remove your hand.

Use your flat palms to smooth out the fabric (Figure 4), which will make the cloth taut and continue the pressure on the Romex sleeve. When your hands are near the edge of the hanky, slowly release the pressure, allowing the gimmick to straighten up beneath the cloth. To your spec-tators, the center of the handkerchief will mys-teriously rise. “See,” you say, “that’s a ghost, believe it or not, and contrary to what people believe about ghosts, it’s really quite solid.”

Place your flat right hand on top of the gimmick and move it around in circles (Figure 5). This gives the curious illusion that whatever object may be under the cloth is spherical. To further emphasize its solidity, take a spoon, pen, comb, or some nearby object, and tap it firmly on top. The gimmick will not fall and you appear to be striking something quite solid.

“But we have to return it to where it came from before we bring the forces of doom on us, so we take out the ectoplasm.” Lift the top layers of the hank again with your left hand, reach in the folds with your right hand (pretending to remove the “stuff”), and throw it back out in the air. When your hand goes in the last time, use your thumb to kick the gimmick straight back, out of the hanky, off the table, and in your lap (Figure 6). If you wish, you can pretend to hand different spectators some ectoplasm, on the last stroke removing the gimmick and placing it in your pocket, “saving some ectoplasm” for yourself.

EBOOK NOOK

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Many handkerchiefs will have enough body that they will retain the general shape of the “ghost,” even after the gimmick has gone. If that is the case here, slowly press it down, flattening the cloth, then cleanly unfold the handkerchief and give it back to the spectator, thanking him and reminding him to launder it as quickly as possible. D. D. Home would be proud.

SUPER (BALL) CARD RISEJust how many methods have there been for the Rising Card?

The amount of thought alone that has gone into the effect should validate it; this version is nearly self-working yet quite baffling. Here, three cards are selected and the deck is placed upright in a drinking glass. In succession, each selection rises from the deck, after which the audience may examine the glass and all the cards.

John first noticed years ago that the tacky surface of a child’s rubber ball (commonly called a “super ball”) can be used to move playing cards. He first showed his handling to Derek Dingle years ago and since then it has become a very popular underground approach to the rising card effect. [Derek’s handling appeared in The Complete Works of Derek Dingle, page 115.] His handling (and all the others) put the upright deck in the hand with the ball behind it. By squeezing slightly, the ball would roll, pushing the rear card of the deck straight upwards. This new application of the principle makes the handling even easier while possibly increas-ing the deceptiveness.

First, obtain a super ball that is approximately one inch in diameter, a length of strong black thread, a needle, and a button. Tie the thread firmly to the button and, about four inches away, secure the needle at its other end. Next, jam the needle into the center of the super ball (Figure 1). If it comes out the other side, that’s okay, just snip off the excess.

Now place the super ball in the bottom of a dark colored or opaque drinking glass. The thread and button hang over the rim behind the glass, away from the audi-ence’s view (Figure 2). The glass rests on the table in front of you while you perform other routines. When ready, have three cards selected and returned to the deck. You must control the three cards to the top of the deck (dare we

say it?) by your favorite method. The cards can be placed simul-taneously in the deck and brought to the top by a multiple shift or returned individually and controlled with a variety of techniques – just get them there.

Once the selections are in position (let’s assume you’ve con-trolled them in first, second, and third order from the top of the deck), pick up the glass with your right hand and place the deck upright in it, faces to the audience. As you place the deck in the

glass, tilt the glass back toward you slightly; this will ensure the ball rolls to the near side and ends up behind the pack (Figure 3).

To make the first card rise, place your right thumb on the button while you magically wave your left hand around the glass. Ask the first spectator the name of his card. When he tells you, pull down on the button, which will pull the ball up inside the glass, dragging the top card of the deck with it (Figure 4). It helps to tilt the glass backwards again just a tad. From the front, the card appears to rise from somewhere within the pack; the audience cannot distinguish that it’s coming from the rear.

When the card has risen to its full height, take hold of it with your left hand and tilt the glass forward a little. This way, you can remove the card without dragging the ball out of the glass with it. Keeping your thumb on the button, let it slide back up, lowering the ball to the bottom of the glass again. Place the selection on the table.

For the second and third selections, repeat the mechanics exactly, causing each card to rise. After you’ve removed the third selection, hold your left hand palm up and invert the glass onto it. The deck will fall into your left hand, the ball and button assembly landing on your palm behind it (Figure 5). Show the glass around and hand it out, then take the deck in your right hand and fan it before setting on the table for examination. Your left hand continues holding the ball, button, and thread, which you secretly dispose of at an opportune moment.

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STRENGTH VS. CONVENIENCE

This month I thought I’d delve into something a little more conceptual. Whenever I’m pondering a trick – whether it’s something I’m learning from a book or DVD, or something I’m in the process of creating, or an item I’m reviewing for M-U-M – I have certain criteria in mind. Some are personal, and some I think are worth broader consideration.

In his book Designing Miracles, Darwin Ortiz addresses the two levels of reality in a magic trick: the outer reality, which is everything the audience sees and perceives, and the inner reality, which is everything the performer deals with to make the trick work. On the surface, these may seem like fancy-pants terms for “method” and “effect,” but there’s more to it. Darwin points out that any component of a method has two jobs to do: accomplish some secret goal, and to create an outward illusion. In other words, the inner and outer realities are acting simultaneously. At every point in a trick, you have to consider what’s happening on both levels at the same time.

After a while, I realized I’d started incorporating those ideas in my evaluation of different tricks. Typically, a creator or teacher of an effect will describe parts of the method as being important “selling points.” Magic marketplace ad copy is full of these descriptors, usually dispelling

or eliminating certain techniques. “No force!” “No palming!” “No gaffs!” “Use your own deck!” What became apparent to me was that, depending whether the element in question related to the inner or outer reality, I could point to a part of a trick and determine whether this selling point was a strength, or merely a convenience.

To me, a convenience is anything about the trick that improves it for the performer (easier sleights, no complicated set-ups, etc..). A strength, on the other hand, is anything that improves it for the audience (impressive conditions, humor or entertainment value, maximized impact, etc.).

Take performing Card to Wallet with a Mullica wallet. The fact that you don’t have to palm or wear a jacket is convenient for the performer who doesn’t typically do either of those things. The real strength of the Mullica wallet, however, is the fact that it doesn’t have to be out of sight or even on the performer’s person to load a card into it. It can be in full view, isolated from both the proceedings and the performer, right up until you produce the card.

The fact that you can show your hands empty could also be a strength (offset a little by the fact that you have to bring the deck over to the wallet or vice versa), but if you’re palming well and at the right time, they’ll think your hands are empty anyway. As far as the audience is concerned, the fact that you’re not palming shouldn’t make a difference. The fact that you can make the card appear in a wallet that someone else has been holding the entire time does make a difference.

For another example, a lot of comments about the Tamariz stack are about how easy (or not) it is to get into from new deck order. Getting into the stack from a newly-opened deck is very convenient if you happen to get handed a lot of unopened decks. However, most memorized deck workers simply set the deck up ahead of time. On top of which, there’s a whole chapter in Mnemonica about how to get into the stack (or any stack) on the fly, or back into the stack after having the cards shuffled. All three of these options should appear identical to your audience, so the only difference is in how easy it is for

you, the performer. Being able to get back into new deck order from the (apparently shuffled) arrangement, on the other hand, is what Tamariz describes as “…one of the most powerful climaxes possible for a card routine” – in other words, a tremendous strength.

One place where the distinction gets tricky is where the two realities overlap. As Ascanio said, “There’s nothing more overwhelming than the truth.” The audience needs to believe that the deck is genuinely shuffled, and it really is. They need your hands to be empty, and they really are. Magic is supposed to look effortless, and the best way to do that is to not expend any effort. However, the only way that works is if the element in question is something the audience actually cares about.

Here’s an example from my own experience. A while back I devised what I thought was a pretty clever (and strong) two-card mental effect. Part of the method involved clocking the deck, which like any technique is hard to make look effortless if you’re not fluent with it. But I liked the idea that it allowed me to do the trick from a shuffled deck, so I devised a script that gave me funny things to say while I over-clocked my mental processors doing the required math. Typically, I consider allowing the audience to shuffle the deck in the beginning to be a strength, because I can emphasize my lack of control. However, what I forgot was that this trick isn’t about control. It’s about divination. I was emphasizing the wrong thing, because in reality being able to do the effect from a shuffled deck was convenient for me.

After a while, I realized I could spare myself a lot of headache by doing the trick from my memorized stack. The important part of the trick – being able to get the necessary information quickly and without veins bursting in my forehead – became much easier, and the trick became a lot stronger as a result. It’s tempting to worry about someone suspecting the deck is prearranged, but as many practitioners of memorized deck magic point out, if handled properly there should be no difference to an audience between a genuinely shuffled deck and a prearranged one. So while it was better


By Antonio M. Cabral

Cheats & Deceptions(For Entertainment Purposes Only)

for me to feel like I could go into the trick at any time with any deck, it’s better for my audiences to use a method that allows me to divine their thoughts in the blink of an eye. You might argue that I chose the “easier” method; I prefer to think of it as having displaced the work from having to do it in front of the audience (clocking the deck) to having done it well ahead of time (memorizing my stack). It also freed me up to focus on the funny script, which in this case became just as important as the divination.

“Practicality” is a good concept to have in the mix. There are plenty of tricks in which the effect is absolutely worth the work, but the effort involved is impractical for everyday use. If I were getting set for a formal show for some CEO’s birthday party or going on a late-night talk show, I’d absolutely take the time to freeze a card into a block of ice for a trick. It’s not something I’m going to try to do whenever I casually go out to the pub or to a party with friends. In practice, there are only so many gaffs I’m willing to carry around or ring in, and if you tell me I have to make up a whole separate stacked and gaffed deck for one trick, forget it. But these are absolutely matters of my own convenience – barring the fact that the best way for me to convince my audiences that I can perform miracles with regular cards is to actually use regular cards.

Another place where the distinction between an outward strength and an inward convenience blurs is when the effect is delayed. In card magic, there are tricks that you can’t go into on the spur of the moment, but along the course of two or three semi-related tricks, you can set up for, and end with, a big climax of some kind. This is related to something Darwin refers to in Designing Miracles as the “composite perfect method.” Here, this one trick might have a benefit to you the performer that the audience is never aware

of, but allows you to perform a follow-up miracle that becomes that much more powerful.

For example, it’s convenient for you the performer that a trick might allow you to have the deck shuffled, and then cull the Aces or a big group of cards for the next trick. You might have the deck genuinely shuffled and still preserve a large or full-deck setup for some blockbuster gambling demo or memorized deck miracle. Or a trick might allow the deck to be spread on the table and seen to be normal and all one color, while also allowing you to switch it in for a Rainbow Deck or a blank-faced deck.

These are all handy things to be able to do over the course of a trick or two. But they don’t turn into strengths from the audience’s viewpoint until you follow those tricks with those other, whiz-bang killer climaxes. Likewise, those killer closer tricks might be very strong, but they become stronger because, by preceding those tricks with the others, you’re apparently ready to produce miracles, anytime, anywhere, any deck, Bob’s your uncle, before you can say “Jack Robinson.”

These aren’t hard and fast rules, but as I said they are criteria to help evaluate tricks and methods. Sometimes the results will be different for different people. For someone proficient with clocking the deck, my original method for the two-card divination I mentioned might be just as effective from the audience’s viewpoint as the memorized deck version. In that case, since the effect would be the same, the differences in the methods become less distinct.

Another example is the Rusduck Zensational arrangement, which allows you to perform Mike Zens’s Any Poker Hand Called For, a very powerful demonstration of card cheating prowess. This arrangement is built into the Aronson stack, and as such is a very strong feature

of that particular stack. If I wanted to use the Zensational stack, I would do a terrific routine of Darwin Ortiz’s, Shark Attack (from Scams & Fantasies with Cards), that allows me to perform the trick from a genuinely shuffled deck. As such, having the effect built into the Aronson stack ceased to become a strength or a convenience of that arrangement for me. (And, as I alluded to before, since the trick is about controlling cards, allowing the audience to genuinely shuffle the deck before you produce or deal any poker hand they ask for is a very strong feature of Darwin’s routine.)

These distinctions aren’t limited to card tricks, of course. In coin magic, you might be in a position to choose between a Coins Across effect that uses a shell, a flipper coin, or some other gaff, and one that doesn’t. Since most coin workers work with their own coins, it’s no more or less convenient to carry the gaff as opposed to the extra coin. The gaff might allow you to cleanly vanish a coin or coins at some point in the trick, which is another point where the audience’s perception (the coin is really gone) matches your actual situation (the coin was never there, so you’re not trying to hide it in a palm of some kind). So you might find yourself evaluating the trick on whether or not you want the coin to vanish cleanly in your hand, or in an audience participant’s hand. (I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the stronger option.) Likewise, there’s an ongoing debate about whether bill switches should use a thumb tip or not. I’m actually working on a tip-less bill switch myself, but I’m well aware of why I made that decision (convenience) and what I’m giving up for it (strength).

I hope this gives you a useful perspective on judging new tricks. It’s the most effective one: from the outside, looking in.


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LATEST PRODUCT REVIEWSCompiled and Edited by W. S. Duncan

INFORMED OPINION

Ridiculous 4-dVd setBy daVid WilliamsonAvailable from: www.essentialmagiccollection.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $150.00

REVIEW BY PAYNE (DISCS 1 AND 3) AND W.S. DUNCAN (DISCS 2 AND 4)

I am rather old school in that

I still prefer to learn magic from the written word. And so my library of magic-related DVDs is rather meager when compared to the collections of my fellow magi. I rarely invest in them, and the lion’s share of the DVDs I do possess were either gifts or review copies. So it must say something that, when I heard that the folks

over at Essential Magic were going to release a four-volume set devoted to the magic of

David Williamson, I didn’t think twice about plunking down the cash and purchasing a

copy of my very own. And I don’t even do card tricks.And that is the reason why this portion of the review will be

focused on volumes one and three of this set, leaving the remaining two discs, which concern themselves to effects utilizing playing cards and the requisite manipulation and sleights thereof, to Bill Duncan, a fellow reviewer better versed in the handling of paste-boards than I.

So where to begin? Perhaps at the beginning would be best, a situation made easier by the fact that I am tasked with reviewing the first disc, which is devoted to the routines in Mr. William-son’s professional show. While there is a card trick or four in this section, all of the material presented is from Mr. Williamson’s stand-up act, which features many of his signature routines.

All of the routines are performed in a small theater in front of a live audience at an undisclosed location somewhere in Portugal. While there are some minor, albeit humorous, difficulties com-municating with the audience due to Mr. Williamson's inability to speak or understand Portuguese, he valiantly overcomes this minor handicap in his own capricious manner, clearly demon-strating along the way that magic is indeed a universal language.

My interest in obtaining this set was primarily to see the per-formance and handling of the Hindu Needle Trick and (being the Cups and Balls junkie that I am), Mr. Williamson’s two-cup Cups and Balls routine. His stand-up set begins with the former and ends with the latter. Between the two I was regaled with perfor-mances of a ring and rope routine suitable for stage, a diabolically clever torn and restored card effect that, even though it’s a card trick, is going to find a place in my repertoire, his take on the classic card in mouth trick, two more card effects (Aunt Mary’s Terrible Secret and Funner Color Stunner) as well as his handling

tips for the old Rocky Raccoon spring puppet.As mentioned before, the performance sequence took place in

a theater in front of, as far as I can determine, a non-magician audience. So one gets a feel as to how the material plays in the real world, and especially how this material plays if you’re David Williamson. The explanation sequences are all shot in the now familiar Essential Magic recording studio. As with all of Essential Magic’s releases, it is a quality product featuring a multi-camera shoot, excellent sound quality, and superb editing. All of the ex-planations are clear and concise, allowing even ham-handed, fum-ble-fingered card workers like me to clearly see what I’ve been doing wrong all these years.

Also included on disc one is part of a four-part interview of Mr. Williamson by Luis de Matos, a blooper reel, and a behind-the-scenes look at the taping of Ridiculous.

Disc three is titled “Non Card Work.” This, I believe, is some sort of code for “Coin Tricks,” because most of this disc concerns itself with tricks utilizing metallic currency. There are nine of them in all. My favorites, or at least the ones that appeal to me, are the Coin in Bottle and his handling of Michael Ammar’s routine for Pencil through Coin. Those more sleight-inclined than me shan’t be disappointed, because there is plenty here for them as well, including a Matrix, a Coins Across, and a bare-handed coin vanish to name just a few. For the non-coin guys, Mr. Williamson tips his handling of the Gypsy Thread. He also shows us a unique handling of the thumb-tip silk vanish that will fool those in the know and a couple of great routines using silverware. He finishes off the segment with his signature Saline Solution salt vanish.

The routines are performed in front of an audience and then explained in detail in the studio. All of the explanatory segments are presented in David Williamson’s irrepressible playful style, and are loaded with anecdotes and tips drawn from over thirty years of performing experience. These are DVDs that you will watch again and again – not just for the tricks, but for the priceless insights Mr. Williamson has to offer on the performance of magic. They’re just a lot of fun to watch.

The disc concludes with part three of the David Williamson interview and also includes a gag reel from FISM 2000, and a curious but highly amusing “travelogue” that documents Mr. Williamson’s wild antics all amid the environs of Portugal. David Williamson is a towering figure in the world of magic (yes, I’ve been trying to work in that height joke for the entire review) and this excellent DVD set goes far in documenting his many contri-butions to the art of magic. – Payne

On rare occasions, a new product arrives that deserves a deeper dive than the usual crop of card tricks and clever gimmicks; something that requires multiple perspectives. Sometimes, as when Bill Malone offered an extensive look at the card work of Ed Marlo, it’s because of its historical significance. And sometimes it’s because the performer is expert in too many forms for the average magical reviewer to have an understanding of all of the subjects that relate to the material being taught. In this case, both conditions apply.

The historical significance part is that David Williamson has for more than a quarter of a century been a force in magic, and here


is a comprehensive record of his work, professionally produced, while he is at the top of his game. A quarter of a century from now people will not have to wonder why his name is spoken with respect. They will be able to see for themselves.

And then there’s the variety of work. David Williamson moves effortlessly between simple, direct effects like spoon bending and complex multi-phase tricks like his legendary Torn and Restored Card routine. And he does it while he charms with his silliness and his winning smile. He does kids parties, improvisational comedy, platform, cocktail party strolling, and hardcore card magic.

And there is great card magic here, including tricks by a few of Mr. Williamson’s friends that he uses in his professional work, and an almost complete collection of his published output. You’ll find complex multiphase material like Cocktail Dazzler, a routine designed for walk-around performance and based on classic themes. You’ll also find simple plots like Easy Aces, an assembly that will fool anyone not familiar with it. You’ll also see David’s presentation for the trick many know as Two-Card Monte. It’s a wonderful take on a standard trick that made me love Be Honest What Is It again.

There’s also a full DVD of David explaining the methods he uses in his card work. Card guys will find detailed professional tips on classic moves like the top change, the pinky count, and the diagonal palm shift. Getting the real work on classic methods like these, from someone who uses them all the time, is invaluable to anyone who aspires to master them.

There are also “confessions.” I won’t spoil that surprise for you, but I didn’t expect to hear about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey from silly old Dave, and it made me very happy. I had the good fortune to see a midnight lecture Mr. Williamson gave at Stan Kramien’s place in Oregon a few years back. He started his talk by saying that many contemporary lecturers like to talk about magic theory, but that when he was a kid attending lectures a lecture would consist of “a guy who would do a trick and then tell you how it was done.” He told us he would only do that, because he wasn’t much of theory guy. He then proceeded to give one of the best theory lectures I’ve ever seen. He spent about an hour on one trick, his Torn and Restored Card routine. He taught this complex and brilliant piece of card magic with such detail and insight into how people watch magic that the kids who clapped when he said he wasn’t going to talk about theory didn’t even notice they were learning concepts that they would someday apply to all the magic they do.

So there, in fifteen hundred words or so, is a brief overview of what you get in Ridiculous. We’ve only scratched the surface. There are still surprises to be had, music videos, interviews, and even David reviewing some of his favorite magic books. It probably goes without saying that both Payne and I recommend Ridiculous for pretty much anyone who likes to perform, study, or watch magic. So what are you waiting for? Get it. – W.S. Duncan

opening dooRs 3-dVd setBy HenRy eVansAvailable from: www.vernetmagic.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $110.00

REVIEW BY ANTONIO M. CABRAL I was excited to get my hands on Opening Doors, the new

three-DVD set from Vernet on what card magicians refer to as The Trick That Cannot Be Explained. Part of the reason was that I knew of Henry Evan’s reputation as a master of this trick, so I

was looking forward to seeing his performances. The other part was genuine curiosity as to what was going to be taught. While the set fell short of being the encyclope-dic resource I expected it to be, it does manage to impart some very good and important information on the subject. Like the trick itself, the DVD set ends up being in some ways more, and in some ways less, than the sum of its parts.

The Trick That Can’t Be Explained is part of the amazing

legacy of Dai Vernon, and is, no pun intended, hard to explain. You can’t say what the effect is, because there is no set effect. You can’t say what the method is, because there is no set method – and in many ways, there’s no method at all. Simply put, The Trick That Can’t Be Explained is the art of improvising with a deck of cards. Maybe the performer makes a prediction, or maybe an audience member chooses a card, or names a card, or a four of a kind. Then the performer has to find a pathway to a miracu-lous conclusion – matching the prediction or finding the named cards – based solely on the information that the order of the cards gives him. The performer (ideally) doesn’t handle or manipulate the cards at all, relying on confidence and a finely-honed ability to equivoque to pull a miracle out of literal thin air. Sometimes the result is a miracle, sometimes it’s a pretty good card trick; sometimes it’s merely a decent card trick. Sometimes it’s a bang; sometimes it’s a whimper.

For a trick that can’t be explained, there are actually quite a few places to learn about The Trick That Can’t Be Explained in the literature. The trick was christened in Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic, but there’s also Ed Marlo’s Unexpected Prediction in Expert Card Conjuring (beautifully performed on Bill Malone’s Malone Meets Marlo DVDs), Martin Nash’s A Hard Ace to Follow, and a few improvisational effects in Harry Lorayne’s Close-Up Card Magic. More recently, Michael Close provided approaches using a memorized deck in the “Jazzin’” chapter of Workers Five, Roberto Giobbi has offered up some thoughts in his book Confidences, Darwin Ortiz discusses the trick in Designing Miracles, and Eric Mead contributed some outstand-ing thoughts in his book Tangled Web. And yet, the only real way to learn the trick is to jump off the cliff and try it. The write-ups offer up a lot of “there might be” and “maybe you could,” but you just don’t know until the cards are staring you in the face and you’re out there without a net. The Trick That Can’t Be Explained is The Effect That Can’t Be Described and The Method That Can’t Be Taught. It just has to be done.

So what does Henry Evans have to contribute on the subject? For starters, he is very clearly an expert improviser with cards. The first disc of Opening Doors features four different perfor-mances in four different settings, all largely improvised. Evans’s facility with his improvisational toolkit is not a little astounding. At no time do you ever get the sense that he’s thinking on his feet. Comparing the performances, you get to see what he does the same way every time, and what he does differently, which is a set of lessons on its own. Following those performances, he sits down with another magician and attempts to detail exactly how he made his way through the first studio performance, which yields a few interesting insights. On disc two, he starts discussing some of his concrete techniques in detail and the theory behind them, and offers some specific, self-contained effects incorporat-


ing those techniques as well as some non-improvisational effects. Disc three discusses some of the presentational aspects of the trick, where your audience’s reaction to the trick relies as much (if not more) on how you talk about it as it does on what you actually accomplish.

Evans’s approach to these performances is very smart: he ap-proaches it like a jazz musician approaches a solo, which is to say, he gives himself a framework on which to hang his impro-visations. He starts with a non-improvisational effect, and tries to build to his ending well in advance. (Michael Close and Eric Mead have expressed similar thinking on the subject.) If I had to pick a single most useful technique of his, it would be his ability to very rapidly count quantities of cards in a spread, and to do so while speaking to his audience. He describes some tips on both abilities, and while it’ll take a lot of experience to get as good as Henry Evans with them, they’re abilities that will pay dividends to the serious card magician.

Another valuable skill discussed is the aforementioned pre-sentational side. One of the first rules of theatrical improvisation is to say “yes” to anything and everything that comes your way. Nothing is “wrong” or a mistake. Evans’s confidence in present-ing even the most minor of miracles is apparent in all of his per-formances, and is illustrated further with a trick that I at first didn’t understand. He demonstrates the apparent ability to roll any number he wants on a pair of dice. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, but it seemed impressive. As it turns out, Evans just rolls the dice and whatever total he gets, he can immediately explain why he rolled it as if it was his intention all along. As a trick, it’s lame, but as an exercise in equivocal double-talk, it’s a valuable skill for the card magician who wants to appear to be in control at all times.

The biggest problem with the Opening Doors set is, in fact, one of language. The discs were recorded in Spanish and overdubbed with an English language voiceover. Unfortunately, there’s only one person doing the voiceover, and during the back and forth explanation segments it gets difficult to separate out who’s saying what. On top of which, the translations employed are confusing more often than they ought to be. A prime example is right in the DVD copy, which states that “Opening Doors makes the impos-sible to show and teach you something that is (almost) impossible to be taught.” I have no idea what that means, but having listened to the explanations I can’t argue with it.

I can’t say that this DVD is going to teach you The Trick That Can’t Be Explained any better than what’s already in print, because the best teacher of the trick is experience with the trick. I certainly wouldn’t recommend building an entire performance out of the trick the way Evans does. Few and far between are the performers with enough knowledge and experience to not only pull off a single improvised trick, but to build an entire impro-vised routine with the appropriate shape and build. When you throw yourself on the mercy of fate and chance, you run the risk of delivering a performance that may be to the best of your abilities, but less than your potential, to deliver maximum entertainment for your audience. (Rene Lavand has noted, “I never improvise out of respect for my audience.”)

On the other hand, viewing these DVDs I was reminded of another classic card text, Charles Hopkins’s Outs, Precautions, and Challenges. On those unfortunate occasions when improvi-sation is your only way out of a sticky situation, the techniques described on these DVDs will put you in position to walk away from a crash landing when your parachute fails. The ability to immediately read a deck and find a satisfying conclusion to a botched trick, to perform mental tasks while talking, and the sheer ability to sling baloney until they believe it’s grade-A prime

rib will carry a performer far in the art of card conjuring. Much like performing the trick itself, the valuable information is there on the discs. You’re just going to have to tease it out. If you have serious interest in this style of performance, this set will be a valuable resource.

mayHeW: WHat Women Want BookBy JoHn loVickAvailable from: www.HermeticPress.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $40.00

REVIEW BY CURTIS KAM

Finally, at long last, the big book of Mayhew is here. Mayhew’s the bomb, baby, and ain’t no arguing about it. I’ve met the Mayhew, done card tricks with him, and have laughed off valuable body parts watching him perform. If you haven’t had that last experi-ence, add it to your bucket list. Steve Mayhew is one of those very rare per-formers who can walk the razor’s edge – he takes sleight of hand seriously, he takes comedy seriously, and the results are both hilarious and magical. He creates sophisticated sleight-of-hand

effects that are all about the audience and how he’s going to make them love him. Even while he’s dealing seconds and calling them middles, or dealing bottoms and calling them seconds, or even before, when he’s at home coming up with a good reason for doing something as dippy as either of those things, he’s doing it all for the audience. And, since you’ll actually find good uses for both of these odd concepts in the book, it turns out he’s been doing it for us, too.

Steve has mastered just enough tough sleight of hand to be ab-solutely fearless in front of an audience. This allows him to open his shows with the offer, “I’ll do any trick you can think of with this deck of cards,” confident that he can make good on that promise. In the book, he explains how he accomplishes this, and how one can use that offer as a lead-in to a routine in which the spectators find the four Aces. That said, you might be wondering if you have the card handling (or audience handling) skills necessary to do the material in this book. The answer is…mostly. Most of the material requires a facility with the usual controls, palms, side steals, and double lifts, and some of it is nearly self-working. In fact, Steve tips a sleight-less way to cull a four of a kind from a shuffled deck, while it’s being shuffled, His Old Lazy Fat Guy Deck Switch is pretty much as advertised.

To do the really good stuff, however, you’ll want to have a workable classic pass, a second deal, and the ability to deal just one card, once, from the middle. You’ll also have to understand how to make an audience laugh. But none of this is any reason to avoid this book. If you do not already have these skills, Steve offers valuable tips on most of them, and the magic provides ample incentive to learn the others. There are false deals and elaborate farces. Spectators cut to the Aces, and are made to hug you. Brazen palming and passing are covered by presentational gambits that are just as reckless. Not everyone can do this sort of thing, but everyone should at least try.

If you already have a Mayhew routine in your repertoire, it’s likely Freedom (although you probably learned it under a different


name, since variations have been published by Allan Ackerman, Darwin Ortiz, Jack Carpenter, and others), in which the performer demonstrates his ability to deal cards from the middle, second from the middle, “eleven-teen” from the top, and anywhere, while he’s really dealing seconds, essentially performing Triumph, and rallying the crowd to stick it to “the man” who’s keeping us down by making us always deal from the top. It’s the sort of gambling demo that audiences understand and enjoy, even if they don’t gamble. It’s also simple to get into, easy to remember, and can be presented in any number of ways. (Mayhew provides two pre-sentations.) In addition, you get a variation by Allan Ackerman and Simon Aronson that adds extra impact for gambling savvy crowds.

Another standout is Uber Ultimate Gardner-Marlo in which Steve takes a serious gambling technique that he and Jack Carpenter came up with (which allows you to riffle stack even though the spectator is the one who’s shuffling) and applies it to a routine in which the spectator gets to cheat (he actually shuffles the deck and then deals his hand off the bottom) and win. On the second round, he even deals a winning hand to his partner. Like Freedom, this routine is also followed by an outstanding variation it inspired, this time by Jason England and Tomas Blomberg.

Mayhew’s penchant for turning tricks on their heads is also evident in his take on Curry’s Out of This World. The participants have no idea what they’re doing, as they offer the fanned deck to each other so that cards can be chosen and placed on the table. Even though the deck was in their hands, it turns out that they have unwittingly separated it into reds and blacks.

About half of the material is gambling themed, and there are false dealing demos that are, in fact, false, and some that are real. If you’re drawn to this sort of stuff, you’ll be happy to hear that he has included Labyrinth Blackjack, in which the spectator deals out as many hands of head-to-head blackjack as he likes, he plays as well as he can, and he always loses. You do nothing but sit smugly, play the cards dealt to you, and win every time. It’s all in the stack. Gambling fans will also be amazed by The Way of All Flesh, in which Mayhew and Tony Cabral have combined Topsy Turvy Aces with the Gilbreath principle and the mechanics of a punch deal to create an effect in which the spectator shuffles and mixes the cards face up and face down, but when you deal out the deck, you get all the face-down cards, and they’re given the entire suit of Spades. Yes, it’s a sexy perfect bridge deal, perhaps the only sexy bridge deal.

While we’re still talking about Triumph, magicians will enjoy Regressive Triumph, which is a Triumph in which the deck, which is a face-up/face-down mess, rights itself gradually, about a third at a time, until it is all facing one way, except for the selected card. Another favorite is Dolores in a Meadow, which is The Trick that Fooled Houdini, if it were painted by Salvador Dali.

And everyone, even the mentalists, should like Wet or Black?, which is (as far as I know) a new effect in card magic. The spectator freely cuts the deck into eight separate packets and then makes one final decision, red or black. Whichever he names, and it is a free choice, the top cards of all the packets are that color. The presentation is really funny, and the effect is stunning.

While all of that is weird and wonderful, the two standouts for me were Full Frontal Conus and Das Kapital. The Conus Aces is literally one of the oldest tricks in the book. Hailing from a time when magicians dared to taunt and challenge their audiences, it is essentially a series of sucker tricks – a daunting test of a per-former’s presentational chops. You tell the audience that you’re going to deal the Aces to the table, but you don’t. You deal off the bottom, or you cut the deck before the deal, actions that they see

and call you on. When you show that the Aces really are on the table, they are surprised and defeated. Whether they enjoy that experience enough to take the bait the next time depends on the performer’s skill. Reasonable performers like Michael Skinner abandoned this aspect of the routine, opting to perform just the climax, in which the Aces vanish from beneath the spectator’s hand. Only Bruce Cervon and Steve Mayhew have risen to the challenge of foisting this experience, in all its mischievous glory, on modern audiences. The way that Mayhew has constructed this experience, and the small but important changes he has made, make this routine a master class in audience management. This challenge has tempted me for many years, and now, thanks to Mayhew, I am finally able to present it without coming off like too much of a jerk. Like many of the other routines in the book, there is much to learn here even if you never perform this particu-lar effect.

And then there’s his bill routine. This is a worker. There are tips in here that will put money in the pockets of just about every strolling or table-hopping pro. The entire piece plays in close-up, parlor, or stand-up, and it’s not just good enough to fit into your working set, it’s better. This is the routine that cost me the aforementioned body parts, the price of laughing so hard. You schmooze a woman, and her date pays for it. You change a single into a five, and give it to her. You change some poor sap’s twenty into a one, and give it away. You offer to make the poor guy feel better, and you do, but you don’t give him any money. In the end, the guy’s out twenty bucks, but he’ll just laugh and hug you for it. (One hopes.) In the end, you toss a hundred dollar bill into the crowd, and it “disappears.” This is the best way to vanish a hundred, ever. Context is everything, and I won’t spoil the gag by tipping it here. You’ll have to get the book to see it, and apply it to your own borrowed bill routine.

John Lovick’s writing is clear, thoughtful, and captures Mayhew’s playfulness. The title, Mayhew: What Women Want is a tipoff, and trick titles like A Balloon, A Cartwheel, and a Pony Ride carry that tilted perspective all the way through. This book is as much fun to read as the material is fun to perform. The crediting is excellent, and while John Lovick is no slouch as a comedy writer, I sense the presence of the Mayhew himself throughout most of it. The author(s) also give a large tip of the hat to Steven Hobbs, because many of the descriptions were first written by him for inclusion in his now-vanished Labyrinth magazine.

All in all, the magic is magical. The comedy is funny. The methods are inspired, and inspiring. I don’t know what more you could ask from a book, but whatever it is, you don’t need it. Buy this book and enjoy it.

tHe 100tH monkey dVd WitH gimmicksBy cHRis pHilpottsDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice: $80.00

REVIEW BY DAVID GOODSELL

If you watched Fox News Sunday one morning last February, you saw mentalist Gerard Senehi bewilder host Chris Wallace and others with a version of Chris Philpotts’s superb mental effect The 100th Monkey, a baffling mind reading routine that combines ty-poglycemia (the overlapping of two images so that one image is apparent at close range and the other image at long range) and dual reality (scripting that leads the audience to believe one meaning while a helper from that same audience believes something different). The 100th Monkey principle is a questionable but in-


triguing scientific possi-bility that the collective learning of a group of people can be trans-ferred to another person by some form of extra sensory perception. Cool!

In The 100th Monkey effect, a card with a single word on it, such as the name of a

month or a country, is shown to the audience. A random volunteer from the audience, who was brought to the stage at the beginning of the routine and who has not seen the card, is asked to think of a month or country by reading the collective minds of the audience; he is to write that information down. They match!

Philpotts has also used this with three people on stage at the same time, each thinking of a different topic (country, month, etc.), which is very impressive. The concept is the same for all three as for one. It uses special cards, some of which are provided, and others are provided for, but it is not a self-working trick. It will require performance skills and showmanship on your part. Maybe you have mastered those already! Most of us can improve, and Philpotts will help us do that.

In addition to the instructional DVD and the necessary props, Philpotts has provided a forty-three-page PDF document with excellent instructions, including several variations possible with this effect, as well as the script he uses. Because what you say can make a big difference in the impact of the trick, it is crucial for you to study the scripting, and the accompanying commentary. You don’t have to use it, but you should use the principles explained. Thanks for all that, Chris! This is some of the best writing on tips, techniques, and the theory of presentation of mentalism out there today, and should inspire us to seek more elsewhere. Indeed, this is so much more than a mere set of instructions.

But that’s not all. In a ten-page chapter of the PDF, Chris discusses ways to use the 100th Monkey Principle with ideas from Banachek’s Psychological Subtleties series and ideas from Rich Bloch, Paul Draper, and others. Included is an essay on what to do when a trick doesn’t work that is great reading.

Two other effects are included and demonstrated. In Speech-less, we are asked, “What would it be like if a spectator could read a word on a card one minute and then the next could not, for the lettering had changed from a word to gibberish? Same card. No switches!” This is an excellent concept, a clever variation on typoglycemia, and looks good on the instructional DVD. It will be fun for your audience.

But that’s still not all. What if four audience volunteers each use a card to think of something different, say a month, a piece of furniture, an emotion, and a country. What if you could not only reveal what the four words are but who is holding which card? You’re darn right that would be a great trick. And it is. Good stuff!

By the way, the DVD also contains a folder filled with a ton of JPG images that you can print out at home or at your local printer in whatever size works best for you.

If you understand really good mentalism you will appreci-ate the possibilities with the concepts presented here. Where the norm is to offer quick-and-dirty instructions, most often lacking any performance motivation, yet alone subtlety, Chris Philpotts has not short-changed us in any way. This is some of the best watching and reading you will find, and a gift to working mental-ists. Worth every penny! Bravo!

e2 – tHe extRactoR V.2 gimmick and tWo dVdsBy RoB BRomley and peteR naRdiAvailable from: www.alakazam.co.ukDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $80.00

REVIEW BY ANTONIO M. CABRAL

Alakazam Magic’s Extractor gimmick has been around for a while and has generated some con-siderable buzz, and rightfully so. It’s an amazing utility gimmick that allows you unbelievable control over a playing card cleanly inserted into the middle of a cased deck by an audience member. Since I was unfamiliar with this gimmick before receiving the

current version for review, I thought it would be useful to talk about the gimmick itself for those who might not know what the fuss is about, and then talk about the improve-ments in the latest version.

The inspiration for this gimmick is Daryl’s classic Ultimate Ambition deck. Right away this justifies the expense, as like Daryl’s effect this is not the sort of gimmick you can quickly whip up at your kitchen table. And while Daryl’s deck is half the price, it’s designed for one specific purpose. The Extractor, on the other hand, is designed to be a utility item. Also, one of the very nice features of the new version is that it can stand in for any style of cards you choose to use in performance. It made watching the second instructional DVD very amusing, as a considerable amount of time is spent describing the delicate surgery that had been required to redress the gimmick in another style card case. Now, you simply remove the gimmick from the box provided, take whatever box you want and a cover card to match, cut a slit in the case, put the cover card on the gimmick and Bob’s your uncle. Heck, you don’t even need the cover card, really. A true mark of a utility item is its versatility. This feature also allows you to pull the deck partway out of the case before having the card inserted, which creates the nice impression that you’re still holding a normal deck of cards.

And this brings me to what the darn thing actually does. With the Extractor, you have a card chosen in some manner, removed from the deck, and signed. The card is then replaced into the middle of the cased deck, and the gimmick immediately delivers the cards outside the case to be stolen away. It’s an incredibly guileless and honest-looking procedure, and at the same time as-toundingly easy. I didn’t once have to fight with the card as it made its way through the gimmick. And you can have someone else insert the card wherever they like into the pack – the card is in your total control.

A point driven home many times on the DVD is that, once that card goes into the middle of the cased deck, the flap shut, and the box put away, your audience is convinced that the card is out of your control. This just makes the ease with which you have control over that card that much more powerful. In fact, I’d more liken this to a good card-loading wallet, but in reverse. Not a lot of gimmicks are that strong or useful.

Having said that, unlike a loading wallet, you wouldn’t use this more than once in a given set; you’d use this as the control in some big kick-’em-in-the-face closing trick. A loading wallet can be secretly used to reveal a prediction, or a mystery card, or as


an impossible location for the card to appear. The Extractor, first and foremost, is a diabolical card control. Most of the applications offered on these DVDs are “card to impossible location” effects, in which the card leaves the original cased deck and appears somewhere else: an opposite pocket, your wallet, an envelope, or even another deck (including a very nice sealed deck application).

Of course, most of these impossible translocations could be ac-complished with a normal deck and good old-fashioned palming. In fact, almost all of the Extractor versions involve palming the card from one place to another. To be fair, these are probably some of the easiest palms and loads you’ll ever attempt, because they happen inside your pockets, and the presence of the card case precludes any way that you could be palming. And the routines are structured such that you surreptitiously load the card way before the reveal, which creates a very strong impression. And obviously, at some point you have to switch the deck in play for the Extractor gimmick, but the switch taught is probably the easiest and most powerful one available to the card magician, and the misdirection involved is incredibly strong.

There are also a few more subtle things the Extractor allows you to do. For example, it allows you to glimpse the card as you put the case away. In fact, many of the effects offered throw in that extra mind-reading element as another extra “hit” in the middle of whatever impossible translocation you’re performing. In actual practice, it’s probably best used sparingly depending on the effect. More intriguing is the ability to secretly write on the face of the selection. These types of applications make this a gimmick worth exploring.

Some of the applications offered are a little overwrought. For example, there’s a version of Darwin Ortiz’s Harry in Your Pocket that requires two decks (one a forcing deck), plus the Extractor, and happens in the performer’s pocket. The original requires only one ordinary deck and is performed in an audience member’s pocket; I don’t see the Extractor version as an improvement. Also, taken as a whole, the effects taught give an impression of sameness; you employ the Extractor, then you figure out the wackiest place you can think of for that card to end up, and, by the way, you can name the card, too.

It’s a gimmick with a lot of immediate potential, and I believe even more creative potential. At $80 a pop, it might not be the sort of thing for the casual or even serious amateur, but for a creative professional this could definitely be the foundation of a reputation-making effect or three. And the versatility of the new and improved version makes it even handier. I recommend it for anyone looking to seriously gob smack his audience.

(pi) Ring on Band tRickBy micHael scanzelloAvailable from Philly MagicDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $20.00

REVIEW BY DAN GARRETT

Ever since Bill Kalush created the borrowed ring and rubber band effect and Michael Ammar popularized it, this type of routine has become virtually essential for the professional close-up performer. It is a non-card, non-coin, impromptu sleight-of-hand effect with ordinary objects, yet the magic that can be created with these two objects is simply astounding. Philadelphia wizard Michael Scanzello has researched almost everything in print on the subject, developed his own handling, and created the “definitive” routine for Ring on Band.

The disc includes about twenty very stretchy rubber bands (which

you will need for the advanced moves) and a practice ring (although almost any wed-ding-type band will do). There is a four-phase ring and

rubber band routine described. The phases are called “strand by

strand,” “slow motion,” “dangling link,” and “lost link.” All of them are

excellent. Following that is what Michael calls the “Master Link.” Any one of these will

stand alone if you want a quick, visual miracle.There are also a couple of bonus sections that detail variations

using borrowed key rings, hair ties, bracelets, and even pretzels! Two additional routines are included. One is the full work on Arthur Setterington’s penetrating bands (commonly known as Crazy Man’s Handcuffs) using rubber bands only. The other is Scanzello’s version of a borrowed ring in shoe, using a ring only. Of course, you need to be wearing shoes.

Mastering the moves is not an easy task. You will have to put in the necessary time and practice. Fortunately, the disc is extremely detailed, and the explanations are usually repeated with a different angle. The videography is about as good as it gets. And the credits, joyfully, are about as complete as possible, listing all sorts of contributors to rubber band magic related to the routines presented.

A lot of work went into this product, and the price is very reasonable. You can find the demo video on YouTube. Armed with two DVDs, namely, Scanzello’s Pi: Ring on Band and Joe Rindfleisch’s Jumper, you will have material that will put you far ahead of the curve in rubber band magic. You should have figured out by now that the Pi in the title of the DVD does not refer to a dessert, but rather to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Now that’s irrational.

page: VoucHeR tRickBy sansminds magicAvailable from: www.SansMinds.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $35.00

REVIEW BY DANNY ARCHER

As usual with releases from SansMinds, the DVD is well shot and disc navigation is nicely done. Here

is the basic effect: The performer introduces a coupon book, similar to the ones you find in many com-munities. The performer flips through the book, showing many different coupons in several col-

or-coded sections. The performer looks away; the spectator is told to

insert a finger into the book as the performer flips through the pages. The

book is opened at that spot and the spectator is asked to remember some of the details printed on

the coupon. The book is closed hiding the selected coupon from view. Bit by bit the performer is able to pull thoughts from the spectator’s mind, revealing details of the coupon. Names, smells associated with the business, a menu, and more can be revealed,


eventually ending with the actual name of the business.The effect is very easy to do from the performer’s perspective.

I performed it for a friend and he was impressed. The specially printed coupon book looks legitimate, but it cannot be examined by the spectator either before or after the effect. While the book looks good, the coupons inside are all for sound-alike companies (Burger Queen instead of Burger King and Orangebee’s instead of Applebee’s.) However, they don’t get to examine the book and the speed of flipping probably prevents them from noticing this. Also the book is much thinner than the coupon books I am familiar with in my community. On the plus side, the book is of a size that makes it easy to carry in your pocket. Another presentation is included that ends up with two people each thinking of the same coupon. While I don’t see this being used by professional mental-ists, I think this is an interesting piece for magicians looking to add a mentalism flavor to their magic and I can recommend it with these caveats.

simplex monte tRick and dVdBy RoB BRumley Distributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesRetail Price $28.99

REVIEW BY JAMIE SALINAS

It seems as if there are a million versions of the Monte effect, a gam-bling-themed routine in which the object is to find or follow the “money card.” It’s a con made famous by the street hustlers in New York City. Now make

that a million and one versions. Rob Brumley has created another version of this effect using a special gimmicked card.

The effect is simple and the base routine is short and sweet. Three Jokers are shown along with one Queen of Hearts. One Joker is removed to make it easier for the marks to keep track of the Queen. The Queen is placed in the middle of the two Jokers, but as it is removed face down, it is turned over and shown to be a Joker. The process is repeated in a seemingly fairer manner, but again the Queen is found to be a Joker. For the final phase, all of the cards are held face up with the Queen in the middle of the Jokers. As they are dropped to the table, the Queen visibly changes to a Joker in mid-air, and the extra Joker that was placed aside from the very beginning is found to be the Queen.

Does it really look that good? Yes. Is the routine that direct and simple to follow? Yes. Can the cards be examined? No. Well three of them can be inspected, but not the gimmicked card. Is this a problem? It can be. This routine requires good audience management to draw the attention away from the gimmick and to the revelation of the Queen, which was previously shown to be a Joker. This is not a difficult task, but there will be times when the spectators will want to examine all of the cards. You’ll want to get to know your audience a bit before pulling this out, so you can judge how grabby they might be.

Included on the DVD are additional handlings, and an addi-tional change. The instructions are easy to follow, because this is designed for the beginner and intermediate card worker. The gimmick is well made and should last a long time. The visual effect is fantastic, but you will have to decide if the heat on the

gimmicked card is something you can deal with. If you like Monte effects, do not mind using a gimmicked card, and love visual card magic, then you should invest the small amount of time needed to master this routine along with the expense of purchasing this effect.

cups and eggs dVd and pRopsBy leo smetseRsDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $85.30

REVIEW BY MARC DESOUZA

I’ve been a Cups and Balls nut for years. I have collected not only sets of cups, but routines as well. I really enjoy cultural variations on the classic, and began working on the Indian Cups and Balls after reading Charlie Miller’s routine many years ago in Genii magazine. Finding the cups was not so easy at the time, so I experimented with several existing “found” cups. Among them were several different sets of egg cups. Now, here is a new product by Dutch magician Leo Smetsers that uses

the same props.On the DVD, Smetsers teaches his routine, which is fairly

simple and direct. More important, Smetsers has provided a finish that I had never contemplated, eggs actually appearing in the cups. This is both good and bad. On the good side, it is a very rapid and surprising finish, because the eggs are sitting in the cups as they are turned upright. On the bad side, the handling is a bit cozy and, to me, a bit obvious. This may be because the camera’s eye cannot be misdirected; in person it might fly by most specta-tors. The techniques used for most of the routine are the same as in traditional Indian Cups and Balls, but the routine itself is quite different in structure and presentation.

The DVD is well done from both the visual and audio point of view. Smetsers is a good teacher and gets his points across well. In addition to the DVD, all of the props you require are provided. These include three metal egg cups, all of the balls needed, and the three really nice fake eggs for the finale. All is contained within a burlap sack that you can use to transport the whole lot for performances.

I found the routine to be of interest and, if you are a lover of the Cups and Balls, you probably will, too. The price is a bit high for the curious, but considering that all of the props are provided, it is reasonably good value for money. Recommended.

FacesHiFteR dVd and gimmickFRom skulkoRDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $29.95

REVIEW BY NORMAN BECK

I made a promise to myself that I would never again say anything negative about a product; I would be nice. And I am going to hold true to that, and let the facts speak for me. Faceshifter is the same gimmick that Mark Mason came out with over a decade ago. Mason’s trick is called 2wenty1, and is very good. Faceshift-er is a much weaker version. Faceshifter, and I quote, “is an im-


possible two card transpo that you can easily carry with you anywhere.

The performer presents two cards to his spectators and the switch happens right in front of the spectators’ eyes. The card can even be on the spec-

tator’s hand when the switch happens! It is a jaw-dropping

effect that is easy to perform and resets instantly.”

You can’t do the trick the way they sell it, because they only send you the

gimmicked card and you must provide a second card in order to do it. I think for $30 they could include the material to do the effect. The actual DVD clocks in at less than nine minutes, with another 1:20 of instruction on how to make the gimmick. Did I mention it is Mark Mason’s gimmick?

The DVD has no audio, only subtitles with music in the back-ground. This is a pet peeve of mine. If I want to listen to music I will put in a music CD. If I want to learn magic I want to hear and see the magic, not look at subtitles.

Along with the main effect they teach two other routines that have no presentation. Both can be done without the gimmick; one is a version of the coin effect Three Fly, and the other is a version of the Biddle Trick. Neither impressed me enough to write anything more.

Oh, one last thing, did I mention that this gimmick is by Mark Mason, and that he put out a good trick called 2wenty1 (read it as “21”) that he sells for $20? You should buy that trick. It’s a good value.

WoWlett tRickFRom a concept By luke daRcyAvailable from: www.rsvpmagic.comPrice $114.35 or $147.03 with the WOW Gimmick

REVIEW BY PAYNE In 2006, or thereabouts, the ever

inventive and exceptionally clever Katsuya Masuda released the WOW gimmick to the magic community. The trick was so named, at least according to legend, because when he showed it to fellow magician Lance Burton the single word response he received from him was, “Wow!”

There was a good reason for Lance’s response; magic rarely is as visually stunning as this. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last few years and have

yet to experience WOW, the basic effect is the visually inexpli-cable transformation of one playing card into another. It’s quite amazing to behold – so amazing that you’ll find yourself doing it over and over again, simply for your own amusement and delight.

Unfortunately, as incredible as this effect is to watch, it has a major setback. The transformation is achieved by placing the card into an odd-looking transparent plastic holder. For some this wasn’t an issue. But for others it presented an un-scalable hurdle – the justification of having to employ such a strange looking plastic

sleeve to accomplish the amazing miracle. Many felt, rightly so, that the audience would credit the toy-like object, rather than the skill of the magician, with the card’s transformation.

So, if you’re one of those folks who, after a long afternoon of amusing themselves watching a card visibly change itself from one to another and then back again before pitching the device into to the depths of your bottomless drawer of unused magic props, go and dig it out because the folks at RSVPmagic have come up with a near perfect solution for use with the WOW Gimmick: the Wowlett.

Taking an idea from Luke Darcy, they have created a unique card in wallet routine that employs the WOW gimmick. The Wowlett is a leather billfold in which the WOW gimmick acts as the ID window. A cleverly hidden slot on the Wowlett’s outside allows you to easily secretly slip a palmed card behind the gimmick. This allows you to show one card in the wallet and then have it visibly transform into a second (signed) card right before the spectators' astonished eyes.

The Wowlett is well made out of leather, and even though it lacks a place to keep bills, there are slots for credit cards and even a small change purse on the outside. So, if you live in a cashless world living off debit and credit cards, you could use the Wowlett as your everyday billfold.

The Wowlet is accompanied by a very well-produced DVD that walks you step by step through several routines, ideas, and al-ternative handlings for the Wowlett – even one that doesn’t involve having to palm the card. But, like all card to wallet routines, the best, most baffling ones require you learn, if not master this valuable skill. So if at present you don’t palm cards, this would be a good trick to inspire you to learn. It’s not the best Card in Wallet routine out there. But of all the wallets I’ve worked with this is one of the easiest to load I’ve come across.

Now for the particulars: The wallet is well made and the reset time is instantaneous. The angles are good. You should be able to do this surrounded, making it a great feat for strolling or res-taurant work. The basic Wowlett doesn’t come with the WOW gimmick. If you don’t already own one, you’ll either have to obtain one separately, or buy the more expensive Wowlett that comes with one. The WOW gimmick just slips into the Wowlett, so it can be easily removed if you still wish to use it by itself in another routine. (We recommend the one Paul Gertner teaches in his lectures.)

The only difficulty I had with this was getting the card to change smoothly with a minimal amount of fiddling. But then I have large thumbs, and I bite my nails, which hindered the operation of the gimmick. However, after a bit of rehearsal, the leather softened up enough to allow even big thumbed me to operate it with ease. If you’re looking for a unique and visually stunning card to wallet routine, the Wowlett might be just the thing.

If you wish to have your product reviewed, please send it to:

Bill Duncan P.O. Box 50562

Bellevue, WA 98015-0562


By Ken Klosterman

ROBERT-HOUDIN AERIAL CLOCK

French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, the acknowledged “Father of Modern Conjuring,” also created an amazing array of what have come to be called “Mystery Clocks.” These clocks were deceptive because the means by which the hands moved and the clock kept time was an utter mystery to the uninitiated then, and even now. Many featured transparent glass faces set atop ornate gilded bases. Others featured glass dials atop a glass pillar. In both cases, the animation of the clock was completely hidden.

In his show, Robert-Houdin also used a second type, which has been described as an “Obedient Clock.” He identified it in his program as La Pendule Aérienne, the Aerial Clock, also sometimes called the Cabalistic Clock. He was not the first to perform such an effect, even though he indicated in his memoirs that he introduced it in 1847.

There are descriptions of such an obedient clock in Die Gaukeltasche (The Pocketbag of Illusion) by Hofrath von Eckhartshausen, published in Munich in 1791. It is possible that Breslaw presented such a clock in 1778 and 1781, as did Katterfelto in 1782.

Robert-Houdin’s presentation of the Aerial Clock was succinctly described by Lascelles Wraxall in material he added to his translation of Houdin’s Memoirs:

“A transparent clock dial with a single hand was suspended by two thin cords. Hanging beneath the dial was an attractive crystal bell. The clock’s hand moved at Robert-Houdin’s command to any time a spectator chose, and the bell sounded the appropriate hour. The clock and bell were passed among the audience for examination both before and after the feat. Finally, the magician gave the onlooker one end of a short cord; a hook was attached to the other end. The bell was put on the hook. Yet the bell still

sounded whenever a spectator wished.”Wraxall was either mistaken or telling a good story, for the

clock dial could be shown to the audience, but only the hand and the bell could actually be handed out for examination. The addition of the bell below the dial was apparently an innovation by Robert-Houdin. Such bells were often presented by themselves as mysterious signaling devices, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when “spirit manifestations” were a very popular feature. Given the ingenuity of Robert-Houdin’s devices of all kinds, we can assume that his method of controlling the Aerial Clock was highly innovative, if not an entirely new invention.

Many methods have been used to control the movement of the clock hand. The most basic was thread wrapped around a hub in the center of the dial that received a spindle on the back of an arrow-shaped hand. Another was to edge-rotate a front disk of glass with the hand on it, laid over a stationery second disk with the numbers painted on, much like some magical timepieces.

Others depended on moving a concealed magnet to affect a magnetized hand; controlling a coiled spring by a start-stop brake activated by a thread or an electromagnet; concealed clockwork activated by a hidden pendulum, spring, or descending weight; or a sliding counterweight on the back of the hand that was positioned to cause the hand to come to rest at a particular number after being spun. This last invention, or at least significant improvement, is credited to Robert-Houdin’s contemporary, Johann Hofzinser.

Examination of the apparatus in the Salon de Magie reveals that the hand is operated by a small key-wound, spring-driven clockwork motor concealed in the ball at the top of the dial. However, the starting and stopping of the clockwork is controlled by an electromagnet, which is powered by wires running through each of the suspended cords to a hook that engages the ring in the ball at the top of the dial. When current is applied to the electromagnet, it withdraws a post that allows a flywheel in the clockwork to spin, which rotates a narrow gear-driven drum.

A loop of very fine thread wound around this drum runs to a rotating collar in the hub on the dial that receives the spindle of the clock hand. When current is stopped, the electromagnet releases the post, which moves in to stop the flywheel.

The clock in the Salon de Magie is definitely a Houdin-type clock, and appears to match a clock once in the Charles Larson collection. It is attributed to a French magic dealer of the period 1860-1890, probably Voisin.


Treasures from the Salon de Magie

INSIDE STRAIGHTBY NORMAN BECK

ABOVE AND BEYOND

Relationships – at the end of the day, that is what it all comes down to. I have learned a great deal about relationships over the last four months, and I have found that some were better than others. There is a saying from Iceland that makes the point: “You never know who your friends are until the ice breaks.”

I had many great things happen to me while I was off on my medical “vacation.” I want to share a very special one with you that involved two guys, Steve and George. Their full names are Stephan Pyles and George Majdalani, and they own and run two restaurants here in Dallas: Stephan Pyles and Stampede 66. Stephan Pyles is my girlfriend’s favorite place to eat in Dallas. We go there for special events and whenever I need to get out of the doghouse; consequently, we eat there a great deal. We have our own table, waiter, and captain. We know all the staff by name, as well as the two owners and their families. When I say we are regulars, I really mean it.

Brain surgery, however, will put a damper on going out to eat. Twelve hours in the operating room will knock anybody down; per doctor's orders I was a prisoner in my own house. I was only allowed to be driven to the doctor’s office and back home again. George told us that if we needed anything food wise to call him and he would deliver it. One night my girlfriend suggested that we call George and order dinner. We called and the next night George himself showed up; his partner Stephen was out of town or he would have come as well.

George came in, set up the table, and brought everything that was needed to cook supper; he served us just like we were at the restaurant. I eat out a great deal and have had many great, memorable meals, but this one was at the top of the list. Was the food outstanding? Yes. Had I eaten the same menu prior to this? Many times. What made it so memorable? The fact that one of the owners of one of the top places to eat in the United States took the time to make a house call and cook for two people who could not come to dine with him; this was really special. Had it not happened, we would still eat there just as often, but I can think of nothing that has ever happened or could ever happen that would endear me to a business es-tablishment any more than this gesture of kindness.

When it was raining in my world, George didn’t just bring an umbrella; he brought a ray of sunshine that I will never forget nor be able to repay. The nice thing is that no repayment is possible. After the meal I asked George for the check; there wasn’t one. I was told that he didn’t charge for his services, and I cried. Please, if you do magic and you have a chance to go do a magic show for someone under the weather, do so. They will be thankful for your kindness and generosity more than you will ever know. I know in my situation that we will only ever have one special place to eat in Dallas, and that will not be subject to change.

If you ever come to Dallas and want someplace really special to eat, go to Stephan Pyles at 1807 Ross Avenue. Ask for table 52; tell them Norman sent you and you will learn what real customer service is. At the end of the day, this is what we do as magicians; we provide customer service.


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By George Schindler

TV OR NOT TV?

At the time that I made my first appearance on television, very few people had TV sets. I was on a Sunday afternoon children’s show called Chiselcrimp in the Land of Anything. The eight-year-old emcee introduced me as follows, “Here is George the Mee-oo Jishun.”

Let’s skip ahead to 1971, when I had the opportunity to do the Dick Cavett show; the night before my appearance, I received a cancellation call. It seems that President Nixon had arranged for the Chinese Ping Pong Team to visit New York, and they bumped me off that show.

In New York, Joe Franklin was always kind enough to let the S.A.M. plug our Salute to Magic on his local TV show; we had arranged one show on which I was to be his guest host. I got to the studio in the morning, where I met George Kreskin in the green room. A few minutes later, Joe apologized and cancelled my spot, since Kreskin did not want to appear on a show with a magician.

In 1976, Reiss Games hired a remarkable lady named Estelle Endler, who set up some wonderful PR events; the company sent me around the U.S. promoting their magic products and my book. Estelle had me doing early TV morning spots in the major cities where there were department stores featuring the Reiss magic sets. I remember doing the rising cards and a sawing in half on

Dialing for Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, Good Morning, and dozens of early morning news shows.

At CBS in Los Angeles, I got a network spot with Dinah Shore. We were doing magic on a breakfast set. I was asked to check the table props, and as I did so, I cheated. I secretly shoved a half dollar into a dinner roll, which saved me from having to palm it and load it at airtime. I was off to Philadelphia that same year, where we taped the Mike Douglas show. It was one of the most memorable days in my life, as I met and appeared with Mark Wilson, Johnny Thompson, and Harry Blackstone Jr. Douglas was asked to wear a ring so I could borrow it for my Coin in Ring effect, but being TV, the bit was cut; I ended up picking up a bottle with a soda straw. Mike still wanted to know why he had to wear the ring. On that same day I met Tom and Sherrie, whose bird act was cut from the show entirely.

What prompted these memories was a 1099 tax form I received from NBC. One Tuesday I got a call from the prop manager at Saturday Night Live; he needed an illusion for Saturday’s show. They were doing a bit in which actress Melissa McCarthy had to be changed into a ham. It had to be quick. I usually recommend the rental of standard effects, but there was nothing like this that we could have in a few days.

I came up with an idea I often used at corporate sales meetings. Working with the phone and fax I got the SNL fabricator to make up a hula-hoop type of ring with a six-foot cloth hanging from the top with a slit in the back. Melissa steps into the ring on the floor, two assistants lift it, and when they drop it, she is gone.

I was picked up by an NBC limo and arrived at the studio on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The prop had to be ready at 7 p.m. that night for rehearsal. It finally arrived at 6:55 p.m. Melissa is a pro and is a quick study. Too much time was needed to ring in the ham, so I changed the staging so that she was already in the ring standing in front of the ham and the cloth, which was raised knee high to cover it. Rehearsal went great, and the trick fooled the camera crew. I left (not by limo, but on the subway) and quickly emailed, called, and sent Facebook notes to my friends so they could watch the bit. You guessed right. The trick never aired. It was two minutes too long. And all I have was the great memory and, oh yes, the check for my consultation.


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