Magic Touch 11 - tmtmagazine.com pdf/Magic Touch 2010.11.pdf · gratitude for the blessings of...

November 2010 Greetings, what a couple of months this has been! The comings and goings of our oldest son have been keeping us very busy; he still has not been trans-

ferred to Florida although that was supposed to have happened since March — we know what military orders can be like.

I am hoping each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you had much to be thankful for, not the least of which should be your health. We had a great deal we were blessed with and gave thanks for; another year with our parents, sons and grandson; our health; good friends around the world; the roof over our heads and

although with a slow economy—our jobs. We also said a very special prayer of gratitude for the blessings of having our dear friend, Rachel Colombini, come through her heart surgery with flying colors. Please allow me to express my appreciation to Ted White, Cometa Magico and the men and women who comprise the organization for the honor they paid me in awarding me the prestigious Cometa Magico Award. I

would be remiss if I didn’t also recognize Gustavo Raley and Alexander Blade who, on behalf of Ted White, pre-sented the award and Fantasio whose home hosted not just a lecture by Gustavo Raley but also said presen-tation. THANK YOU each and every one who had a part in this awarding and presentation. As I come to a close on this letter and issue

of The Magic Touch, I would like to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season. Whether you celebrate

Christmas, Chanukah, Ramadan or another holiday, may they be filled with good health and cheer. I will close with a quote from Hamilton Wright Mabie who said

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!”

Keep a dream in the making for you create your tomorrows by what you dream today.

From the desk of:

`tÜ|t \uö©xé

The Magic TouchThe Magic Touch

November—December 2010 Issue 7

Jim & Joyce Zachary

photo courtesy of Clem Kinnicutt

Did you know? It does not make much sense that we would

start this column with a question, however, start

with a question we must. The question, “did you know?” serves a great purpose here. Did you know that not all Past Presidents of the Society of American Magi-cians are Past National Presidents? No, it is not a crazy question. The answer is simple enough. There have been a few Presidents who are PIPs; that is to say, Past Interna-tional Presidents. Here is the expla-nation. There was a vote taken many years ago to have the S.A.M. Most Illustri-ous President be an International President in order to reflect the true status of both the Society and the President who represent members worldwide. For the next several years the Presidents were known as Most Illustrious International Presi-dent of the S.A.M. and by design then passed on to be P.I.P. when they were no longer in office. Another vote was taken a few years later and the title was rescinded and the S.A.M. went back to having a National President. James “Jim” Zachary is among those who served as an International Presi-dent of the Society of American Ma-gicians. He served from 1980 to 1981 admirably.

Jim has been involved in the magic world for as long as he can remember. He has been a performer, a creator, a writer, a manufacturer, a dealer and has worn numerous other hats in his many decades in the art. The accolades paid to Jim and his wife Joyce over the years have been many, all of them well deserved. They are well known in the magic community and are re- spected by those who know them. Jim is a mem-ber of the In-ternational Brotherhood of Magi-cians since the early 60’s, a member of the prestigious Magic Circle of Lon-don where he is an MIMC (Member of the Inner Magic Circle) and he has served as one of their representatives in the United States, in addition to being a member of the Society of American Magicians and several other magic groups. He has also served on the Florida Magicians Association, has been instrumental in organizing con-ventions and other events throughout the state. Upon stepping down as President of the S.A.M., Jim continued to serve the Society, as did his wife Joyce. Jim served as Dealer Chairman for almost two decades. Jim, Joyce and their family lived up north before moving to Florida and set-ting up house in Central Florida, an easy ride to Orlando, Orlando, Daytona and other places active in magic.

J IM AND JOYCE ZACHARY

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Jim and Joyce Zachary Cover

Maria Ibáñez Jim and Joyce Zachary

3-4

Aldo & Rachel Colombini Jim and Joyce Zachary

5

Tom Craven Silver to Copper

6

Solyl Kundu Made For Each Other

7

David J Magical Chatback

8-9

Pablo Amirá Mental Touches

10-11

Venu Vinjamoori Magician’s Planet

12-13

Simone Marron October in Las Vegas

14-15

Artie Kidwell Backstage—a Perspective

16-17

Phil Gleason Products, products, prod-ucts

18-19

Biktor Chavez TV Magic

20-21

Magic Organizations 19

Maria Ibáñez Life At The Top

22-23

Kelly Peron From the Ground Up

24-25

Jim Stott The Magic Classroom

26

Grandpa Chet Cox Fun & Games in the capi-tal with no capital

27-37

From our home to yours may all your dreams come true and a very happy and prosperous

new year.

You might be asking yourself whether magic is all that Jim does, and you would be correct in asking yourself. The answer is a definite no. Jim is an extremely creative man and has kept busy throughout his lifetime, raising a family; creating and manufacturing magic; serving the magic community and its members in any way he could, and, something many of you may not be aware of…..painting.

Yes, Jim is an artist and has quite a few different oil paintings which he has sold (and some of which may still be available) through his website. The graphics on this page do not do justice to his paintings and I highly recom-mend you go see them on the site for a better view.

Custom made deluxe tables were a much sought after item that the Zachary’s manufactured. These were deluxe sit-down tables for the discriminating performer and featured ser-vantes, quality working sur-

faces, and inlaid legs. The type of table used on recent videos by Michael Ammar, Daryl, Mi-chael Close and Harry Lorayne. Yes, Jim Zachary or Jim Zee, whatever name you know

him by or whatever you may call him, is a man of many talents and a man ca-

pable of wearing many hats throughout his years, not just as magician, builder, painter, etc., but also as a friend, husband, father and grandfather. Jim and Joyce have been married for many, many years and she has been just as involved and active with magic as has Jim. She too is a member of the numerous organizations and she too has been a giving and devoted member who has given freely of her time and talents anywhere and to anyone who has asked.

Joyce served as National Secretary for many years and is the Secre-tary Emeritus of the Society. She and Jim are Honorary Life Members.

S.A.M. Assembly 266 bears the name Jim Zachary Assembly, one of the highest honors that can be be-stowed on a member and one which the members felt Jim more than deserved. There is a great deal more that can be said about Jim and Joyce Zachary, so much that it would take ency-clopedic volumes to say it all. They are perfect to-gether as are two bookends on a shelf. It was my pleasure and honor to present Presidential Citations to both Jim and Joyce during the year that I served as your S.A.M. President.

Jim and Joyce Zachary truly a couple of quiet, behind the scene workers who made and continue to make a difference in our magic lives.

http://www.jimzeemagic.net

Special thanks to Clem Kinnicutt for the photos used in this article.


Rachel Colombini, as we all know, has been facing some very difficult moments with her health and has as of November 22nd of this year had heart surgery. During our last phone conversa-tion, I mentioned to Rachel that this issue of The Magic Touch was being dedicated to Jim and Joyce Zachary. Not only was Rachel thrilled with the news, but she also promptly agreed to write a short paragraph about it.


Both Aldo and I have had the pleasure of knowing Jim and Joyce for over 20 years. In my case, I got to know Jim as Dealer Chairman for the S.A.M. and I believe Aldo knew him the same way. We attended many conventions and shared man a drink and in-telligent conversations at the bar. They are both very well versed, not only in magic, but also on many other subjects and it is always a pleasure meeting with them. Recently, as we have not been traveling as much, and as they do not live too far away from us, we were delighted to discover that they have the same appreciation for wine and food as we do. Therefore, we have spent many very enjoyable evenings sampling Aldo’s Italian cuisine and the Zachary’s recommendations for accompanying wine. Accolades for their contributions to magic. Love to you both, Jim and Joyce—

Silver to Copper Effect: Two Silver coins are shown and tossed from RH to LH. One of the silver coins is squeezes from LH onto the ta-ble. The RH picks it off the table and

tosses it back into LH. A moment later, the LH is slowly opened to reveal that both coins have changed to copper.

Working: Two copper and two silver coins are needed (unless you really can change

silver to copper). At the beginning, one copper is resting on the right knee. The other copper is on the right fingers covered by the two silver coins. In the Fig. shown, the shaded copper coin is exposed for clarity. The tip of the right thumb holds everything in place. The LH is open and resting on the edge of the table. Display the silver coins in the RH, then turn the RH over to toss the coins into the LH. Right thumb actually retains the the silver coin by the thumb. The right hand moves in a continuing motion with that retained silver

and laps it. This is done with no trace of hesitation. LH now contains one copper and one silver. The silver is squeezed from the LH and per-mitted to drop to the table. As this is happen-ing, the RH drops to the lap and pushes the lapped coin down between the legs (to pre-vent ´talking¡ in a few seconds. It also finger palms the coin from the right knee. RH picks up the silver from the table, executes a ´Bobo Switch¡ (The new Modern Coin Magic, pg 10). The second sil-ver coin is lapped in one continuous motion. Conclude by showing that both coins in the hand have changed to copper. Note: Having access to what’s coming from Tom Craven in future issues of The Magic Touch, I can assure you that you won’t want to miss them.

SILVER TO COPPER BY TOM CRAVEN

Courtesy of Tom Craven www.cravensvipmagic.com

Now take the other pile of cards and mix them well. Again casually spread the cards faces up and repeat comment on how thoroughly the cards are mixed etc, however, in doing so remove the ‘matching card’ that is the card containing the name of male partner of the “Queen of the party” and secretly place it on the face of the pile, square up the cards and turn faces-down. Holding the cards in the hand, you ask the “Queen of the party” to call out any number between one through five. If she says 2, 3, or 4 you “glide” remove the card positioned at that number. If 1 is called you simply remove the face card of the facedown pile of cards. However, if 5 is called out, just count down from top down and take the face card of the face-down pile. In any case, you take the card that contains her partner’s name. Pre-tending as a casual selection, you now place this card atop the other pile resting over the working surface. Request the “Queen of the party” to go for an unusual way of eliminating the card. Ask her to deal the top card under cards in hand, and the next card to the table (Under Down Shuffle), until only two cards remain. They will match – The “King and Queen of the party”. Sure marriages are made in the heaven! I have given you just barebones of the effect; you must dress it up with suitable patter, one liner, bits of business or what you have.

Have Fun!

SOLYLKUNDU@GMAIL

FROM THE DESK OF SOLYL KUNDU

MADE FOR EACH OTHER Firstly let me confess that this is not an earth-shattering mystery. However, this is certainly for a ‘special occasion effect’.

Anywhere in a marriage or marriage reception party where you are performing, presented in a tongue-in-check style it makes an impression. And sec-ondly, the effect is not original with me, but just my dressing for ‘Psychic Partners’ – a Tony Brook (Hi Tony!) effect.

solylkundu Kolkata, India

Effect: You talk about the old adage that mar-riages are made in heaven. To support this adage you take out a bunch of your visiting cards and distribute among 5 couples. Ask each of them to

write their names over the blank side of the cards. After they finish, you collect the cards back, first from the ladies and then from the gents making two separate piles. Leave

both piles over the table.

Next ask a lady to take any pile of cards and mix them well, then receive the pile of cards back. Casually spread the cards faces up and comment on how thoroughly the cards are mixed. In doing so look for the name of the lady who is the “Queen of the party” and place this card second from the face. Close up the cards and turn those faces down and put over the table.

Ebo art era over 300 years ago. The Ebo period was an impor-tant developing period in Japa-nese art. Noriko asked me what was my favourite playing card to which I replied that it was the “Queen of Hearts”. Locating my card she showed it freely then shuffled it into the deck to lose it. I was immediately intrigued in that our little lady used the Hindu shuffle. Now I have seen a lot of Indian fellows in South Africa carry out the Hindu shuffle with their characteristic flip, flap, flop, ac-tion. However Noriko deftly shuffled the cards in a quick, competent but highly skil-ful manner. (I’m sure my good friend Solyl Kundu is adept at the Hindu shuffle). She then counted face down onto the table 12 play-ing cards in a ran-dom spread and in-vited me to select any four cards and to turn them face up. I selected the 6 /D, 4/C, J/D and the 8 /H. Noriko then advised that she would count cards face down onto my selected four cards to make up to 10. So onto the 6 /D she counted, 7 -8 -9 -10. Onto the 4 /C, she counted, 5 - 6 -7 - 8 -9 -10. The J /D = 10, so no cards were dealt on it. Onto the 8 /H, she counted 9 - 10. She then re-placed the just counted face down cards onto the bottom of the deck.

ALL THE WAY FROM AUSTRALIA BY DAVID J

Magical Chatback Since our arrival in Brisbane my wife and I, in collaboration with the University of Queensland take in

overseas students as home stay guests. To date we have had students from Russia, France, Thailand, Korea, Japan and mainland China They usually stay with us from 4 - 6 weeks at a time while they study English at U.Q. We provide them with a room and meals. Initially they only have very basic language skills but after a few days they begin to pick up easy con-versational English with our help, some sign language and of course their Sony electronic dictionaries. We also learn something about their culture and history. At present we have two delightful Japanese girls staying with us, Hanako from Yokohama, and Noriko from Tokyo. Naturally we eat a lot of flied lice and noodle! After dinner the other night I was cajoled into showing the girls some close up table magic. Finishing with a card trick, Noriko mentioned quietly that she knew some magic with playing cards and could she show us? Naturally we all agreed to see some Oriental magic. Incidentally the deck of cards I was using came from Japan and were given to me as a gift years ago. Each card features a beautiful Japanese picture depicting Japanese life. Noriko informed me that the pictures were taken from ancient woodcuts from the

onto the table 26 cards and stops. Asking the vol-unteer to name his original freely chosen card and when the 26th card is turned over, sure enough there is the selected card. Of course this effect works automati-cally every time, simple yet quite effective. Incidentally you may prefer to use the stan-dard overhand shuffle instead of the Hindu shuffle provided you can retain the original selected card on the bottom of the deck. That's a little Japa-nese magic for you, so it's ‘Sayonara’ from down under.

[email protected]

www.magician.org/member/davidthemagician

ALL THE WAY FROM AUSTRALIA BY DAVID J

Noriko then asked me to add up the values of my selected cards, 6 + 4 + J + 8 = 28. i.e. (6 + 4 + 10 + 8 = 28). Then counting face down onto the table she began to count the cards till she reached 28. At this stage she asked me again what my favourite card that we began with was. Replying that it was the “Queen of Hearts”, turning over the 28th

card, it was found to be that very card.

Method: Once a spectator has

freely selected their favour-ite playing card, it is freely displayed then replaced on

the bottom of the deck and shuffled, however the se-lected card is retained on the face of the deck. Performer

now deals face down onto the table, 12 playing cards in a scattered manner. The spectator is invited to select any four cards and to turn these cards face up. Whatever value the cards are, the performer deals face down onto them the required num-ber of cards to make up to 10. E G: The four chosen cards may be the 2 /D, 5 /S, 9 /H, K /C. Onto the 2 /D you count, 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 -7 - 8 - 9 -10. (8 cards). Onto the 5 /S, count, 6 -7 - 8 - 9 - 10. (5 cards). To the 9 / H, count,10. (1card). Fi-nally, as all court cards = 10, no cards are counted onto the K/C. Replace the just dealt face down cards back onto the bottom of the deck, leaving the four chosen face up cards behind. Add the values 2 + 5 + 9 + K = 26. Reminding the audience that the total of the four cards = 26, the performer counts down

A great problem that I see constantly from prestidigitators is that. They want to come up with the PERFECT way to create the illusion of a false take with clever reten-tions or moves , and from my mind that’s completely pointless because the real magic of the false transfer is in the psychology. Why are you putting the object in the other hand? Do you believe that the object is In your hand when in reality isn’t?

Do you give the magic moment when the object dis-appear ? That subtle point can be perfected just by the use of psychology. Lets see some examples: 1. Why are you putting the object in the other

hand? : Because you want to put your sleeves up.

Obviously this action is not said directly, rather in-directly just with your attitude. You have your object in the palm of your right hand ( If you are righty). Put your right sleeve up with your left hand. After that obviously you need to put your left sleeve up, so NOW the transfer be-comes natural be-cause you need to free your right hand.

MENTAL TOUCHES BY PABLO AMIRÁ

Welcome again to Mental Touches, now Issue #2. I received great comments about my first topic about suggestion. Thanks for your kind words. Now I want to touch briefly some points in a very common sleight that magicians use , the false transfer . So this issue will be:

“Mental Touches in the False Transfer”

Lets define False transfer simply as the acting to take or put something in your opposite hand,

while in reality your kept the object in your hand, and with that accomplish

your goal ( vanish, switch, change ,etc.)

Is a very common and basic sleight that any magi-cian needs to master. The classic “Cups and Balls” effects is purely base in that sleight. But… can we improved that simple sleight and create a better illusion purely with psychology? Of course. I know that you know some guy in the magic com-munity ,that don’t have great skills as a sleight of hand artists, but he receive a lot of gratifications when he perform any false transfer, and you think that is SO obvious. Do you know why he could ac-complish that ? For that same reason ! . Because he doesn’t care if the sleight is perfect, BUT he believe in what he is doing. The fake movement isn’t a fake movement, rather he FEELS the object in his hand, and he be-lieves that the object vanishes in that precise mo-ment and not before when he perform his move.

Pablo Amirá http://amirastuffs.blogspot.com

• Magic in Theory by Richard Wiseman and Pe-

ter Lamont • The Five Points in Magic from Juan Tamariz. • Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz Great sources for other ideas That’s it guys! . A LOT of different ideas can be shared here (Double Crossing the Gaze idea from Slydini and Tamariz, the use of the magic wand, etc.) but I want you, yourself to come up with more finesses for your performances And always remember Touch the minds of your participant with your real magic!

Pablo Amirá, November 2010

MENTAL TOUCHES BY PABLO AMIRÁ

In the moment when you put the object ( in reality keep it palmed in you right hand ) LOOK YOUR PARTICIPANT. Before that action you look always to the object because you wanna direct the attention to the object, BUT when you are performing your false transfer , LOOK UP, in that way your partici-pant WILL look you and the false transfer will regis-ter in the participant`s mind but in a subconsicuous level. In that way you aren’t giving to much atten-tion to that action, and with that direct the attention to a desired place.

In this short video I explain this very subtle point. http://vimeo.com/16403462

Pass: Mental Touches As you can see, is a VERY subtle point, but impor-tant in performance.

2. Magician Tic: I called “Magician Tic” to the sub-tle but extremely common action that magicians have when they perform any move. Maybe is a subtle blinking action, or they open their mouths, or just a weird action that says : “ Look, im doing something funny” You could see a lot of videos in youtube where the per-former has that weird tic. AVOID THAT. Practice in a mirror and look your-self how you do it the natural and real move. After that replicate that same actions with your false transfer, and please, avoid that funny tics. If you are more interested in the psychology of the false transfer and in general of the psychology of magic you can read :

They had invited Salil Kumar “Solyl” Kundu, TVP of IBM (USA) for India as ‘Special Guest’, and Dr. B.V Pattabhi Ram as Chief Guest for the Portal Launching. All veteran magicians in and around Hydera-bad namely Manohar, Ramesh C. V. Ra-mana, and Chand Pasha along with the magic lovers were present on this historic event.

MAGICIANS PLANET BY VENU VINJAMOORI

Some young devotees of the Art of Magic have formed Magic Group under the name of MagiciansPlanet. They are all from Hyderabad, India.

They have launched a new web portal(www.magiciansplanet.com) about magic on October 4th, 2010 at Rabindra Bharati Auditorium, Hyderabad, which brings all the events and updates related to magic world wide at one common place. Of course still they are in a process of making it as a common platform which can be accessed by all magicians and Magic lov-ers throughout India and abroad.

Some salient features in the portal (www.magiciansplanet.com) which exclu-sively focusing on is interviews, inventors and inventions, biographies etc.....; they feel like making it to be the best magic online magic-magazine.

speech by the special guest the function was ended with vote of thanks to the chair.

Congratulations to Magicians Planet

and to Solyl!

MAGICIANS PLANET BY VENU VINJAMOORI

After the event, there was a surprise for Solyl.

He was felici-tated by the AP State ma-

gicians and the team of MagiciansPlanet group for his outstanding contribution to the Art of Magic world-wide and specifically in India.

It was emphatically and joyously mentioned that he is An Ace Indian Magi-cian to per-form in the Magic Castle, Hollywood, and also lecture for the members of the Academy of Per-forming Arts, Hollywood. Moreover, he is the only magician from India to lecture /demonstrates his creations in several magic so-cieties of United States of America.

Moved by these words Dr. B.V Pattabhi Ram personally honored Salil Kumar “Solyl” Kundu in a distinctive Hydera-bad style by wrapping a shawl around him, and also gracing him with sweet scented flower garland.

After an instructive and very interesting

WWW.MAGICIANSPLANET.COM

This October, I had the for-tunate experience of at-tending three magical events in Las Vegas. The

first was the Innovention convention which was held at the Suncoast Re-sort and Casino. This

convention was hosted by Paul Stone, who brought a plethora of international talent to the Silver State.

The main highlight in my opinion, and in the opinion of most, was the Teller lecture. Teller lectured on his famous Red Ball routine. Noth-ing was held back as he shared the intricacies of this spectacular phenomenon with us. Not only did he share the workings with us, but also the thought process, the history, and the conflict of thoughts that evolved between himself and Penn, which were ultimately resolved when the effect reached it’s perfected conclusion.

A personal favorite of mine was the Graham Jol-ley show. Graham, known as “the man you can’t keep out of your mind” is not so well known in the United States, and hails from the other side of the Pond (England). He executed an incredibly funny Mentalism show, which made me think of John Cleese, with his “under the breath” remarks and humor, and the room echoed with laughter. At the same time, the Mentalism was super strong. There were some highs and lows in the evening shows, but the highs that spring to mind were The Great Tomsoni & Co., Mel Mellors, and Ja-son Andrews, who performed his stage act which

took first place at the IBM convention in San Diego. Mark Raffles, another Magician from across the pond, who boasts being 92 years of age, also gave a formidable performance of his new comedy Linking Rings act.

What separated this convention apart in my opin-ion was that they had the hotel Showroom not only for the shows, but also for the lectures. This assured a great seat for everybody in attendance. Also setting this convention apart was the high attendance of Europeans. At a guess, I would say that well over 50% of them were from overseas; most of them being Brits.

For me, it was once again a wonderful opportu-nity to meet up with old friends, and make new ones. Paul Stone has announced that this conven-tion will not take place in 2011, but if it happens again in 2012; count me in!

After a few days, my second event commenced, which was the Mentalism Master Class at McBride’s Magic & Mystery School. This is the second year in a row that I have attended this class, and the only word that I can find to de-scribe it is AWESOME!! Once again, Jeff McBride, Eugene Burger, and Ross Johnson fa-cilitated this class. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not just a repeat of last year’s teachings, but that they went out of their way to ensure that new material was taught to those of us who had attended this class previously. What consummate professionals they all are, and I can’t wait to attend again next year. I felt truly inspired by the conclusion of the class, and my head is filled with all kinds of ideas and thoughts.

October in Las Vegas by Simone Marron

I had some free time again between this class and my third event, and had the fortunate experience of being able to spend time with some wonderful people; most of whom were Magicians. The most special time for me was the time I was able to spend with Eugene Burger. This man is truly a delight, and such a wealth of magical knowledge. Eugene….you are the best!

The third event was my first attendance at Mind-vention; the convention for Mentalists, run by Danny Archer and Robert Allen. Happily for me, the dates for this convention were moved to October, from the normal November dates that usually clash with the Daytona Fes-tival of Magic/Florida State convention. This is a smaller convention that takes place at the Palace Station hotel just of the Strip.

Once again I had an amaz-ing time with friends old and new, and I was kept very busy as one of the few female attendees of the con-vention. It would seem that Mentalists prefer to have female volunteers, and I was only too happy to oblige. My name became pretty well known before the convention was through.

The lecture highlight for me at this convention was Paul Stockman from England, who gave a marvelous lecture, not only on performance pieces, but on the professionalism necessary to do a stage show. The Banachek lecture was fan-tastic also, but our Ring had the pleasure of see-ing the four hour version of this lecture in Jack-sonville six weeks earlier.

The show highlight for me was definitely Ba-nachek. I had never before seen him do a stage performance, and he wowed and amazed the en-tire audience. Although I personally do not love effects that involve what could be a dangerous conclusion, Banachek performed what I would call a “Russian Roulette with Knives”, that turned out to be quite amusing. He chose his five helpers from the audience; three of which would be called upon to stab him in the chest. The hope was that the three chosen to do the stabbing would have the closed knives

concealed in their en-velopes. One of the helpers was Jeff McBride, and we all held our breaths, as we realized that if this went wrong, the headline in the Las Vegas Sun the next day could very well read “McBride Mur-ders Banachek” . Fortunately for all, the outcome was a positive one, and no-

body was hurt. This third event was another great experience for me, and I was happy to learn that they will be keeping the same dates next year, that will once again enable me to attend a trifecta of Magic events next October. Oh yes, Innovention will not take place next year, so I will be adding the Magic and Meaning 2011 conference run by the McBride’s Magic & Mystery School to my agenda.

Simone Marron

October in Las Vegas by Simone Marron

coat a certain way for this to take place, that way there was no delay in him taking one coat off and sliding right into the next one. This made it appear to the audience that he had just stepped off of stage for a second and suddenly right back on in a dif-ferent costume jacket.

Karroll Fox: Here again was an excellent example of ta-

bles being used for props. Karroll always had his gimmicks, props, etc. sitting just in the wings where an assistant or he could grab what was needed next. His prop cases were also ar-ranged in such a way that everything in the case was easy to see and acquire. When it came to props in a case, he taught me the importance of redundant props. For instance, he had a case for every type of show he did, so if he did the Chi-nese sticks for an after dinner show or a birth-day party for kids, each case had a set of sticks. In all, he had roughly 5 different cases for dif-ferent venues. What I found amusing that in the case that carried his mentalisim show there was a vanishing cane in there. No idea what he did with that.

When Karroll used to do the Follies on the Sat-urday night show at Abbott’s the props used were always well set out on various tables AND a list of the cast that was in the show that night. Needless to say even after his death, Duke Stern was always listed in the cast.

James Dimmare: I only had the opportunity to work with James once but again, totally im-pressed with someone that knew how to make

BACKSTAGE – A PERSPECTIVE Ok, so I have aggregated my fecal matter and managed to make a deadline, if not just barely.

I’ve been asked, of the acts I’ve worked with what are some of the lessons I’ve learned. Quite frankly, it’s a shame there isn’t some sort of course people can take that teaches many of the skills someone can learn just by watching another performer. Those of you that have had what could be considered “formal” training in back stage craft are already familiar with this but let me explain what some of the real pros have going for them.

First off, the legendary John Cal-vert: Back stage you will find a variety of tables marked off with tape and tags. This is where would live various props for tricks that the assistants would be ex-

pected to bring out during the show. Usually when he did the full evening show you would have 2 sets of tables, one for the first act and one for the second. In the dressing room, the costumes for the assistants would be hung in order of when they should be worn. After each show each assistant was expected to put their costumes back in order and afterwards the stage manager would double check the accuracy.

Little things like making sure the rifle he used for the blindfold shooting was emptied and all ammunition put away. That’s how I discovered he was using live ammunition (that was a wakeup call). In his act John did several changes of his jacket. I was taught to hold the

WWW.ARTIESMAGIC

than had spilled a bit of lighter fluid on the floor and used my douse rag

to clean it up with. So…..the show is running, the sword gets used, it comes off stage, I wrap the handle to put out the fire and poof, there’s the fire

again. Not knowing what else to do I patted the fire out with my hands (didn’t hurt) and looked over to see Abb Dickson (stage manager) laugh-ing like an idiot at my situation. I mentioned it to Jonathan after the show and he mentioned how I might want to keep better track of my rag. He was right. No harm done but for a brief mo-ment I went from raw panic to laughing.

The bottom line is that the stuff backstage is just as, if not more so, important that the stuff that’s on stage. Keep that in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is this, if you have a chance to hang around back stage to watch someone else work, don’t. It’s a good chance that all you’ll be in the way. Go out front and watch the show and enjoy it as it should be enjoyed. I there’s a horror story later, it won’t be your fault.

Thanks for reading.

BACKSTAGE – A PERSPECTIVE sure his act went as planned. When it came time for tech

rehearsal he would perform in full dress and do the show as if it WAS a dress rehearsal.

No matter how much the stage crew would want to start/stop he went along with it so the show was as close to perfect as it could be. During the week run I was on the stage crew for him it was my job to let him know when the act before him got to a certain point, then he would load his birds. Why? He had timed that act be-fore him so he knew how long his birds would have to be loaded. A very intense worker but damn, he is good!

Of course, on occasions, things can go a bit wrong. A funny example was one of the times I worked back stage with the Pendragons. One of the illusions they performed was the sword basket. The last sword that went into the basket was an ornate Samurai sword with some wicking on the handle to allow it to be on fire. Before the show Jonathan would be back stage putting lighter fluid on the handle carefully, always making sure no fluid was spilled on the floor. During the illusion, once he had plunged the sword thru the basket, he would step towards the wings and launch the sword off stage. What the audience never saw was me in the wings standing next to the stiff Styrofoam he had set up and dousing the handle out with a damp cloth. One night, (can you feel it coming?) I had left my douse rag set-ting back stage before putting it in it’s place in the wings. What I didn’t know was that Jona-

WWW.ARTIESMAGIC

an orange ball, a small, black two-paneled screen, and two dif-ferent sized playing cards (only one is used in the trick). In the online demo, the props are shown one at a time, and the or-ange ball is placed in a dimple at the center of the platform. A playing card is balanced leaning against the ball and hiding it from the audience. Then the screen is brought forward from the rear to partially block the view of the platform from the sides and rear. The card falls over, the screen is withdrawn,

and the card is repositioned. Then the screen is brought forward again, and the moment of magic happens. The card is lowered onto the platform showing that the ball has disappeared, and the ball can be reproduced from under the table. This is a strong trick, and I really enjoy performing it. There's a natural ceremony to the whole thing. For the audience, the trick is self explanatory and baffling. I'm especially fond of the method in which a simple gimmick enables simple sleight of hand, a combination that is a lot of fun to per-form.

The third item is “sleeveless sleeving” by Johan Stahl. This is a DVD of Stahl lecturing on his variation of sleeving. Stahl is a very

good magician and fun as an entertainer. His techniques certainly require practice to

the point of fluent perfection, but they look great: startling transformations of fairly large objects right before your eyes. Stahl's style of performance does not require an uninterrupted series of moves to keep the audience off balance. It's possible to stop, let the audience catch up

It is my pleasure to review 5 re-cently published items. My tastes run to utility items that work in the background to en-able other effects, but I also in-clude two tricks in which the product is front and center for the audience.

First, the most difficult to re-view, the Tra-bucco Hold-out, from Elmwood Magic and

Victor Trabucco (www.elmwoodmagic.com). This trick is expen-sive, around $120, and if I were to tell you the mechanism you would be tempted to imagine that you could go to the hardware store and buy equivalent equipment for much less, but you would be in for a difficult time. The mechanism of this holdout is very carefully engineered. The performer can retrieve something that is held out, or put the same item into storage, silently. More amazingly, the hardware store version has a natu-ral liability that is completely overcome by the Trabucco holdout, something I did not think was physically possible. The Trabucco Holdout comes with a DVD and a number of props suit-able for use with the holdout. Altogether, it is a very nice package. You should understand how-ever, that the holdout is useful only in the back-ground after something has vanished. That is, you'll still have to be able to make a pass and to direct the attention of the audience.

The second item is “Vanishing Point” from Tenyo. This is a very well made plastic product as is typical of Tenyo. There is a small

platform,

Products, products, products — by Phil Gleason

reliable, simple, and bene-fits handling that is not dif-ficult either. Like the Tra-bucco holdout, this effect could be duplicated by careful shopping, but Marks has already done the shopping and test-ing, and his instructions are wonderfully lucid.

Products, products, products by Phil Gleason the audience catch up, think about things and come to their mistaken beliefs. Stahl's technique allows the performer to push up his sleeves and still sleeve objects. The handling however is one in which pushing up the sleeves is not an offer of proof, but rather a gesture to make things clearer, “see the spoon is at my fingertips”. I think this is an approach well worth studying.

The fourth item is “Kartis”, a visible bill change from Tango Magic. This is a clean gimmick and a DVD on how to use it. Kartis

allows you to instantane-ously and visibly change a

blank piece of paper into a one dollar bill. Kartis will not with-stand close examination or prolonged exposure. I would want four to five feet between myself and the nearest audience member, and I think ideally the gimmick should be switched out for some-thing else. With those limitations the device pro-duces a strong effect, it's simple to use, and someone who is handy could use the same design with other bills or types of paper. The fifth item is “Duplicate” by Miami's own Richard Marks. I have not been a mentalist, I like physical objects to appear and disappear, but I tried this on a friend and got an urgent “how did you do that” response. Reality had been undercut in a disturbing way. The kit consists of a plastic folder with two packets of paper labeled “1” and “2”, backed by transparencies and held together by small bulldog clips. The spectator chooses one packet, and makes a drawing on the paper pro-vided. He then hides the drawing face down in the folder, and the performer uses the other packet to duplicate the drawing. The method is

MAGIC ORGANIZATIONS

Society of American Magicians

WWW.MAGICSAM.COM

International Brotherhood of Magicians

WWW.MAGICIAN.ORG

The Magic Circle

WWW.THEMAGICCIRCLE.COM

The Magic Castle

WWW.MAGICCASTLE.COM

Flasoma

WWW.FLASOMA.ORG

FISM

WWW.FISM.ORG

The 90 seconds on air are not in director proportion to all the time you lose, the abuse that you are sub-jected to besides the fact that the producers most of the time like to act funny and to not allow you to look your best. Anything else? They do not pay you to fill in during time they would otherwise have empty. Yes, add to that the fact that the pro-gram is a local, not national channel, the pro-gram airs at a time when people are looking at other programs or soap operas. It turns out that the only ones who saw you on TV are family and friends. And what happens to the fame you were looking for?

But it also has its good side. Your contact informa-tion will be displayed. The downside is that your info will not appear for more than 5 seconds. I have a question: How many artists have you hired because you have seen them advertised on these programs?

In recent years I have only seen 2 magicians in Mexico who have asserted their hierarchy and have earned their re-spect on TV. A few years ago in the Adal Ramones program (Otro rollo) Fernando Keops, did not only have 2 segments for his magic, but even directed the cameras. It was a delight to watch it, under these conditions Fernando could do his magic without problems.

The other example is Joaquin Kotkin (The Wizard of the half beard) on the Rene Franco program (It's night and I have arrived). Rene Franco introduces the magician, and Joaquín instead of going to the

table where the director sat, went straight to center stage and began with his own

effects. During that entire segment we only saw Joaquin do his magic.

TV MAGIC by Biktor Chavez

A question and controversy arose during them month of October in Mexico over a magic contest on a television program. Is it be really worth it to appear a few sec-onds on TV? The answer to this question depends on the goals of each one of us and this will make it very valid and respectable. It seems to me, however, that what we are not properly prepared for is for accept-ing the consequences of taking the decision to ap-ply or not to these programs.

When you enter a contest there is an implicit acceptance of the rules of that competition. Nothing remains but to trust that the rules and conditions will be the same for every-

one. One must rely primarily on the ethics of judges and organizers. There is

no point to protest the verdict of the judges, ulti-mately the same thing happens in football: we can never beat the referees and judges Especially when the score is of assessment. It would be better for us to analyze the pros and cons of appearing on TV and forget the contests.

In my opinion we give TV appearances too much hope of fame. Appearing on TV has become a matter of presumption: "Look, I went on TV!" Or I'm the wizard of TV! The downside of this is that humans have a very short memory. And the would-be "famous magician" quickly pass into the drawer of forget-fulness in the minds of view-ers.

• For TV it is much better to be a solo act. If you require assistant from the audience, the camera could focus to another point at pre-cisely the wrong moment.

• Your movements. As the public will see them through the screen your movements should be slow and deliberate in relation to your live performances. You must give them time to capture what the eye is watching on TV.

Do not forget that the viewers have many ways to distract themselves, if they do not like something then change the channel (the infamous channel surf-ing) or they will get off the couch or check their cell phones or any one of the things you do when something bores you while you are watching TV. Pre-pare, rehearse and plan your TV presentation well.

[email protected]

“An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.”

William Bernbach

TV MAGIC by Biktor Chavez

Also worth mentioning are Frank, Chen Kai and Dino. These magicians were a funda-mental part of varieties and Sunday programs for children. It was another time and an-other way of doing TV. They were part of the artistic cast of those programs and not a sim-ple fill in. The virtue of these three magicians is that they knew how to take advantage of that opportunity, backed by their talent. Beyond these examples, I have not seen any magi-cian who is not ridiculed by the show's hosts each

in their own turn. Some even targeted by bad words, others agree to participate in games of physical skill that places them close to the ridiculous. The public's re-

spect for their career and magic is best left un-discussed.

TV magic to me seems to go beyond

simply moving a Zigzag from a stage to the recording studio. The routines must be adapted to the conditions and needs of TV. If your goal is to appear on TV here are some recommendations that might help:

• Choose the right type of program to show off your magic. Discard programs where the direc-tor doesn’t want to stop being the director for even a few seconds. Programs where some pseudo comedian continues to be funny and is constantly interrupting guests is also not the best option.

• The effects or routines that are pre-sent must be visual. The word should be a simple support. But beware that not all effects can be just music. Linking rings routine looks much with a good sound-track, not so with a rope routine.

The first two installments of introduction of the Past Most Illustrious Presi-dents of the S.A.M. and of the Society’s history were extremely well re-ceived. I have received countless phone calls and emails thanking me and telling me that they had

learned something they had not known before. Here then, is the third installment. The following comes directly from the S.A.M. website which has a wealth of information for members and visitors.

The Society of American Magicians Historical Notes

• The S.A.M. was established on May 10,1902,

in the city of New York, with a membership of 24.

• On February 7,1903, Ehrich Weiss (a.k.a. Harry Houdini) was elected to membership.

• The Fourth Annual Dinner Show held on June 4,1908, included Harry Kellar, Harry Hou-dini, Howard Thurston, Signor Deadato, Imro Fox, T. Nelson Downs, and others!

• In June,1917, Harry Houdini was elected Na-tional President of the S.A.M., a position he held until his untimely death on October 31, 1926.

• Over 250 S.A.M. Assemblies have been es-tablished world wide.

• "M-U-M" is the official publication of the S.A.M. The letters stand for "Magic - Unity - Might".

• The Society of Young Magicians (S.Y.M.) was established in July,1984. Nearly 100 S.Y.M. Assemblies have been established since that time. The official publication of the S.Y.M. is The "Magic SYMbol."

ABOUT THE S.A.M. GOAL II:

Provide opportunities, to those interested, to learn magic and about magic

• (a) Objective: Develop a program for teaching non members to learn magic

• (b) Objective: Provide specific news releases that target the media to educate the public about magic

There is a great deal more you should know about the S.A.M. and each issue will cover a little bit of it.

Can’t wait? Visit the website at

www.magicsam.com and you will learn more about the organization and

more about why you might want to consider joining.

LIFE AT THE TOP by MARIA IBÁÑEZ

Howard Thurston 1927-1929

Theodore Hardeen 1929-1930

James C. Wobensmith 1930-1931

Werner F Dornfield 1931-1932

Bertram E Adams 1932-1933

William H McCaffrey 1933-1934

The Society of American Magicians 1927 — 1934

The third 6 Most Illustrious Presidents

• In July 2002, the Society celebrated its Cen-tennial Year in New York City.

• Also in July of 2002, on the 3rd, the US Postal Services issued a Houdini Commemo-rative Stamp during the Centennial Celebra-tion

Deans of

The Society of American Magicians The highest honor that the Society can pay some-one is to appoint them as Dean of the Society; this is a lifetime appointment. There have been, to date, a total of nine individuals who have been paid that honor.

• Harry Kellar 1910-1922 • Frederick Eugene Powell 1922-1938 • Al Baker 1941-1951 • Jean Hugard 1952-1959 • Herman Hanson 1959-1973 • Werner F. Dornfield 1974-1982 • H. Adrian Smith 1983-1992 • Jay Marshall 1992-2005 • George Schindler 2005-

It is said that when Jay Marshall was approached and told of this honor being bestowed upon him, his first question was “what do the Dean do?” and upon receiving the response “the Dean don’t do nothing” he replied “I accept”. Don’t be fooled by that verbal exchange, a Dean is a very important to the Society, to the members and to magic and they have all been hard working indi-viduals, as is the current one, George Schindler who wears numerous hats in the Society. There is another very high honor that may be be-stowed on members—Honorary Life Member-ship. More information on this in a future issue.

What does it cost to belong to the Society? Cost of membership is very minimal when one takes into account all of the benefits and pride derived from being a member of the oldest magic society in the world. Assembly, Junior Assembly, or Associate Member $65.00 annually. Includes a yearly subscription to M-U-M Magazine, mailed to you. Paperless Global Member $45.00. All the same benefits of regular membership, and you help the environment by reading your M-U-M Magazine online. This also saves you $20.00. Household Member (Resides in same house-hold as a Member) $25.00 Dues S.Y.M. Member (Age 7 to 17) $20.00 Dues plus postage surcharge (see note 1) Includes a yearly subscription to The Magical SYMbol Total: $20.00 Reinstatements $45.00 paperless, ($65.00 if receiving printed M-U-M). Just pay your regu-lar annual dues to resume membership! Thank you for allowing me to share a little bit about the very rich history of the S.A.M. Until next time, remember to keep a dream in the making for you create your tomor-rows by what you dream today.

LIFE AT THE TOP by MARIA IBÁÑEZ

Strolling Magic for Young Children

Why am I writing about this? It’s some-thing I feel

that performers often overlook and some-

thing I feel strongly about. Performing strolling magic for children 5 and under. A lot of us only think of strolling magic for older children and adults, not the day care aged child. I feel this happens because magicians don’t think they would understand it nor have the attention span to warrant a performance. The young child should be allowed to enjoy the magic just like the adults. Don’t leave them out. Over the years I have come to realize that while at festivals, fairs or other events, often times there are also young children that want to be en-tertained. I decided, as a preschool performer and teacher I can also entertain the younger children while Kyle entertains the older children and adults.

Why should you include the young child in strolling magic? You never know where it will lead you. It

could lead to other gigs such as birthday parties etc, but also lets the parents of those children know, that you have not forgot-ten them. Also, the client sees you performing for all of their guests which increased your value to them. Can you perform strolling magic for young chil-dren? Some of you might answer no, but I am here to tell you ….yes you can. I am here to tell you not to forget them.

They enjoy seeing close up, fun magic just as much as the adults. Something to remember…what you may use to make chil-dren laugh in your lar-ger show can also be used in a strolling magic performance. Basic principles such as see don’t see and magician in trouble can be directly applied to close up magic making exciting for the kids. Let me give you some examples and tips you can apply to your close up magic. First, keep it simple. Remember, they aren’t as interested in the magic as they are the journey you take them on. Keep the magic visual and simple to under-stand. For example: the most common effect we use in close up magic is cards. However, stan-dard playing cards don’t mean anything to a child of this age, it’s too complicated, but if you use alphabet or picture cards you instantly make it simple for the children to understand. Another tip I can suggest to you is what I call getting down to their level (eye to eye). By do-ing this, it makes you look less scary and also makes the child more com-fortable. It also tells the parents you enjoy what you do and are willing to go the extra mile. If you get down on their level, it also makes it easier to do effects in their hands (such as sponge balls) which they abso-lutely love. If you need to, bring a small stool to sit on to make it more comfortable for you.

FROM THE GROUND UP by Kelly Peron

So you ask yourself, ok strolling for young children I can do that but, what effects can I perform for them? Pack your regular strolling stuff with you, but also bring along other items such as puppets, coloring book, change bag, or whatever you might have for your children’s show and try it. Many of the props you use in your children’s stage shows can be bought in a smaller size that works ideal for strolling.

Also, there are a lot of cus-tomized magic effects on the market these days that are geared towards this very sub-

ject. People such as Barry Michell, Tim Sonefelt and Creative

Magic are just a few off the top of my head. They carry effects perfect for this age group that are geared towards stroll-ing events. You must also not forget that your standard close-up magic can be easily adapted to work for younger chil-dren. It really is in the way you present it to them. Profes-sor’s Nightmare can be a really fun trick for a young child if you change it up a bit. Remember what makes kids laugh and utilize that in the patter you create.

Some of you might not want to do this type of magic or don’t feel comfortable and that is totally fine, but if you are a children’s performer, I would recommend you trying this out the next time you are asked to do strolling magic for an event. You never know where it will lead you. I don’t think you will be disappointed. These are the forgotten audience. Don’t be afraid to perform for them. As always, I encourage you the readers to let me know your thoughts. So if you have any thoughts on my articles or suggestions or com-ments, please feel free to e-mail me directly at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.

[email protected]

KYLEANDKELLYMAGIC.COM

FROM THE GROUND UP by Kelly Peron

The Magic Classroom News and Happenings If you were around in the sixties and seventies in

particular, you have proba-bly heard of Pat Collins, the ‘Hip Hypnotist’. She was a pioneer in using hypnotism as entertainment and had her own club on the Vegas strip. Collins lived in Beverly Hills until 1987 and then moved to Reno, where she continued to perform until 1992. She appeared on many television shows and was a popular figure during her time. One of our Magic Classroom members, Bill Me-later, is a television producer working on a docu-mentary of Pat’s life. If you knew Pat and would want to share anything with Bill, you can contact him through The Magic Classroom. To learn more about his project, you can also visit his facebook fan page for Pat at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pat-Collins-The-Hip-Hypnotist/124909027560143?ref=mf

What our members are up to: • Bev Bergeron just com-pleted master of ceremonies duties at the Daytona Festival of Magic.

• A pleasure, as always! Kyle Peron has a new Lecture on Creativity in Magic. You can learn more and book the lecture by contacting Kyle through our site. • Mark Wiedhaas continues to make us proud as the president of the SAM. • And of course Maria Ibanez is breaking new ground with her ‘Magic Touch’ newsletter. Who else is hanging out in The Magic Classroom? Tony Spina,

Rodger Lovins, Kent Cummins, Van Hart, Gary E. Bartlett, Chris Walden, Jonathan Hawley, Sterling Dietz, Phil Willmarth, and even Grandpa Chet, just to name a few! If you haven’t checked out The Magic Class-room yet, I invite you to do so. It’s a profes-sional site for those who want to learn and share magic. And, it’s not just for magicians! We have balloon artists, mentalists, escape artists, busk-ers, hypnotists, and more. You can find us at: http://www.magicclassroom.com Hope to see you there! Jim

The Magic Classroom – by Jim Stott

As Cherie & I settle in to our latest temporary domicile, here in the Washington D.C. area where there is no parking unless you pay dearly for it – and even then, no guarantee – we are reminded by all the his-tory of our nation to remember the history of magic itself. For those of us in the USA, we

cannot – must not – forget how much of the modern foundations of magic were established by “the Magic Land of Allakazam” 50 years ago. The big news of October has been that Allakazam is not forgotten and is enjoying quite a revival of interest. Mark, Nani, & Greg Wilson along with the ever-popular Bev (Rebo) Bergeron put on what was the 100th “episode” of Allakazam at the 50th Anniversary cele-

bration at the Magic Castle. More, the Allakazam Fan Club has been revived, at a price we each can af-ford (free). For more informa-tion, go to http://

magiclandofallakazam.com/ -- and we’ll be hearing more about Allakazam as time goes on, thanks to the current keeper of the flame, Allakason #2: Greg Wil-son! (Gee, I feel like I just gave a live theatrical introduc-tion to a star!) After all that, we’d want more than just a taste of what the Allakazam family brought to our lives and to magic. And we can get a full meal with one of the Magic Circus DVDs. Magic Circus is the name of the 1970s TV specials in which Mark Wilson; Nani Darnell; Rebo the Magic Clown (Bev); and Poppin Fresh, the Pillsbury Dough Boy – continued to prove that magic can excel on television, especially without camera tricks and stooges. Some of the best magic ever appeared on those shows, and the third volume of the DVD set .

Mark Wilson’s Magic Circus #5 & 6 includes some of my personal favorites of any entertainment I’ve experienced in my (harrumph!!) almost 56 years: • the BEST version of

“Backstage” that I’ve ever seen (I was delighted to find that I’d remembered it perfectly – this goes back to my junior or senior year of high school)

• Art Metrano, the funniest

thing in magic save for… • Carl Ballentine, THE funniest

thing in magic • the Allakazam Train, a way to

have your “Sawing a Woman in Half” in a non-misogynic way

The above lists only a small, small sample of one disk, which also includes the debut of Greg Wilson (plus his performance in the aforementioned “Backstage” routine) and the incredible gutsy-ness of Mark Wilson and company – because they per-formed IN THE ROUND, surrounded by their audi-ence and cameras. Every effect was done in one take – the camera never left them while the magic was happening. What the live audience saw, we saw, and we were stupefied. We still are. This magic never ends. Other volumes include Dai Vernon, Jay Marshall, Rico, and Shimada – and a WHOLE lot more magic. Magic Circus: Shows #5 & 6 is $24.95 + shipping from http://markwilsonmagic.com/allakazam.htm The entire set of all the shows comes in at $74.85 + shipping. Yep, there are two shows on each DVD.

Chetoric – Fun & Games in the capital with no capital

In the Hands Wild Card by Tom Dobrowolski is one of those things I usually loathe: a

one-trick DVD. Usually, one-trick DVDs at least come with the prop necessary, but you’ll have to provide your own special cards for this. The DVD in-

cludes a program for you to print out a practice set of cards, if you

wish to put your computer and printer to such use. I prefer to use “real” cards. Such crankiness aside, how does this stack up? (No pun intended.) Fairly well, though I don’t seem to be as impressed as the celebrities on the DVD (and the package) who laud this…and mind you, people such as Daryl, Bill Malone, and Marshall Brodien do not impress easily. Perhaps I’m too much of a fan of the original “Wild Card” routine, or perhaps I’m just a touch too fond of Aldo Colombini’s in-the-hands version. To be fair, Tom does go into a lot of detail showing how to really involve your volunteer(s). You can eas-ily have one on each side of you, holding out their hands and being organic tables. There are opportuni-ties aplenty for gags, jokes, one-liners, or what-have-you; this brings new life to the Wild Card plot. The price is low also, though you can pay $6.95 more and get the needed cards too. In the Hands Wild Card is $19.95 + shipping from http://chicagomagicbash.com/ for the DVD. To get the DVD and the cards, it’s $26.90 from the same place.

Albert Goshman would have had a permanent place in magic history if all he’d done was cre-ate the best sponge gimmicks in the world. He did a lot more than that, but you still only get a hint of his life in the film The Life and Times of Albert Goshman. No real biography on this DVD,

though some tantalizing tidbits are tossed out dur-ing his talk and the explanation of his act. You will enjoy his act, by the way. You’re going to see coins vanish and appear, move from place to place, and somehow be silent when you know they’ve clinked together. You’ll see playing cards go right through newspaper without tearing either the cards or the newspaper – and yes, his hands will show empty each time. You’ll hear some of the most charming patter. You’ll see the sponge ball routine you’ve always heard of! You’ll even see TWO purse frames. (Al made purse frames almost as famous as sponge balls!) Most of all – best of all – there’s Al’s wonderful talk “the Magic is You.” I daresay there is not one performer who could not benefit from studying this talk on an annual basis. More than the sleights, stronger than any other secret in magic, Al gives you the straight word on what really makes magic. Get this DVD and benefit from it. The Life and Times of Albert Goshman runs be-tween $15 and $20 from your favorite magic dealer. You can also contact the folks at www.MagicByGosh.com to find their latest e-mail. As I’m getting ready to ship this file to Maria the Long-Suffering (Who would love for me to get my column to her early for a change!) word comes to us of the release of the Dynamo Deck from Osterlind Mys-teries. Right at this mo-ment, I can’t spill too much information about it other than I never thought Richard would release this. It’s something he’s used in secret for many years, and it has more uses than I can determine just yet. It’s not the same as the Breakthrough Card System, though it has ONE similarity. Besides a few classic principles, it uses one which I haven’t seen any-where else (and I’ve been looking and asking!) and it enables me to perform the Radar Deck routine,


Mene-Tekel effects, some off-the-wall classic card and mentalism effects, and also helps me to perfect my faro shuffles. I’ll have a review in a future issue, but this should have hit the streets by the time you read this. The book that comes with this should sell for $25 on its own!

At the same time, they’re releasing “Industrial Strength Link,” where a steel spring impossibly links and unlinks on a coat hanger. This isn’t your “Melvin’s Magic Kit” spring link trick. The spring is an industrial strength spring (unavailable for 20 years), it links with a clothes hanger that can even be borrowed, and the wire of the hanger can even pene-trate your own finger. Again, look for a review on this Real Soon.

Last issue, I mentioned that “Red Hot Mama” was one of my favor-ite pieces of card magic. Another one of my favorite card effects (which I also mentioned last issue) goes beyond being a card effect – it is also one of

the best mentalism effects, and it’s literally “Out of This World.” If you really wanted to get on my good side, you’d publish a book with all versions and variants of “Out of This World.”

It appears that Brent A. J. Geris, Bob Postelnik, and Duppy Demetrius decided to get on my good side last year. They may not have included ALL versions and variants of “Out of This World,” but Best of All Worlds, a 377-page book, certainly tries. There must be a hundred versions of OoTW in here (Nope, I’m not counting ‘em!) plus essays, history, background, and “interviews” (personal thoughts on OoTW). My personal favorite version is in here and I’m sure you’ll find one which becomes your personal favorite also. ALL of them are fun to play with, and you’ll learn something from every version and every article in the book.

But wait! You’re not familiar with the World’s Great-est Card Magic Effect? (I hasten to add it’s also one of the world’s greatest mentalism effects!)

Let’s remedy that right now. Very basically, Paul Curry’s masterful creation consists of you, the wiz-ard, handing a deck of cards to a volunteer. The volunteer proceeds to deal the cards, face down, into two columns. He or she is trying to mentally (?) determine which card is red (and goes in the red column) and which card is black (and goes in the black column). When finished, we find that the spectator – under control of the wizard? – has com-pletely and correctly separated the reds from the blacks. (Yes, this does smack of segregation, and I’m sure there’s a presentation with that idea.)

It’s that simple to describe. It’s that impossible. And since it happens in the volunteer’s hands, they’re at a complete loss as to what happened. Winston Churchill was so baffled by it that he in-sisted magician Harry Green repeat the effect at least six times – making him (Churchill, not Green) late for a wartime meeting of Parliament.

With the first printing (the first of many, we hope) of such an extensive book, we expect some errors to creep in – but the only ones I found were errors in the table of contents, with some pages listed that just don’t exist. Unless there is, somewhere, an ex-tra page 354 with another Ed Marlo article.

There are bound to be a few variants you’ll have no use for, and you may not want to know more than one version. I now have three versions (counting the original, with improvements Curry added later) so I can throw any suspicious person off-track. But you will find at least one OoTW effect in here that you’ll take to heart – and you’ll get more than your money’s worth with the essays from Daryl, Paul Green, Kenton Knepper, Stephen Minch, Richard Osterlind, David Regal, Roy Walton, and what seems like dozens more.

And the contributors of effects? Again, I can’t name them all (or this issue would double in size) but a small sample include Allan Acerman, Michael Ammar, Aldo Colombini, Peter Duffie, Doc Eason, Alex Elmsley, Karl Fulves, Martin Gardner, Nor-man Gilbreath, U. F. Grant, Whit Haydn, Joshua Jay, Harry Lorayne (twice!!), Ed Marlo, Jay Sankey, Jim Steinmeyer, Juan Tamariz,


J. C. Wagner, Gregory Wilson, Mark Wilson, Herb Zarrow – These and more are card men, illusionists, and mentalists who are not only world-class creators, but who recognize and pay tribute to Paul Curry and his creation that truly is – Out of This World.

Best of All Worlds runs around $50–52 from your favorite magic dealer (YFMD). Just about everyone seems to carry it, thank goodness!

Meantime, across the big waters, a small group of people were cele-brating close-up magic with their own conventions, lasting from 1989 through 2005. It was called the British Close Up Magic Symposium and they published a book or booklet each year with alllll the lec-ture notes and whatever they could stuff into them. Now each of those books are published as one collection called the British Close Up Magic Symposium: All Nine Symposium Books. Not a very original title, but it can be forgiven be-cause it is very descriptive and it is a LOT of magic for the buck!

Let’s drop a few names: Allen, Ammar, Andrews, Austin. More? Bannon, Bedwell, Bowie. Clare, Co-lombini, Cook, Crosthwaite. Dusty, Fields, Garrett, Gordon. Hallas, Hawes, Hollingworth. Hotowka, J.J., Jolly, Jones, Keable. Lees, Lehair, Lenahan, Lev-eridge, Lewis, Lovell. McCree, McDougall. Ostin, Owen, Paul, Payne, Power. Ray, Reay, Rix, Roth, Smith, Swadling, Tucker. Vincent, Willich, Wilson, Wiseman. And Tommy Wonder.

*gasp!* (Give me a minute to catch my breath.)

And that’s just the FIRST 215 pages! That’s not even counting the 7th through 9th Symposium books!

It’s not just a lot of magic; it’s good magic from some people you’ve come to trust when it comes to close-up magic. Highly recommended.

British Close Up Magic Symposium: All Nine Sym-posium Books is $49.00 from www.lybrary.com and, yes, it is a large download. Whew!

Annemann is the Enigma and the Enigma is Anne-mann. I don’t think anyone who has studied Ted Anne-mann could argue with that. And the supply of Anne-mann material is limited. We know that too. But it can be a pain to try to get all this material in one place. Anne-mann’s Enigma comes as close as anyone has, and does it on two CDs.

Inevitably, this will be compared to the book Anne-mann: the Life and Times of a Legend. Inevitable, but not really fair. Though each contains as much of Annemann’s writings as possible within their lim-its, the book tried to be a biography, with Anne-mann’s material (though complete) being as much a commentary on his life as effects themselves. The CDs, for instance, do not contain Annemann’s ma-terial from the Jinx (more’s the pity) for that would require another disk and the Jinx is widely available in PDF elsewhere.

What this has that other sources don’t have is a large number of photos of Annemann’s life, from early years to very close to the end. There is some, though not enough for our hungry appetites, back-ground biography. There is the marvelous “Black Cat Postcard” which Annemann used so effectively to renew subscriptions, along with good speculation on how Annemann did this particular trick. And do you remember the Bert Reese article which ap-peared in the Jinx and was reprinted in Practical Mental Effects (nee Practical Mental Magic)? Not only is it here, but so are a number of newspaper articles of Reese’s time. Some glowing comments from normally-cynical reporters proving how effec-tive Reese was – and reminding us that it’s not just the physical methods, it’s the acting which closes the deal.

Every book that Annemann seems to be in here, along with a chapter by Orville Meyer. You re-member Orville Meyer, don’t you? He appeared occasionally in the Jinx and was the creator of the


Every book that Annemann seems to be in here, along with a chapter by Orville Meyer. You remem-ber Orville Meyer, don’t you? He appeared occasion-ally in the Jinx and was the creator of the bullet catch which Annemann performed not-too-often. He gave it to Ted and didn’t reveal it until after Annemann’s death. And just to put the frosting on the cake, the CDs include film (silent) of a performance of the said bullet catch – quite possibly the most effective ver-sion of the “magic trick” which has killed at least twelve performers. It may not be the absolutely perfect Annemann collection – but it’s awfully close to perfection. Annemann’s Enigma is $50.00 + shipping from Todd Karr at http://miraclefactory.net/zenstore/. We’ll have more to say about that place in just a minute You say you’d like to introduce someone – a friend, perhaps, or a family member – to the joy of magic? Mi-chael Ammar has two choices for you: the Exciting World of Magic or Ice Breakers. Each have slightly different audiences in mind, and one of them is the perfect introduction for that “someone.” Or you may de-cide to treat yourself; even for an experienced magician, these DVDs are a delight! The Exciting World of Magic is a literal intro-duction to magic for the potential magician. Not only does Michael teach twenty (20!) effects on this DVD, but he teaches the real secrets of suc-cessful magic. This includes acting, when and how to pause, a marvelous discussion of “easy” vs “hard” magic, “reading” your audience, and truly entertaining them. He teaches how to

really enjoy magic, where and how to purchase (If you haven’t made hundreds of mistakes in buying magic, you just haven’t been in magic long enough!), clubs, conventions, magazines, etc. And those twenty effects? There’s no junk in there. Some of them may seem too simple to you (But watch how they affect your audience!) or you may think they’ve been widely exposed (Then why do people still react in amazement?) but don’t fool yourself. And there are some heavy-duty gems of impromptu and not-so-impromptu magic – he even teaches Gene Grant’s version of Paul Curry’s “Out of This World!” My goodness, a DVD or book could get by with teaching only that. (See above re-view of Best of All Worlds for laudatory re-marks on ”Out of This World!”) Ice Breakers may very well intrigue your friend/family member to become more interested in magic. But it shows magic as something useful – literally as an “ice breaker” to overcome so-cial barriers. There are many accounts in the real world of someone using magic to “thaw out” a new client, to meet a potential client, or to close a sale. Harry Riser, to name one of many salesmen, created a very successful career in sales by us-ing magic (sparingly) to build a lucrative client base. And as for meeting people, there’s a cur-rent sitcom where Neil Patrick Harris uses magic as social ice breakers on a regular basis. Harry Lorayne, the world-famous memory ex-pert, credits magic with breaking him from a shy, withdrawn personality to someone who people are anxious to know and to be around.


To make sure your friend doesn’t become the boring “loaded for bear” magician, with props hanging from every sleeve and pocket, Michael teaches effects which are impromptu – except for one (which we’ll talk about) every piece of magic can be done with something which can be borrowed or found laying around. For myself, I avoid smoking areas (blame a lousy set of lungs) but I’ve found that the two ciga-rette effects demonstrated can be done with straws and crayons. In most restaurants, these two things are in plentiful supply! Better, Michael shows these effects in vignettes which demonstrate social or business times in which a little magic can really make a difference. The scene where the businessman is trying to get past a busy receptionist/secretary is so true-to-life! I can person-ally verify magic can work – well, magic! – in this situation! The Exciting World of Magic and Ice Breakers are normally $29.95 each – but if you go to Michael’s site http://www.ammarmagic.com/ right now, he has any of his DVDs for 50% off! $15.00 each is an in-credible bargain for any of Ammar’s DVDs, and these two are especially exciting.

Harry Jansen, better known as Dante throughout his career, is remembered honorably by those who saw him, whether in person, on the screen, or on television. Sadly, his full illusion show was never filmed, though we have a taste of it in the background of a Laurel & Hardy movie (A-

Haunting We Will Go) and at least one TV appearance. And one more place. In 1930, he starred in a movie in Sweden, named Dante’s Mysteries. No, it’s not in English though it is subtitled. Yes, it does include a couple of film special effects (some stop-motion animation). But, yes, it is a rollicking good movie – superior to A-Haunting We Will Go (though we can but wish L&H were the two dimwits in Dante’s Mysteries!) with many laughs and plenty magic.

The story begins following (? Then why are the players going into the theater?) a Dante show, and moves into a café where two foolish con men try to swindle the Great Dante in a card game. As revenge (for they lose as badly as you’d imagine) they de-termine to burgle Dante’s home that night. At this point, imagine an evil Laurel & Hardy trapped in the home of a jokester of a supernatural magician who is out to teach them their lesson. Though the Boys would never actually be evil (these two idiots are) you can almost hear one say to the other at the ending, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!” Funnier than any movie I’ve seen this year, Dante’s Mysteries is $35.00 from http://miraclefactory.net/zenstore/. I told you we’d be seeing them again Years ago, when a neurologist told my wife that, after my acci-dent, I’d probably have real trouble with short-term mem-ory for the rest of my life, she said “How will I notice the difference?” It’s true. My memory was none too good before, and it’s been a lot worse since. Thank-fully, I’ve had Harry Lorayne to turn to, and his latest memory book may be his best one yet. Don’t let the title frighten you. Ageless Memory – Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young is not just for us over-50 boomers. I wish I’d had this when I was 20! Harry Lorayne, as most of you know, is not only one of the world-class magicians (author of Tarbell 7 as well as dozens of books on all sorts of magic and mathemagic) but the world’s acknowledged memory expert #1. And this book feels (at least to me) like his most user-friendly one yet. Not only does he have methods (kept to a bare minimum) to remember anything, he makes it


interesting – even entertaining. Chapters end with games. (“Special Mind Power Exercises,” he calls ‘em.) The book is peppered with personal stories, including the inspirational retelling of how and why he became a memory expert at a young age. (Survival!) If you’re a magician, you’ll find lots of tricks hidden in here. If you’re a mentalist, the whole book will train you to really demonstrate the power of the mind. Some of the “stunts” which made Harry famous – f’r cryin’ out loud, he shares them with you in here! Actors, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers, writers, and scientists have used Harry Lorayne’s work to enable them to excel in their jobs. You can too, and it’ll be fun! The hardback edition of Ageless Memory lists for $17.95 at your local bookstore. You might write Harry at [email protected] to see if he has any copies for sale. Always support the au-thor when you get a chance! While we have Harry in the room, may I mention an in-credible video bargain? Two of Harry’s previous videos (Stars of Magic and Magic Video #2) are com-bined in one DVD, Harry Lorayne Magical Classics. If you’re a card magic devotee, all I’d have to say is that Harry explains his Halo Cut and you’d know the DVD is worth more than twice its price. There is so much more. Harry originated the broken-and-restored rubber band (Tarbell #7) and teaches it in “Snap.” And nobody has come up with a clearer, better-looking bill tear/restoration than “Rip-Storation.” But it’s Harry Lorayne magic, so you’re expect-ing a lot of card magic, especially gambling rou-tines! You won’t be disappointed

His crazy, eye-breaking “Invisible Pass Rou-tine” is a magician fooler and entertainer, but you’ll find it useful for all sorts of routines and effects. For me, “Amazing Prediction” is the easy-yet-looks-so-difficult routine which easily fits into a mentalist’s repertoire. The back of the case says that this is the only DVD which shows and explains “Amazing Revelation Display.” (Aren’t these titles won-derful? I don’t have to describe the effect since the titles do the work for me!) That certainly makes this DVD even more unique and valu-able. I counted 36 tricks and sleights taught on this disk, and one performance only – and what a performance it is! (“Card Sharp and Four Gam-blers”) All performed in Harry’s excited and excitable style (You can’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm!) and taught with his con-cern for making sure you understand it. And by that, I mean that he ensures you not only learn the mechanics, but the reasons why these tricks thrill an audience. Not very long ago, I mentioned that Harry Lorayne doesn’t teach tricks, and here I’ve been using the word in this review. Well it’s true – he doesn’t teach tricks. He teaches magic. Even if you’re bored by card magic, Harry Lorayne will make a raving fan of you. Did you see that e-mail address for Harry? It was just before this review, right at the end of the Ageless Memory review. Well, write Harry at that e-address and ask him if he still has any copies of Harry Lorayne Magical Classics available, especially at this low price of $39.95. It’s like getting $80 in DVDs for half price, and what you’ll learn is much more valuable than that!


I haven’t grown weary of telling you that Rachel Colombini needs a

heart valve replacement and that such an operation costs roughly a bazillion dollars. Every buck you spend on a

Colombini product is a buck towards that required, life-saving operation. Go to http://www.wildcolombini.com/ every so often and take a look at the products. You won’t find better bargains in magic, because every-thing – books, tricks, DVDs, the works – everything is only $10 each. They’re practically giving these things away. Plus, this month, they’re offering a free selection with every five purchased. Go over there and look! Look at 4’ Wave, for instance. Normally, I don’t like one-trick DVDs, but this is only $10 and comes with the props. It’s the B’wave effect, only more so, and everything can be examined (unlike B’wave). You have two packets of Queens, but only show one packet. Your volunteer picks one of the Queens. That’s the particular Queen which is reversed in the other packet. And it has a different colored back than the other cards. And all the other cards in that packet are blank, so you knew this was going to be the Queen they chose. Aldo demonstrates and teaches this in his usual charming manner, reminding us how charm can double or triple the effect of magic. So you can play it as magic, mentalism, or a combi-nation of both. And I shouldn’t have to tell you the impact it has. Just watch as your volunteer tries to determine what just happened, tries to backtrack, and really examines the cards. There’s nothing to find. The magic is you, not the cards. Put some effort into this, add some solid acting, and you have a solid piece of amazement, a possible show stopper. Not bad for ten bucks. If you think this is cool – and it certainly is – then browse the rest of the treats at http://www.wildcolombini.com/ where you’ll find this, 4’Wave, alongside Harry Potter effects, props, and magic of all sorts.

Oh, and you asked about the name “Wild Colombini” did you? Ra-chel’s maiden name is “Wild” and she and Aldo are “Colombini” together. So it’s an effective, eye-catching, and appropriate name for their company, don’t you think? Nobody appreciates good coin magic more than I, and no one delivers good coin magic better than Marion Boykin. In the past, he gave us the MB Transpo which went right into my bag of tricks. Now he ratchets up the impossible factor and calls it Revisited and you won’t believe the demo. I see a giant (old silver dollar sized) Chinese coin (complete with hole in the middle) transport with a fifty-cent coin. Then I see one of them vanish. Then the other coin turns into the previous coin. Then they either transport or vanish or – what just hap-pened? And then, the crazy guy reaches into the hole of the Chinese coin and pulls out the fifty-cent piece. Two coins. No gimmicks. Everything examinable. I wanted to grab his hands and look for trap doors. I’m sitting there, thinking “I can see through his fingers, so he can’t be palming. He’s not sleeving. What is he doing? How is this even possible??” Turns out it’s not only possible, it’s something which even I, with my Popeye hands, can do. Right now, I do it very slowly and I’m not ready to show it to anyone – but I am doing it. All this takes is a little practice and guts. Marion does an admirable job of crediting, though most of his inspiration comes directly from Bobo. Does this tell you something about learning the foundations of our craft/art? I’ll admit that I was a bit confused by the name of one of his sleights, which he calls the Lighter Change. But that was because I confused it in my mind with the Lighter Switch (a mentalist sleight which I’ve seen used for coins). Won’t tell you what the Lighter Change is; you need to buy Marion’s video/PDF to learn that – and learn how to do it properly.


There is, sadly, one off-color gag which kills much of the festive mood. It may play in Tahoe, but most of the coun-try will be stopped short and a rolling sequence loses mo-mentum. You’ll know it when you see it and, though it works for the Tahoe audi-ence, I’d recommend drop-ping it. There are too many good laughs to afford to have them stepped on by that one moment.

Daryl comments that a trans-portation sequence causes SO much misdirection, that stealing something from your pocket is easy. He also says he didn’t think the mis-direction would be that strong – and neither did I. But the first time I per-formed this, my hand got stuck in my pocket. I had to use the other hand to worm my way free – and no one noticed. Let me repeat: no one noticed. They were too busy commenting on the “cute rabbits” which had transported to the lady’s hand, and peo-ple next to her were petting them.

Magicians have a sort of love/hate relationship with this effect. It slays audiences, but it’s so “easy” to do. (It’s also easy to do badly!) Daryl makes it even easier. There are simple, easily-understood written instructions and a DVD with performance and dis-cussion (from one of his Fooler Dooler DVDs) that cover anything the written instructions didn’t. (And vice versa.) There is NO excuse for you to not kill your audiences with this.

Papa Rabbit Hits the Big Time includes DVD, printed instructions, and the sponge rabbits/birds & bunnies. For only $14.95 from http://foolerdoolers.com/ you can have an anytime/anywhere routine which always, always, ALWAYS hits the big time for you.

You’ll enjoy every moment of the learning. Revisited is a downloadable video and PDF over at http://www.vinnymarini.com/ or will be, about the time you read this. Projected price is a slim $12. And tell me that demo isn’t crazy impossible. Just at the last minute, I’ve received a box from Daryl, who seems to exude power over the post office because it got all the way across the country in about 30 hours. Yikes! Am I gonna argue with power like that?? Fortunately, there’s material here which I’ve used and am quite familiar with. Papa Rabbit Hits the Big Time is a consistent crowd pleaser. It’s the old plot: Mama & Papa Rabbit can’t seem to stay away from each other and keep transporting to the other. Then when you leave them alone for a moment, they spawn a whole litter of bunnies. Nothing new here – or is there? Daryl’s version includes a throwaway gag that always gets a laugh – and at least once got a whole lot more than that. At the beginning of the trick, a sponge bird changes into a sponge rabbit and a sponge rabbit changes into a sponge bird. It’s not meant to fool any-one; it’s meant to be funny. But during a performance – for grown-ups! – in Columbus, Ohio, I actually heard the audience gasp when the two transposed. Usually, you’ll play it comical; take lots of tips from Daryl’s presentation and discussion. He’s hilarious! There are all sorts of hidden surprises in this routine; play it to the hilt. You may be used to the softer sponge of the Gosh-man sponges, so the stiffer sponges of these rabbits/birds may require a little breaking in. Remember to use different hands (of different volunteers, if possi-ble) so they can’t tell the difference between one, two, or lots of bunnies. The bird/rabbit gags (which I’ve milked for a good ten minutes; when they keep laughing and the laughter grows, keep extending this gag) make the stiffness worth it; said stiffness is re-quired for the visuals to work.


One more from Daryl! He begins the DVD with, as he says, “a live performance in front of a live audi-ence.” I’m waiting for the inevitable joke about a dead audience. It’s bound to be in here somewhere. I’m sorry. Watching and listening to Daryl prompts silly jokes. He’s probably the Crown Prince of Silly Magic (He’s too young to be a king) and I find myself giggling with him

far too often. Cherie just stares and me and wonders what’s wrong with me… For instance, I laughed and laughed during the pres-entation of Double Crossed by Daryl, and I don’t think he really told one joke during it. He’s a very funny guy, reaping humor from the situation in this case. We can learn a great deal about timing, kindly kidding, and gentle ways of getting the audience to laugh with you – and be on your side. The plot is “Cards Across” only more so. (I wish I was the type who could use clichés such as “This is Cards Across on steroids” but I’m not.) The players involved hold ten cards each. They each think of a card; one thinks of a red card, one thinks of a black card. No one mentions the names of the cards. No one writes down the name of the cards. They truly are freely chosen and ONLY thought of. The two cards which invisibly fly across the stage to the other volunteer/player are the thought-of cards. And it’s simple, so simple to do. So simple, you might be tempted to perform this without rehearsing and practicing. Please do yourself and poor Daryl a favor – practice and rehearse. Your audiences will appreciate it, even if they don’t know about it. And Daryl will certainly appreciate it. You get DVD, printed instructions, and gimmicks for $29.95 + shipping (don’t forget the shipping) from http://foolerdoolers.com/ and the name of the routine (It’s more than “just” an effect!) is Double Crossed

Let’s close this column with a trip back to 1961, specifically to Mark Wilson’s Magic Land of Al-lakazam Vol Nine. You know all those things I said earlier about Mark Wilson and company practically – maybe literally – creating the genre of magic on network TV. Their influence is such that not until recently did viewers fear camera tricks. Here, we have four episodes (sans the Hanna-Barbera car-toons which were part of the first season) of the ever-exciting show, with magic aplenty and my fa-vorite clown (Rebo!) getting the limelight in a spec-tacular balloon show. There are really charming moments when Mark in-teracts with children from the audience. A young fellow named Greg is, for instance, stupefied by an ethereal handkerchief and a clever use of a dove pan (Mark makes it NOT a prop by demonstrating it as a sugar bowl!) – but Greg is therefore silent and seemingly unresponsive. There are some good lessons for working performers; watch this se-quence a few times to see how Mark keeps the en-ergy level up and makes the magic involving. I love surprises, and when the magician appears in two places is one of my favorite effects – when done well. When Mark becomes a Chinese magi-cian (this used to be such a popular shtick) and makes himself appear from a newly-built play-house, it is very well done. I seem to remember this (I was only five! Give my memory a break!) and it’s probably where my love of this type of effect originated. Nani Darnell and Bev Bergeron (Rebo) – you’ve read many accolades about their work, and if any-thing, the praise hasn’t been high enough. Bev’s solo sequences in “Our Trip to an Egyptian Pyra-mid” is as funny as anything you’ve seen on film – at several points, he outdoes Lou Costello’s similar sequence from “Abbott & Costello Meet Franken-stein.” And don’t the kids go wild! Shouts of “Rebo! Look behind you!!” accent the entire skit, and would be the envy of any kids’ entertainer. If you do children’s shows (or just want to get plenty laughs in any of your shows) study this sequence.


In retrospect, it’s a shame that Nani doesn’t seem to have a very active role. As magicians, we know that she was doing a LOT – as the most-seen assistant in history, we know she was doing so much of the work just out of sight. Her presence, as always, is charming; and her ability to throw the focus on the magic event is unparal-leled. I wish I’d understood her role when I was five; I would then have understood why my mother kept rav-ing about Nani’s work! Mark Wilson’s Magic Land of Allakazam Volume Nine is $24.95 + shipping from http://markwilsonmagic.com/allakazam.htm - this should give you a hint that there are at least nine volumes of these wonderful, wonderful shows – each with four episodes. See if you don’t go through the day humming “the Magical Land of Allaka-zam is fun for everyone!” Please remember the creators who bring you this

magical magic, this ability to uplift the world with astonish-ment and mystery. When these items are produced and sold by their creators, I try to make sure to list them and their web-sites, so please buy from them. That may sound counter-intuitive if you live near a brick-and-mortar shop, be-cause we need both: the “real” (as opposed to “only

exists online”) stores, and the creators. But I know many of these folks, and I know what a small profit margin the creators live on. As Wallace Wood told me (Yes, he hated being called “Wally.”) “famous” doesn’t mean “rich.” And if you’re one of those people who steal (i.e. – “pirate” to use the politically correct term) from crea-tors ---- You’re right down there with Valentino. So now we close for another issue! Whew! Where did the last two months go, and how fast will the next two fly by? Since we won’t meet again here until af-ter the first of 2011, let me wish all of you our best and pray you prosper in 2011. May Thanksgiving and Christmas be joyful for you! And may you remember that magic makes for great presents! (You should see the loot I got on my birthday today!)

DISCLAIMER You may opt to subscribe or unsubscribe from receiving this publication by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or Maria Ibáñez who do not vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information herein contained. Subscribers to this publication and authors who contribute to it agree they will not hold the editor or Maria Ibáñez, jointly or individually liable or responsible in any way for the opinions expressed therein. Both the editor and Maria Ibáñez reserve the right to alter, correct or disregard any articles submitted. Readers are encouraged to submit articles which may be of interest to subscribers. By submitting articles the authors grant all rights to publish such articles to the editor and to Maria Ibáñez and such authors confirm their copyright of the material submitted Articles herein published may be covered by copyright laws and as such MUST NOT be published for profit by anyone other than the original contributors with-out the written permission of the contributor and/or the editor and/or Maria Ibáñez. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this publication may be freely redistributed, but not sold, to others if copied in its entirety, including the copyright warning and the full disclaimer. The subscribers list is not and will not be made available to others in any form and is not for sale.

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Until next time….keep a dream in the making, for you create your tomorrows

by what you dream today! Maria Ibáñez

Magic Touch 11 - tmtmagazine.com pdf/Magic Touch 2010.11.pdf · gratitude for the blessings of...

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