WHEN PRESENTING CLOSE-UP AT WEDDINGS or anniversaries, this is a blinder! The magician approaches the table and makes pleasantries about the bride and groom. In so doing he displays at his fingertips a ladies diamond ring on the finger of one hand and a gentleman’s gold signet ring on the other.Telling of his own long, [...]
Posted on April 29th, 2011 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
A bold claim – but true. Not a brilliant new gimmick. Not a new routine from the Vernon archives. Not something requiring a big investment but a proven procedure that does really work.
Group magic.
Vernon and the greats used it. Fred Kaps used it.Peter Warlock, Jack Avis, Francis Haxton and other names used it. And I’ve [...]
Posted on October 21st, 2009 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Miscellanea, Magic Thoughts | 4 Comments »
I’M JUST A CHILD IN THE BAFFLING WORLD OF COMPUTERS and for some unknown reason my web site has been unavailable for some considerable time bringing up a horrifc healdine that said – FORBIDDEN! I know nothing and explanations from the computer intelligensia (my nephew Martin Avis – he’s brilliant and makes his living out [...]
Posted on September 26th, 2009 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
RECENTLY I WROTE THAT I WAS GOING TO PUT OUT a monte routine originated by Jack Avis that involved three like cards and a queen that mysteriously appears and disappears during the effect. In itself it’s very good as Jack showed it to me but I did it for a close friend, Tom Whitestone (an excellent magician [...]
Posted on December 8th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News | No Comments »
WE’VE HAD SEVERAL PEOPLE EMAIL as to what is the ring effect that is portrayed in the heading of “Come a Little Closer”. Well, it’s something I’ve done for the past ten years. It’s not brilliant magic but it’s been the perfect banquet table crasher that gets attention and quickly signals that magic is about to [...]
Posted on September 9th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News | 8 Comments »
IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO SEE VENTRILOQISTS venture beyond the cheeky boy wooden dummy to present their craft. Not that there is anything wrong with that format as witness the fame of Charlie McCarthy, Archie Andrews, Lord Charles and other stars of the up and down lip movement.
But I always admired the presentation of Senor Wences who [...]
Posted on August 31st, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic News | No Comments »
HERE’S A PERFORMING TIP that was passed onto me by Pat Page, that most generous of ideas men. I, like Pat, do quite a few weddings, dinners and the like where we perform close-up magic at the guest’s tables.
But what pays off handsomely is to offer at the end of the dinner to present a small [...]
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas | 1 Comment »
MUCH EARLIER THIS YEAR I PUBLISHED A PIECE about sponge balls and many magi have asked if I could repeat the blog.
Certainly!
So – do you do sponge balls? Of course you do. Everybody does but I think we are all guilty of unwittingly revealing the secret.
Let me tell you a story. When I was seventeen [...]
Posted on August 25th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts | No Comments »
ONE EVENING AT THE MAGIC CIRCLE Alex Elmsley was asked to show something to a group of card magi. A man with an open mind to any method required to achieve a magic effect, be it a set-up deck, a sleight or a gimmick, he pulled the following stunt which later he told me he’d drummed up [...]
Posted on July 13th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Miscellanea | 1 Comment »
YOU’RE IN A DEPARTMENT STORE, supermarket or restaurant and it comes out that you’re a magician. Inevitably someone says “Show us a trick”. No doubt you have your own outs that you do but here’s an absolute stunner from Jeff McBride that was passed onto me by good friend and Magic Circle Editor Matt Field.
Get [...]
Posted on July 9th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts | No Comments »
