AS THE MAINSTREAM OF COMMERCIAL MAGIC entertainment today is possibly table hopping at banquets and restaurants, it’s interesting as to how various performers present their magic with the variety of props on hand.
Some keep it small and have everything secreted on their person but perhaps this does restrict the number of effects that can be [...]
Posted on May 10th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Miscellanea, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
WE ALL HAVE A CHOP CUP. In metal, in wood and other materials accompanied by a couple of fabric covered balls, one straight and one gimmicked. It’s a great effect and nearly every magician approaching a dining table will launch into the tried and tested routine. There’s nothing wrong with the standard routine but just think [...]
Posted on April 27th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Miscellanea, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
APPEARED IN A SHOW RECENTLY with busy professional Richard Pinner who’s always coming up with interesting and different presentations for standard effects. And in this show he had a winner with an invisible deck routine.
The normal score is to throw an invisible deck out into the audience and kid them into choosing any card then throwing [...]
Posted on March 29th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Reviews, Magic Thoughts | No Comments »
I MUST ADMIT TO BEING BIASED when asked to review the new DVD on Bob Read who was a close friend who I knew for fifty years and who was very kind in helping me back into magic when I retired twelve years ago. We dined regularly at Kettners which was always a delightful mix [...]
Posted on March 26th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
RECENTLY I WAS ASKED TO JUDGE a close-up competition at the Ilford Magic Society, a club where I had lectured some time ago. As I was chatting with the two other lay judges before the contest, I remembered that the Ilford Magic Society was the club where some of our most famed professionals of today first riffled [...]
Posted on March 22nd, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Miscellanea, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
HAD THE PLEASURE of travelling with John Styles to see Ian Keable’s touring One Man Show “Conjuring up Comedy” and full marks for his sheer ability to stand alone on a stage with a rural audience of around a hundred and keep up a continuous flow of laughter and genuine entertainment for over two hours.
I purportedly do a comedy patter [...]
Posted on March 9th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Miscellanea, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
HAVING LEARNED THE SECRETS and technique of magic do you give the same amount of time investment into presentation and stagecraft? Whether you perform on stage or at close-quarter, how people perceive you and how you present yourself is critical to magic success in my view.
I recently enthused on this aspect about Geoffrey Durham’s new book – [...]
Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
A CLASSIC OF MAGIC - The Miser’s Dream has been performed for a century or more, achieved with pure sleight of hand, mechanical aids, a gizmo magic wand or a combination of all of these. Some time ago that master craftsman Colin Rose repaired a coin producing wand for me and introduced many modern improved [...]
Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
After yesterdays rush and rash of bad spelling I thought you would like to have note of some of my personal highlights in the maelstrom of magic that I saw last week at the Blackpool Convention in no particular order.
NEW MEL MELLERS DVD – He’s not everyone’s cup of tea as his humour is very acerbic [...]
Posted on February 28th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Biographies, Magic Miscellanea, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
Just come to the surface after drowning in magic in the past few days at Blackpool. Lots of highlights, some lowlights but like a mixed grill you might like the sausages but hate the tomatoes! Making notes for this site in the next two days so lots more details and things to see for the [...]
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Biographies, Magic News, Magic Reviews | No Comments »
