MANY MAGICIANS AVOID or are apprehensive in using the classic card force but that master of performing subtlety Patrick Page once showed me a typical Page touch that smooths out that problem.
Patrick takes a pack of cards out of their case and hands the case to the spectator to hold. He will always hold it in the [...]

Posted on March 27th, 2008 by John
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FOLLOWING YESTERDAY’S PUZZLE found in a Jack Avis notebook – which did the guy light first, cigar, gas stove, burner or bonfire?
He lit the single match in the matchbox first!
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Posted on March 20th, 2008 by John
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JACK AVIS WAS AN AVID NOTE TAKER and as mentioned earlier he left masses of notebooks filled with his magic thinkings, ideas both original and observed also noted odd sayings, puzzles and literary ephemera both in and out of magic.
He is one item I found recently.
A man looked into his match box and found just one match [...]

Posted on March 19th, 2008 by John
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I KNEW JACK AVIS FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS. Ten years after I first met him I married his sister and whilst we didn’t discuss much magic whilst I was in business, for the first ten years of my retirement and my return to magic we met every week, sometimes more, had holidays together and talked much [...]

Posted on March 16th, 2008 by John
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“Keep the circus going inside you. It’ll all work out in the end.”
                                                                                     David Niven
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Posted on March 10th, 2008 by John
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I’VE BELONGED to a few magic clubs in my time and lectured at many throughout the country and on the whole they’re very good. Friends meet, chat, have a drink, show the latest acquisition, go out for a curry and then home. It is the lifeblood of the UK magic community.
But I believe the real core of creativity [...]

Posted on March 5th, 2008 by John
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No, this is not a cookery recipe for a new style Cornish Pasty but a brilliant idea from my late, good friend Jack Avis which can transform an Okito Box routine into a smooth presentation.
Any Okito or Boston Box routine requires the magician to replace the lid and at the same time secretly turn the box over. [...]

Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by John
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“If you’re not living on the edge – you’re taking up too much space!”
Go for it!
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Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by John
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In two days I’ll be on the 10.36 from Euston en route to the biggest magic convention in the world at Blackpool. And so will dozens of other magicians from the south. One of the delights of travelling by train to this event is that you get to meet and talk with many other magicians [...]

Posted on February 20th, 2008 by John
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When did you last check out your image? How do people – your audience – perceive you? Image is sometimes the difference between success and  failure. Show business, products, fashion, pop, sport all thrive on it. But it’s just as important to the working magician. There is a marketing adage that says if people don’t [...]

Posted on February 20th, 2008 by John
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