John Dearie – Newest Sponsor of Inside MagicInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

“Inside Magic” Loses by Nose at Derby

With his generous contribution yesterday through our donation program, John Dearie has now become our largest benefactor to date. We had tried to get a NEA grant but we couldn?t think of something obscene enough to qualify. The best I could imagine was touching-up a photo of Houdini to make it look like he was wearing diapers or putting Don King hair on Kellar.

Kathleen (Lakeland) had the idea of writing down all cuss words ever said by great magicians when their tricks failed. Unfortunately, they were the same words ? for the most part ? and but for Dai Vernon?s creative mind, they would have been the same 14 words or phrases. (Vernon?s additions brought the number to well over a hundred).

Making a contribution is easy. You just click a button and the paypal folks take care of the rest. Your money will go a good cause ? Inside Magic?s continued production. Imagine a world without Inside Magic.

Actually, don?t do that, it wouldn?t be that dramatic or different except for us here. Our daily budget is in the fives of dollars and because we use the web as our media, we are able to keep the costs down and we use the computer at the public library so we get to keep our cost down and meet people looking up porn who don’t cover their mouth when they sneeze.

If Not For Inside Magic – Would You Know This Man and His Cheese?

All seriousness aside, we take great pride in providing new, uncovered news and reviews. There are many sites out in magic web world that offers the same stories others have heard or read. There are places that give you press releases from magicians or stores. But may I point out, with great pride that it was only Inside Magic that broke the following stories:

?How Did You Make that One Pence Piece Appear Behind My Ear?? May 14, 1813 ? This was our first article. It looked at the mechanics of a trick that would be later stolen and used by uncles and grandfathers everywhere ? but we had it first!

?How I Twisted a Rubber Tube to Look Like a Poodle: Interview With Latex Visionary,? August 6, 1951 ? Now a days, everyone does balloon animals, but it was Gerry Fandra’s visionary mistake in a lab that started this craze.

“The Inner-Workings of Chung Lee Soo’s Rifle,” March 23, 1918 ? Our first “hands-on” look at how the great illusions work. It was ironic that it was the same rifle that failed later that night in his show ? it seemed to be working fine.

“Rough and Smooth: A Passing Fad,” February 8, 1962 ? We had no idea it would catch on. One of the more memorable quotes, “The worst thing is, it makes some cards stick together and you have to push hard to separate them.”

“Inside Magic” Loses by Nose at Derby

If Not For Inside Magic – Would You Know This Man and His Cheese?

“The Masked Magician: A Hero for Our Time,” January 12, 1997 ? Actually, this was the result of payola from Fox Television. We didn’t believe a word of the 25 page review. But Fox offered Kathleen a shot at appearing on “America’s Most Wanted” and she jumped at it. As it turned out, she never got on the show because she paid the court costs from that incident in Toronto and the surveillance video was so grainy that you couldn’t even tell she was holding a basket of fruit.

“Velveeta: The Magic Food!” January 15, 1997 ? this was another payola gig. Kraft offered us a tremendous amount to publish this with recipes for dip, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese squares and cheese triangles. Interestingly, they tried to get guest commentary from our favorite Magic Chef, Trixie Bond, but she refused saying that “while Velveeta is good, it is not, by any means, magic.”

As it turns out, we didn’t negotiate the payola well. We were paid a lot but not in money. We still have blocks of the “Magic Food” in our basement. It makes a great doorstop.

Inside Magic: Single-Handedly Keeping the Melinda Torch Aflame

In conclusion, it is important to note that all of the above articles were published before the Inside Magic web page existed and some were published before the invention of electricity or the moveable type printing press.

We used to deliver Inside Magic by a Town Crier, then by mailings, then cereal boxes, then late-night television, then t-shirts (the whole Girls Gone Wild fiasco got us out of that. We paid good money to put the articles on t-shirts that were either not on the people we paid to wear them or were soaking wet and barely legible), then the web page.

So we salute John Dearie and his sizeable gift to this web page. He will go on our Sponsor Honor Role.