Latest Magic News – January 19, 2004Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Allan Young

David Blaine is featured in the Oxford Cherwell today. Actually, he is more than featured, he is beatified by the author who asks at the conclusion:

?Watching Blaine preaching as he exited his box, black scarf and beard billowing in the wind, and listening to the lone voices crying out his name outside the Union, where he speaks tonight, it?s hard not to wonder: David Blaine ? our new graven image??

The article contains some interesting pseudo-psychological analysis asking if everything is a performance piece for Mr. Blaine. The question may be asked by the essay but it is never answered.

Read the full article here.

The Press Enterprise features an incredible program at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside. The students assembled a group called ?Extreme Magicians? and have taught each other the skills necessary to not only perform a few tricks but to put on a show. The goal of the club is to build self-esteem, and bring community involvement into the school. It sounds like the reason all magic clubs…

Allan Young

David Blaine is featured in the Oxford Cherwell today. Actually, he is more than featured, he is beatified by the author who asks at the conclusion:

The article contains some interesting pseudo-psychological analysis asking if everything is a performance piece for Mr. Blaine. The question may be asked by the essay but it is never answered.

Read the full article here.

??Those who attend performances often pay little attention to the students’ disabilities because they are so interested in the magic tricks,? said Farley Warshaw, the school’s director of residential life. ?People don’t even know the difference, whether they’re deaf or hearing,” Warshaw said through a sign-language interpreter. ?They see the magic first. They see the deafness second.?”

It shouldn?t be surprising that the kids want to be like David Copperfield or that they covet new tricks or skills. They are, despite their inability to hear or, in some cases, speak clearly, magicians through and through. They look forward to the next guest lecture or the next workshop.

Please check out the full article by checking here.

The Malaysia Star has a nice article about the rise of puppetry and one man?s involvement in this art. Allan Young is 44 years old and still playing with toys (magic) and dolls (puppets) and doing very well. Alan has a small troupe of fellow puppet-masters and magicians who help him cover all of the dates he has scheduled. Allan credits his grandmother for beginning his interest in puppetry. He recalls from the shows he saw with his grandmother:

?It was fascinating to see the puppets moving on stage amidst the elaborate backdrops and lights. The puppeteers would manipulate the figures to ride horses, kick, punch, and engage in sword fights. The entire effect, combined with music and dialogue, was very dramatic,? reminisces Tan.

You can read about the King of Puppets by clicking here.

One Washington lobbyist is using the tragic attack on Roy Horn as justification for a strict ban on the use or keeping of ?wild? animals. The ABC affiliate for Washington reports that the legislature seeks to ?ban all private ownership? of ?exotic animals.? Says one supporter with an incredibly unbiased but apparently empirically based scientific study (sarcasm implied):

Jennifer Hillman with the Progressive Animal Welfare Society says the mauling of Roy Horn, of Siegfried and Roy, by one of the tigers in his Las Vegas act is just one example. She says the incident shows that even people with tons of experience aren’t safe around wild animals.

The television station and the lobbyist did not specify how ?experienced is weighed to equal one ton or multiple tons? or what ?safe around wild animals? means. It seems that if everyone was safe around the animals, they might not be considered ?wild.? But maybe that?s just us.

If you would like, you can read the full article here. If you?d like to not read it but still want to click something, you can click here to be returned to the front page of Inside Magic.

On a personal note: I?ll be heading to the UK (not the University of Kentucky) tonight and so tomorrow?s installment of the latest news may be slightly delayed. Stick with me because I have two reviews you have to read. One is on Ian Rowland?s Full Facts Book of Cold Reading and the other is a surprise but, I?ll give you a hint, it is also by Ian Rowland. The problem with the latter is that it is so good and I could make a career off it, that I might not want to review it or ? better yet ? trash it like Michael Close trashed Oz Pearlman?s DVD.

I hope to attend the Magic Circle tomorrow night through the good graces of the wonderful Trixie Bond ? a member ? and her always expanding network of friends. I?ll give you the ?bird?s eye low down? after. (If you have heard that quote before, ?bird?s eye low down,? write me because that means you?re a complete freak and you listened to Firesign Theater in the 1960s-1970s.