Latest Magic News – February 6, 2004Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Lawrence Gregory

Magic in the Big Easy this Weekend

David Copperfield comes into New Orleans tonight, and once again, he has new copy for the local paper, The New Orleans Times-Picayune. The paper points out that he has been knighted by the French government and declared a ?living legend? by the U.S. Library of Congress. He?ll be in The Big Easy for the weekend and will put on four shows at the Saenger Theatre.

Lawrence Gregory will also be in New Orleans for the gigantic Boat Show at the Superdome. The Las Vegas-based illusionist appears across the country making big things disappear. His latest effect, ?In The Twinkling of an Eye,? will have him vanish a boat from within the confines of the Superdome.

So you have two magicians, lots of vanishing and appearing plus the Carnival that leads up to Mardi Gras. New Orleans is crazy right now. I?ve added a link of about six safe web cams documenting the wildness.

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Lawrence Gregory

Magic in the Big Easy this Weekend

To read full article about David Copperfield?s show in New Orleans, click here.

To read about Mr. Gregory?s appearance at the New Orleans Boat Show, visit here

To view an entertaining article about Mr. Gregory?s ability to make boats vanish, see The St. Petersburg Times article, ?I?m No Lawrence Gregory? by clicking here.

To see one of six Times-Picayune web cams broadcasting constantly the activities of the Carnival before Mardi Gras, click here.

Spike TV and Magic and Vegas

When I think about Magic, I think about Vegas. And when I think about Vegas, I think about . . .

Spike TV CSI

Spike TV, a network dedicated to Men is proud to bring Spike TV CSI. Tonight we?ll see how the crime scene investigators solve the disappearance of a woman who vanished in a magic trick. Here?s what we can expect on the show tonight,

?Not just casinos, showgirls, Elvis Impersonators and Drive Thru Chapels, the neon-drenched desert oasis called Las Vegas is an exhibitionist’s paradise and a voyeur’s heaven. Murder. Rape. Robbery. Assault and battery. Thousand dollar call girls ply their timeless trade alongside $10 crack whores while professional thieves and the Mafia work the same streets as pickpockets, purse-snatchers and two-bit bagmen. In the words of investigator Catherine Willows, “It’s never a good sign when a guy has more women than furniture.”

The listing reads cryptically as ?11 p.m. SPIKE CSI: Crime Scene Investigation A woman disappears during a magic trick.?

Check out Spike CSI in Vegas here.

Boston Museum Features Spiritualism Through Photography

Houdini and Doyle

The Boston Globe has a very neat article in this morning?s paper about how photography has been used to give evidence of spiritual visitations and to support the claims of mediums.

The article notes:

[E]ach time a photograph develops it’s like a small, inexplicable miracle. No other art form so forthrightly proclaims itself to be supernatural. For almost as long as photography has existed, the medium’s affinity for otherworldliness has been exploited by artists and charlatans alike. Both halves of the equation are on display in “Concerning the Spiritual in Photography.”

The exhibit is properly displayed in a gallery decorated as a chamber in which one would expect a s?ance to occur. This was also one of the few newspaper articles published today that used the word ?Ectoplasm.? Speaking of the photographs showing Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

[I]t’s an irrefutable demonstration that death does not necessarily remove a creature from this world. Note the tiger-skin rug and mounted stag’s head. Who needs ectoplasm so long as there’s taxidermy?

Check out the Boston Globe article here.

Card Clinic Update

Jamy Ian Swiss

Jamy Ian Swiss and Roberto Giobbi have issued a Card Clinic Update discussing the details of the upcoming Cincinnati Clinic. Mr. Swiss teasingly refuses to identify the mystery guest lecturer but points out prior mystery guests were no slouches: Herb Zarrow and Johnny Thompson. The Clinic will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati.

For more information about the Clinic, check out the site here.

Ken Scott Lecture in Baltimore

Ken Scott

Ken Scott is bringing his lecture to the frigid north of Baltimore, Maryland and into the warm confines of Denny & Lee?s Magic Studio. On Tuesday, February 10^th at 7:30 pm, you?ll have a chance to see one of the best in the business share his secrets for staying on top.

Mr. Scott is a successful magician in the Atlanta area and performs about 350 shows a year. Assuming there are 365 days in the year, that gives him about one day every other week to wash his clothes. He?ll be lecturing on:

Stand up and family tested routines perfect for strolling, marketing ideas that are sure to make you more money in magic, material that will be easy to put in your show immediately. Ken will share his experience on a routine that gets him booked all the time from this one single routine called ?Fantasy Magician.?

Tom Craven wrote of the lecture, ?Very good material. Diverse lecture well presented. We could tell we were watching a professional.?

To check out Ken Scott?s incredible webpage, click here.

Tom Craven Comes to Michigan

Tom Craven

Speaking of Tom Craven ? how?s that for a transition? I am excited to report that he will be visiting Southeastern Michigan for two lectures next week. He?ll appear at the Ann Arbor Magic Club as well as Carlos Blades? Garden City Magic Shop. Mr. Craven?s Magic Shop lecture will be on all stand-up material: including Ring & Rope magic, Joe Berg’s handling of the Puzzle Knot, Mental Shopper, Tom’s Groby Prediction, and much more. All the magic is done in a stand up situation.

To learn more about the lecture and other Southeastern Michigan Magic Events, click here.

To visit Tom Craven?s website, click here.

Award-Winning Deaf Magician Entertains

Matthew Morgan

Magician Matthew Morgan, the award-winning performer, brought his show to the Mississippi School for the Deaf and is featured in a very nice article in today?s Clarion-Ledger. Mr. Morgan is also deaf but points out that ?deaf people can do anything by hear.? He performs throughout the South for hearing and deaf audiences. Mr. Morgan has received awards from the Society of World Deaf Magicians.

To read the Clarion-Ledger article, visit here.

To check out the Society of World Deaf Magicians webpage, click here.

See Mr. Morgan?s personal web page here.

The Mahatma/Liverpool Magic Circle

The Liverpool Daily Post features an article on the reorganization of the Liverpool Magic Circle:

?The original Liverpool Magic Circle was set up in 1954 but was eventually amalgamated with the Mahatma Magic Circle. The Mahatma will celebrate its 90th anniversary next year but tends to concentrate on lectures and that sort of thing. You also actually have to be a magical performer to be a member.?

There is a balance between allowing just anyone to join the ranks of members and making it too hard for the amateur or novice to pass the qualification test. Richie Smith explains:

?We will be using the same criteria as that used to join the brotherhood. We want magic to flourish but we’re got to protect the secrets and we have to be aware that some people just want to reveal them.”

Check out the Daily Post article here.

Visit the Liverpool Magic Circle site here.